Keeping a fan on could cut the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by nearly 75%.
Shockingly, around 300 babies a year die in Britain from SIDS - mainly boys and low weight and premature babies.
Scientists in California analysed data from 185 mums whose babies had died from cot death and collected information about more than 300 healthy, living babies. Mums were questioned about several different factors, such as the use of an electric fan or an open window in the room where their baby slept. Results from the study at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland showed keeping a fan on if windows were shut led to an 85 percent reduction in the risk of cot death. But if the baby used a dummy, the fan had no effect.
Epidemiologist De-Kun Li, who wrote the report, said the fan might be reducing the risk of the baby ‘rebreathing’ accumulated carbon dioxide.
‘Inadequate ventilation might facilitate pooling of carbon dioxide around a sleeping infant’s mouth and nose and might increase the likelihood of rebreathing,’ said the report, published in the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association. ‘Increased movement of air in the room of a sleeping infant may potentially decrease the accumulation of carbon dioxide around the infant’s nose and mouth and reduce the risk of rebreathing.’
October 2008
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