I logged onto to my Facebook today to find a message from I friend I met here in Dubai, from reading her statuses over the last few days, I knew her son KJ had been sick and in hospital but I didn’t know the severity of his reason for  admission!!

I’ll let Kirstie tell her story in her own words!!

“I don’t want to alarm people but I feel I have to tell people so that they are aware that this can happen.Kaleb stopped breathing the other morning, scared the absolute pants off of me, and I was just lucky that I woke up and realised in time If he hadn’t have been sleeping in my bed or if I hadn’t have woken up, I shudder to think what might have happened.
I had to get him breathing again and then we went to the hospital via ambulance.
The doctors did all sorts of tests and the bottom line is they are putting it down to a SIDS incident that luckily wasnt fatal.
I swear to god, holding my sons lifeless body was without a doubt the most horrifying experience of my life.
I want everyone to know what happened so that they can be vigilant and realise that this doesn’t just happen to small babies, Kaleb is one next week. The SIDS risk is for kids up to 2 yrs for a reason. The reality is that only 10% of kids are at risk in this age group, but Kaleb was in that 10% unfortunately.
He is absolutely fine, thank god, no lasting effects or anything. But Mummy & Daddy are totally traumatised!”

After reading I went straight to my wee boy and couldn’t put him, down, it’s a worry here in Dubai as to whether you are putting your child in the right attire for bed, it seems to be warming up so quickly now!! Do we leave the aircon on but then he gets cold, will he over heat in his baggy (sleeping bag)!! The worry of this is probably always in the backs of our minds but having this happen to someone I know It’s now prominently in the front of mine.

I didn’t blog about this to ruin your  or cast shadow over your day, however I do feel that we as mothers have a powerful bond with our babies that should be harnessed and put to good use to bring some much-needed attention to funding and research of this condition. I for one am going to  join Kirstie on her mission to become an advocate for SIDS research, Red Nose week in Australia are raising money for SIDS, perhaps if your children’s school are participating in the UK this year, your local SIDS foundation or organisation could benefit from your help!!

http://www.sidsandkids.org/

http://fsid.org.uk/

I just want to say a huge thank you to Kirstie for letting me use her story and photo of the wee adorable KJ, we miss you guys so much, take care

Expat Mammy.xxx