Healthy Native Babies: Project Workbook and Toolkit

SIDS is the term used to describe the unexpected death of an infant younger than one year
of age that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation.
Each year in the United States, more than 4,500 infants die suddenly from no obvious
cause. These deaths, called Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), occur suddenly and
unexpectedly and the cause of death is not immediately obvious before an investigation.
The SUID category includes both explained infant deaths, such as poisoning or car accident,
and unexplained infant deaths. SIDS is listed as the cause of one-half of all deaths in the
SUID category. SIDS is also the leading cause of all deaths among infants between one
month and one year of age.
A diagnosis of SIDS is made by collecting information, conducting scientific or forensic
tests, and talking with parents, other caregivers, and health care providers. If, after this
process is complete, there is still no identifiable cause of death, the infant’s death might be
labeled as SIDS.