Failure of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in cases of sudden infant death.

Abstract

We describe two cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and one case of apparent life threatening apnoea where resuscitation was attempted by the mouth-to-mouth route. This was associated with evidence of gastric distension, including reflux of milk into the airway in the first two cases. In the second case the mother used mouth-to-mouth breathing after finding that she could not cover her baby's nose-and-open-mouth with her mouth. In the last case, the mother went on to try the mouth-to-nose route, with a good outcome. Systematic documentation of the route of resuscitation and its outcome in all cases of SIDS and near-miss SIDS may provide valuable insights into the optimal route for infant resuscitation.