Sa. Petersen et Mp. Wailoo, INTERACTIONS BETWEEN INFANT CARE PRACTICES AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN ASIAN INFANTS, Early human development, 38(3), 1994, pp. 181-186
Asian infants are less likely to suffer cot death despite apparently h
igher prevalence of some risk factors, This paper compares the develop
ment of night time body temperature patterns in a small sample of Asia
n babies with the pattern already established for white infants, where
babies who develop an adult-like night time temperature pattern later
than usual share characteristics with victims of SIDS. The Asian infa
nts had similar body temperature patterns to whites, but tended to dev
elop the adult-like pattern later, not earlier as might have been expe
cted. More Asian infants than white in our sample slept in the parenta
l bed, and, before the adult-like body temperature patterns appeared,
co-sleeping infants had higher body temperatures than those in their o
wn cots. Asian infants slept in significantly warmer rooms than whites
, but under similar amounts of bedding. These studies do not therefore
reveal any physiological difference between Asians and whites which m
ight account for low vulnerability to cot death, indeed, if anything t
he reverse.