SIDS

Thank goodness I have no personal experience of the tragedy that is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. However, during a work experience session at a forensics lab I did have the unpleasant job of disposing of some organs which had been kept for study. One of them was a tiny little heart in a jar- it belonged to a baby which had died of cot death.

Some new research seems to suggest that SIDS may be influenced by serotonin in a child's brain-

Serotonin was thought to be involved in activating "pacemaker" cells in the medulla at the base of the brain, which prompt a suffocating baby to gasp and recover, says Jan-Marino Ramirez of the University of Chicago. "Now we've found that these neurons depend on serotonin, and if you take it away there's no gasping," says Ramirez.

The great thing about this avenue of research is that it may one day lead to a test to enable hospitals to indentify those babies who are at most at risk from SIDS. Until then all parents can do is not smoke, put babies to sleep on their back and prevent them from overheating.