A fan may protect against SIDS

New research suggests that a simple electric fan may help protect against SIDS.

The term sudden infant death syndrome is applied when a baby under one year dies for unexplained reasons. But there is evidence that the rebreathing of exhaled carbon dioxide may play a role.

This is more likely when a baby's head is covered or surrounded by soft bedding and when he sleeps on his stomach or side, all of which are known risk factors. It is less likely when using a pacifier; the handle keeps bedding away, allowing better air flow.

To see whether fans might provide the same benefit, researchers led by Kaiser Permanente Northern California interviewed mothers of 185 babies with SIDS diagnoses and of 312 infants in a control group matched by county, race/ethnicity and age.

A fan in the room, they report in the current Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, reduced SIDS risk by 72 percent - and 94 percent when room temperature was above 69 degrees. Fans had an even greater protective effect in the presence of other risk factors, such as the baby sleeping on his stomach or on soft bedding.

When the baby had a pacifier, however, a fan made no difference. The key, presumably, is ventilation.

The researchers noted that while SIDS deaths declined more than 50 percent since a national publicity campaign encouraged placing infants on their backs to sleep, one-quarter of child-care providers still don't do it. Young, black and less-educated women are more likely to ignore the advice, the researchers say, yet fans are just as common in their homes.

"Although improving the methods used to convey the importance of the supine sleep position remains paramount," they conclude, "use of a fan in the room of a sleeping infant may be an easily available means of further reducing SIDS risk that can be readily accepted by care providers from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds."