Idaho Begins Drive To Cut Rate Of Sudden Infant Deaths

Idaho is launching a statewide effort to reduce an unusually high rate of sudden infant deaths.

For years, sudden infant death syndrome has claimed a disproportionately large share of Idaho infants. In 1995, the death rate from sudden infant death syndrome was 39 percent higher than the national average.

The overall numbers are small, 25 deaths in 1996, up from 21 in 1995, but the impact on families is huge.

“I don’t think you ever get over the death of a child, whatever the cause,” said Brenda Stuart of Homedale. Her son, Tyler, succumbed to SIDS in May 1993.

Stuart is a board member of the SIDS Foundation of Washington. She would have joined one in Idaho, but there wasn’t one. Now, she hopes to start a foundation in Idaho to educate the public, raise money and push for changes in state laws pertaining to SIDS.

Mountain States Group Inc. received a grant of $30,000 from the state Department of Health and Welfare to help people like Stuart and to pay for radio and television advertisements to let parents know how they can reduce the chances their babies will fall prey to SIDS.

Nationally, a “Back to Sleep” campaign, urging parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs instead of their sides or stomachs, is credited with reducing SIDS deaths by 30 percent between 1993 and 1995, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.