New research on sudden unexplained childhood death (SUDC) suggests the heartbreaking phenomenon that killed 2,900 children under the age of 4 in 2021 in the United States may be a result of seizures.
SUDC is different from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SUDC is not a diagnosis but a cause of death used for someone between 12 months and 18 years old who has died from unknown circumstances. Elisabeth Haas, who has a master’s in public health, writes that SIDS is much more common, with a death rate of 38.7 per 100,000 live births; SUDC has a death rate of 1 to 1.4 per 100,000 live births. Common risk factors for SIDS, such as tobacco smoke exposure, bed-sharing, and having an infant sleep on its stomach, historically have not been risk factors for SUDC.
