The American Academy of Pediatrics raised eyebrows recently when it released new guidelines saying that pacifiers may protect ag

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问题     The American Academy of Pediatrics raised eyebrows recently when it released new guidelines saying that pacifiers may protect against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The use of pacifiers for sleeping infants has always been controversial, both in families and medical circles—the World Health Organization (WHO) says they should not be given to breast-fed infants. Yet here was an authoritative body, representing U.S. pediatricians, suggesting pacifier use at sleep-time might actually save lives. The Washington Post’s "New SIDS policy recommends pacifiers" was typical of the headlines. What wasn’t reported was the fact that the announcement dismayed experts in several counties—including Canada—who have found no justification for such a recommendation. Some even worry the advice could increase the risk for certain babies. Neither was it reported that three of the doctors working on the research pulled out because they disagreed with some of the AAP’s conclusions.
    Researchers have spent years trying to unravel the mystery of SIDS, which still causes about 150 Canadian babies to die unexpectedly in their sleep each year. Studies in several countries have revealed a number of factors that increase the risk of death, including sleeping on the stomach, maternal smoking, and a family’s low socio-economical status. As for pacifiers, the AAP based its Oct. 10 recommendation on an academic paper, to be published this month in the journal Pediatrics by U.S. pediatrician Dr. Fern Hauck. According to Hauck, four studies show that after "controlling for a variety of factors including sleeping position, usual pacifier use was associated with a significant reduced risk of SIDS".
    But other experts say there are too many unanswered questions. Dr. Peter Fleming, a professor of pediatrics at Bristol University and also one of the world’s leading authorities on SIDS, says researchers were surprised when they began finding that pacifiers were associated with a lower risk of SIDS. "It didn’t make sense" he says. "So we asked more detailed questions". What he and his team discovered was that the rate of pacifier use was similar for the group of babies who died from SIDS and matched groups of healthy babies. However, among habitual pacifier users there was an increased rate of SIDS death for babies who didn’t use a pacifier for their last sleep.
    Fleming believes the pacifier connection with reduced SIDS death might have to do with the fact that infants sleep and breathe differently when they are sucking. Fleming and his colleagues videotaped 10 infants while they slept, and observed that while sucking, they breathed more slowly and deeply and had fewer episodes of minor obstructed breathing. All these factors could conceivably protect a child from SIDS. But the improved breathing was observed not just with pacifiers but also among babies who sucked on a finger, a thumb, or their mother’s emptied breast.
    The potential problem with pacifiers, Fleming believes, is that babies who use them appear to "forget" how to suck. "My concern is that increased pacifier use could suppress a fundamental human behavior—finger or thumb-sucking- and we don’t know what the adverse consequences might be".

选项 A、WHO.
B、AAP.
C、Dr. Peter Fleming.
D、Dr. Fern Hauck.

答案A

解析
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