It's unimaginable for most. It's devastating and heartbreaking to those who experience it. But the truth of the matter is that about 4,200 sudden unexpected infant deaths per year occur in the United States—half are caused by Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In fact, according to the CDC, SIDS is the leading cause of infant death from 1–12 months old. Every day six families in the United States face this nightmare.
In October of 2012 the Reher family became one of those families when their beautiful 4 1/2 month old daughter, Anneliese, died during a nap. Out of such a terrible loss, the loss of a baby born healthy and gone without an explanation, emerged a local mom on a mission to raise awareness of SIDS and money for SIDS research.
Cindy Reher is that mom, and along with her friend Tiffany Sparks-Keeney, they created Strollin' to Fight SIDS. Their second annual 5K stroll is scheduled for Saturday, June 7, 2014. Last year's walk was attended by more than 200 participants. According to Cindy, "The event is uplifting and fun, and a way to celebrate our babies' lives, no matter how short they were, and show that they did make a difference."
All profits will go to the CJ Foundation for SIDS. "The CJ Foundation is a national non-profit devoted to eliminating the tragedy of sudden unexpected infant deaths and early childhood deaths, supporting grieving families, advancing medical research, furthering parent and professional education, and advocating for the health and survival of all children."
The amazing mom behind this event shares, in her own words, why SIDS research is so very important.
There is some very promising research being done at Boston Children's Hospital that gives me hope that one day perhaps SIDS will be a thing of the past. Safe sleep is important, and I am all for advocating that the rules of the Safe to Sleep campaign are followed, however they simply aren't enough. Being in the medical field, I cannot accept that Anneliese died of "natural causes/SIDS" as the King County Medical Examiner coded her death. I know that I followed all the rules of the Safe to Sleep Campaign, and yet it wasn't enough to stop me from losing my third daughter during a nap.
This is why I am so passionate about supporting research. I have hope that one day, no one will fear putting their baby down for a nap. That one day we will have tests that can be done before a baby is lost, and treatments to prevent the death from occurring. Unfortunately as we know, research requires funding. For centuries babies have been lost to SIDS, and there have been no explanations for these deaths. It has been accepted almost as an unavoidable, yet supposedly rare event. The fact remains that over 2,500 babies are stolen nationally by SIDS every year, and at least that many more are termed "unknown" deaths (as some medical examiners won't use the term SIDS). Since my loss, so many more families in our area have been affected by SIDS. For every family I have found who is walking with us, I know there are that many more who I have not reached. In addition, there are local families who have lost babies over 1 year of age (termed SUDC) and we are welcoming these families to walk with us this year too. (SUDC is Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood. See www.sudc.org)
Losing a child is a lifelong sentence. I miss Anneliese every day. Our family is forever incomplete. Her older sisters do not understand why their sweet baby sister is gone. No one should have to deal with this pain. I will forever wonder what Anneliese would have done with her life. Who she would have been. But I know who she was, and she did make a difference in her 4 months and 6 days. This is why we are Strollin' to Fight SIDS.
What could be more important than championing for our youngest population and supporting a local family dealing with loss?
Second Annual 5K Strollin' to Fight SIDS
Saturday, June 7, 2014
at Newport High School in Bellevue
For more information and to sign up to participate,
check out www.strollintofightsids.org
and connect on Facebook.
For more information and to sign up to participate,
check out www.strollintofightsids.org
and connect on Facebook.
