Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, including details on sids, causes, prevention, statistics.

Cry features in siblings of SIDS.

Robb MP, Crowell DH, Dunn-Rankin P, Tinsley C

Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. michael.robb@canterbury.ac.nz

AIM: To examine the acoustic features of crying demonstrated by infants whose older sibling died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and compare these features to a nonrisk group of infants. METHODS: Pain-induced crying episodes were collected from a group of healthy term (HT) infants and siblings of SIDS infants. One complete crying episode was obtained from each infant and analyzed acoustically with regard to durational and spectral features. RESULTS: The cries of SIDS siblings were found to be significantly higher in pitch and reflected hyperadductory vocal fold vibratory behaviour compared to the HT group. There were no group differences with regard to durational features of crying. CONCLUSIONS: The laryngeal behaviour of infant crying, as inferred via acoustic analyses, differs between HT infants and siblings of SIDS infants. Accordingly, acoustic features of infant crying may serve as an additional diagnostic marker in the identification of children who may be at risk for SIDS.

Published 20 September 2007 in Acta Paediatr, 96(10): 1404-8.
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