The objective of this study was to determine the neurodevelopmental and temperamental outcome of infants who suffered an idiopathic apparent life-threatening event (IALTE) and their mothers' perceptions of such an event, and to compare such infants with a matched group of babies hospitalized for nonthreatening events. Infants (N = 19) who were hospitalized at a mean age of 2.8 months for an IALTE with no underlying disease and matched controls hospitalized for an acute nonthreatening illness were sequentially recruited to the study at a mean age of 24 months (SD, 14 months). Physical, neurological, developmental, and temperamental status were assessed. Mothers' stress was assessed by their salivary cortisol response to the physical examination of their infants and completion of appropriate questionnaires assessing their infants' temperament. The investigators were not blinded to the assignment of the infants to each of the study groups.
Infants' perceived "difficultness" was positively correlated with the time interval following the event (r = 0.5, P = 0.001), mothers' stress as related to their child (r = 0.4, P = 0.004), and mothers' cortisol response (r = 0.5, P = 0.01) among the study group mothers only. IALTE during early infancy was associated with developmentally and neurologically normal outcome in infancy. We conclude that mothers of infants with IALTE differed in the way they perceived their infants' temperament over time, and in their stress response compared to mothers of a control group of hospitalized children who had not experienced an IALTE.