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Made my bed and I sleep like a baby
by anna at 10:51 AM on September 23, 2006
Crib death, or as scientists call it, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is a curious phenomena. Especially when it occurs over and over in the same household. It is curious because it is a cause of death that has no medical explanation or basis. The baby just stops breathing in the crib and it is curtains for him or her. An autopsy typically turns up nothing.
Well, the baby doesn't just stop breathing. It has some help, usually in the form of ma or pa or both holding a pillow or a blankie over their head. SIDS is merely another term for murder, specifically infanticide.
And it is a very difficult murder to pin on anyone. Usually there are no witnesses and if there are, they aren't talking. There are no forensic clues for CSI: Wherever to work with. (BTW I have friend who is a murder detective. He laughs about all the free reign the TV evidence techs enjoy. That would never happen in a real life police department. CSI is as much bullshit as SIDS.)
But you can kind of understand it. Babies can be a real pain in the ass, especially other people's. I swear one is following me around and yowling incessantly wherever I go. His parents repeatedly run me over with their double-strollers and don't even stop to aplogive for maiming me. I have stroller wheel tracks all across my face. Damn moms.
And doncha hate it when coworkers make you look at their interchangeable tot shots? Or worse, bring the little bugger in for all the women to coo over and admire?
comments (14)
Uhhh Dude....
You sound like Tom Cruise. Where did you get your information that SIDS is bull?
The baby's have it out for you. You better watch your back!
by Long Time Lurker at September 23, 2006 12:32 PM
I thought Cruise had a thing about depression being bogus or just another state of mind or what-EVER. When I am in the mood for self-flaggelation I'll go hang around Babys R Us.
by anna at September 24, 2006 10:16 AM
I think the Tom Cruise comment was because you sound like you are talking about something you don't know anything about. SIDS is most assuredly not BS.
by mg at September 24, 2006 11:33 PM
LOCKHEED for one, thought that it was going to turn into a RACIST post, when you lead off by saying, 'they happen in the same households all the time'.... and then I was thinking you had a demographic, say in Manhattan, and were going to say the high frequency of SIDS in Harlem or something.
by Lockheed at September 26, 2006 6:53 PM
Oh yeah, the whole Father's Day in Harlem thing.
And no, I am no expert. But when babies are just dead for no medically apparent reason, and sometimes over and over in the same family, somthing ain't right. They so much as say so in the linked article.
by anna at September 28, 2006 7:35 AM
The other weird thing about the SIDS is that you never meet anyone who's caught it. It isn't one of the Usual Childhood Diseases. Just as we never meet an actual Nielsen family.
by anna at September 28, 2006 7:50 AM
my family would not be one of them. except for MUM. who watches an average of aboaut 5 straight hours of SHITTY programs every day. from 8-12 or sometime 8-1am. bullet in my fucking chink head now. I won't complain. I won't press charges.
by lockheed at September 28, 2006 7:30 PM
He said chink head.
by anna at September 29, 2006 7:30 AM
SIDS isn't a disease, which is probably why you never hear about someone catching it.
Did you actually read the article you linked, because you seem to imply that it says crib death is a dubious medical diagnosis, when in fact it is saying that opposite. Based on statistics it is much more reasonable to assume innocence in cases of crib death, even multiple cases in a single family, than murder.
by mg at September 30, 2006 12:24 AM
I read this far and then I got bored by the clunky Wikipedia prose:
Meadow's Law was a precept much in use till recently in the field of child protection, specifically by those investigating cases of multiple cot or crib death — SIDS — within a single family.
The 'law' has it that because such deaths are a rare phenomenon and difficult to explain by natural causes, we might say that "One is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder unless there is proof to the contrary."
by anna at September 30, 2006 8:40 AM
Ha! Well, if you'd managed to read past the second paragraph before forming an opinion you'd see that the Wikipedia entry was actually debunking Meadow's Law, which has already been debunked as a prosecutorial tactic in infanticide cases.
by mg at September 30, 2006 9:21 AM
Damn. You lean something every day. Then again, you forget 4-5 things every day too.
by anna at October 1, 2006 9:16 AM
The ME (Medical Examiner) in my jurisdiction will not declare more than 2 deaths in one family as SIDS. The third death is always labeled a homicide and the 1st 2 are then reopened, and often declared homicides.
Of course decalring them homicides doesn't mean that the people are convicted of murder, unfortunately.
P.S. yes, I'm still alive, and out here
by chuck woolery at October 2, 2006 2:13 AM
Chuck, good to hear from you. And all kidding aside I think that's a sensible approach. Where there's smoke there's smoke.
by anna at October 2, 2006 6:06 PM