By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Kayla Alexis Bozeman was a healthy, happy baby when she was born in the spring of 2005, immediately charming all she met with her bright eyes and infectious smiles. But after just five and a-half months, Kayla's life ended on a September day, plagued by a bout of pneumonia that left her lungs filled with fluid. Kayla was one of the 561 babies who died in Alabama last year before reaching their first birthday. That was 45 more children than in 2004. Kayla's mother, Jarvetta Mitchell, is right there along with health officials asking why the state had its first increase in infant deaths since 1998. State Health Officer Don Williamson said officials would be spending the next month poring over the current data and trying to figure out what caused last year's increase from eight-point-seven to nine-point-three deaths per one-thousand live births. Williamson says there's something else going on that officials don't have a good answer for right now.