New study proposes reclassifying some infant deaths

When an infant dies suddenly and unexpectedly, the tragedy is often compounded by medical confusion. A death that is labeled accidental suffocation in one state or county might be attributed to unknown causes or to sudden infant death syndrome in another. Now, a paper published in Pediatrics has proposed a new classification. Using computer models to examine birth weight, maternal smoking, and other characteristics for nearly 38,000 infant deaths, the authors found that those who stopped breathing at less than 7 days of age had different traits from those who died between 8 days and a year old. But others warn that data aren’t consistently collected when a baby dies within 24 hours of birth, and separating out these groups might hinder the detection of larger patterns.