Watch above: SIDS claims two to three babies in Canada each week. One Saskatchewan family is hoping to change that after losing their youngest son last year. Meaghan Craig reports on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome awareness and memorial day.
SASKATOON – It claims the lives of two to three babies a week in Canada and yet there is so much we don’t know about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, otherwise known as SIDS. One Saskatchewan family is hoping to change that after losing their youngest son, unexpectedly, last year.
On Saturday, the Inglehart family released a balloon in Nathan’s honour. It’s a day that is tremendously hard for the family as it marks the anniversary of Nathan’s birthday.
“It’s a tough reminder that we don’t have our son here, but there’s no way we could celebrate that we had him and he was alive and he was happy and he was a beautiful, beautiful additional to our family,” said Erin Inglehart, Nathan’s mother.
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SIDS is the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby, less than a year old during sleep. Nathan was just over a year old when he died on June 13 of last year.
Nathan is described as the happiest little boy you would ever imagine, with a permanent smile. It’s been less than a year since he passed away from SIDS.
“I put him down for a nap in the morning and he just didn’t wake up,” said Inglehart.
Both she and Nathan were feeling under the weather that day and when she awoke from her nap, she realized there was something very wrong.
“I phoned 911 and they helped me perform CPR while we waited for the first responders and the city ambulances to come.”
Nathan was pronounced deceased a short time later.
It’s a loss no family should ever have to experience but one in every 2,000 families will.
“There’s no words to help a three-year-old understand that his best friend is gone,” said Inglehart.
“You becoming nervous for that day to come up again, it’s no longer just a day on calendar it’s now a day that our family broke apart,” added Colton Inglehart, Nathan’s father, who describes the last year as rocky.
“You can’t say ‘my child died of cancer, I hate cancer,’ nothing happened to him so there’s a lot of blame on your own self.”
Which is why Nathan’s uncle, Rob Trainor, is asking provinces, states and jurisdictions overseas to proclaim May 23 “Sids Awareness and Memorial Day.”
“Even if they don’t declare the day, I’ve put the bug in their mind and at least that way they can start thinking about this and being proactive about it,” said Trainor.
Since launching the initiative in August 2014, Saskatchewan, B.C., the state of Maine and New Mexico have all recognized the day, keeping Nathan’s memory alive.
“We need some sort of day that says ‘Hey, this exists’ and we need to do something about it’.”
The couple encourages any grieving fathers dealing with child loss to connect with them on Faceboook by searching for Saskatoon Broken Dads.
For more information on SIDS you can visit Baby’s Breath.
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