Infantile colic and near-miss sudden infant death syndrome.
Frequent awakenings occur in infantile colic acid sleep-related respiratory control disorders. To evaluate the possibility that colic may be associated with impaired respiratory control, prevalence and clinical features of colic among infants who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), infants with a clinical diagnosis of Near-Miss Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (N-M SIDS), and a control group were retrospectively determined. Colic did not occur in any of the 17 infants in the control group who had normal ventilatory responses. Colic did occur in 14 (33%) of 42 infants with N-M SIDS who had impaired ventilatory responses. Ventilatory responses among the N-M SIDS infants were similar in those with and without colic. Four (27%) of the 15 SIDS victims had colic, but the spells had disappeared before their deaths. The proportion of infants with colic among the N-M SIDS infants is significantly greater than among control infants (p less than 0.05). In summary, colic related night wakings may represent an alternative and protective behavioral arousal mechanism in N-M SIDS infants, a group in which a variety of sleep-related respiratory control deficits have previously been documented.
D003085:Colic / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000150:complications; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control