Sleeping With Fan May Lower SIDS Risk

Young infants who
sleep in bedrooms with fans have a lower risk of sudden infant death
syndrome than babies who sleep in less well-ventilated rooms, new research
shows.

Investigators concluded that sleeping with a fan lowers SIDS risk by more
than 70%.

Sleeping in a room with an open window was also found to lower risk,
although the association was not significant.

The intriguing findings must be confirmed, and researchers say fan use is no
substitute for interventions known to lower SIDS risk, such as placing babies
to sleep on their backs, avoiding soft bedding in cribs, and putting babies to
sleep with pacifiers.

SIDS deaths have dropped by more than half in the U.S. since 1992, when
parents were first told to put babies to sleep on their backs.

"This is one more thing that parents can do for peace of mind,"
De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, tells WebMD.

Sleeping and SIDS

It is now clear that sleep environment plays a big role in SIDS, Li says,
but the reasons for this are not completely understood.

SIDS deaths are most likely to occur when babies are between the ages of 2
months and 4 months, and deaths tend to peak in winter months. It is the
leading cause of death in babies 1 month to 1 year old.

One theory is that SIDS is caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide when
infants with inadequate sleep arousal responses re-breathe exhaled air trapped
by bedding or proximity to other sleeping family members.

With this idea in mind, Li and colleagues from the research division of the
California-based managed health care group Kaiser Permanente hypothesized that
increasing airflow near a sleeping baby would help protect against sudden
infant death syndrome.

To test the theory, they interviewed the mothers of 185 babies who died of
SIDS in Northern California and Los Angeles County from 1997 to 2000. The
average length of time between the SIDS death and the interview was 3.8
months.

The mothers of 312 children matched for age, area of residence, and
socioeconomic and ethnic background to the SIDS victims were also
interviewed.

Sleeping in a room with an open window was found to reduce the risk of SIDS
by 36%, while sleeping with a fan in the room was associated with a 72%
reduction in risk.

The risk reduction with fan use was even greater in babies who were put to
bed on their stomachs or had other sleep-related SIDS risk factors.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study appears in the
October issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

Back Sleeping Still Important

Pediatrician and SIDS researcher Fern Hauck, MD, tells WebMD that the
observation that better ventilation may lower the risk of sudden infant death
is an important one.

Hauck directs the Internal Family Medicine Clinic of the University of
Virginia Health System.

"We have no way of knowing which children will die of SIDS, so anything
we can tell parents that might lower risk is important," she says.

She called the findings "exciting," but also expressed concern that
some parents might get the message that all they need to do to keep their baby
safe is put a fan in the baby's bedroom.

Hauck led the American Academy of Pediatrics task force that wrote the
group's most recent recommendations for lowering SIDS risk.

In addition to putting babies to sleep on their backs, the task force
recommended that babies be offered a
pacifier at night or at nap time if they will take one.

Other recommendations include:

• Although babies can be brought into their parents' bed for nursing or
  comforting, they should not share the bed when parents are sleeping.


• Infants should be put to sleep on a firm mattress covered by nothing more
  than a sheet.


• Keep soft objects and loose bedding out of the crib: stuffed toys, pillows,
  andquilts should be removed from the bed when the baby is sleeping.


• Avoid overheating. Babies should be lightly clothed during sleep, and the
  room they sleep in should not be too hot.


• Mothers-to-be should not smoke during
  pregnancy , and babies should not be exposed to secondhand smoke.

By Salynn Boyles
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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