Happy Monday,

Remember how we were trying to guess when my daughter would take her first steps? It finally happened! On Saturday night, she took what I would consider her first official steps! Though they weren’t pretty, she managed to put three steps back-to-back-to-back (which was my criteria for saying these were her “first” steps). Though she strung those together, I don’t expect walking to be her preferred method of getting around for a few weeks yet. A lesson learned from the crawling days is that a mobile baby requires a lot more work to take care of than an idle baby.

When did your child take their first steps?

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One Big Idea

Unlocking the Mystery of SIDS

Experts estimate that more than 3,000 families in the United States each year lose a baby or young child unexpectedly and without explanation. This phenomenon is known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and is every parent’s worst nightmare. Though my wife and I worry less about it now than we once did, it is still very much top of mind. One of the scariest things about SIDS is that up to this point, the root cause of it has largely remained a mystery - until now.

A study recently published by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, that was conducted over the course of a decade, involved an analysis by a team of eight physicians of the rare cases for which there were home video recordings. The recordings were made while each child was sleeping on the night or afternoon of their death and and showed direct sound and visible motion indicative of a seizure happening. This evidence led the study lead investigator Laura Gould, MSc, MA, PT, a research assistant professor at NYU Langone to state that “our study, although small, offers the first direct evidence that seizures may be responsible for some sudden deaths in children, which are usually unwitnessed during sleep.” These studies show that seizures might be much more common than the medical histories of the children show.

This study offers a pivotal shift in our understanding of SIDS, illuminating seizures as a potential key factor. This insight not only opens new avenues for research and prevention but also provides a glimmer of hope for countless families seeking answers.

Here’s a dad joke

Which is faster, hot or cold?

Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter for the answer!

Time(out) for Memes