This study is the first to identify the presence of cytoid bodies and extramedullary hematopoiesis in the retinas of victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as well as in children who died suddenly from other causes. The study identified cytoid bodies in 72 of 102 deaths. The subgroup of SIDS composed the highest incidence (47 cases) with a significant association (p=0.003). Regardless of the theory of how they developed, the cytoid bodies apparently have resulted from localized ischemia of a sensitive portion of the retina, i.e., the peripheral local, as observed in 90.2 percent of the cases. Since the most common cause of death in the study population was SIDS and the majority of SIDS cases manifested the aforementioned ocular findings, this may reveal a common pathway in the pathophysiological process due to subtle subclinical hypoxic injury. Furthermore, the hypoxia is likely chronic or recurrent, given the presence of extramedullary hematopoiesis, since this would not occur as an acute event. The files of the death investigations of children under 2 years old were selected from the master files of the Gordon V. Terrance Regional Forensic Pathology Unit of Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) for the period 1994-2004 (11 years). There were 102 cases in the study. Of these, 93 were reviewed retrospectively, and 9 were prospectively collected. 1 table, 4 figures, and 40 references