Biotin sudden infant death

Cot Death Cot death, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, when an apparently healthy child dies suddenly, and from no apparent cause, has some similarities with the fatty liver and kidney syndrome in birds. It has been suggested that it may result from marginal biotin deficiency, together with a precipitating metabolic stress. 

Heard GS, Hood RL, and Johnson AR (1983) Hepatic biotin and the sudden infant death syndrome. Medical Journal of Australia 2, 305-6. 

Deficiency Biotin deficiency is unusual on a normal diet. However, in the late 1970s biotin deficiency in infants was implicated as a possible cause of sudden infant death syndrome, ft was proposed that biotin deficiency nsstric ted gluconeogenesis causing fetal hypoglycaemia. 

Biotin 0.15-0.3 mg/day. The discovery that biotin deficiency in young chickens can lead to sudden death resulted in a recommendation to supplement infant formulations with biotin.3 Desthiobiotin, in which the sulfur has been removed and replaced by two hydrogen atoms, can replace biotin in some organisms and appears to lie on one pathway of biosynthesis. b/C Oxybiotin, in which the sulfur has been replaced by oxygen, is active for many organisms and partially active for others. No evidence for conversion to biotin itself has been reported, and oxybiotin may function satisfactorily in at least some enzymes. 

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