The ‘Stigma of SIDS’

Iwant to compliment The Times for (its) very thorough article on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (“Stigma of SIDS,” Jan. 12). Beverly Beyette made very real the incredible problems resulting from the lack of SIDS training and information for those who by law interact with parents and care-givers following the death of a baby.

The intense focus on child abuse has made the SIDS problems much more acute. Parents up and down the state have been falsely accused of child abuse; inaccurate medical diagnoses and autopsy results persist; newspaper headlines have falsely proclaimed “Suffocation Suspected in Infant Death,” and a whole host of psychological and other medical maladies have confronted parents who have already been devastated by the death of their child.

With strong support from Dr. Kenneth Kizer, director of the state Department of Health Services; Clifford Allenby, secretary of the state Health and Welfare Agency, and Gov. Deukmejian, the Legislature approved in 1989 the package of SIDS legislation which is in the process of being implemented. It will put in place broad new education, training and research programs aimed at the major problem areas your story revealed.

Experts say these measures place California in the national forefront in the effort to cope with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Thanks again for helping us tell the story, because we have no “poster kids” to make the public aware of the syndrome which kills more children under the age of 1 each year than birth defects, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis and virtually all other diseases combined.

STATE SEN. DANIEL E. BOATWRIGHT, Contra Costa County