Posted on 10/07/2008 6:00:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Researchers Say That Air Cirulation From Fans May Reduce Risk of SIDS
With all the expensive safety products marketed to new parents -- baby-safe furniture, strollers with mosquito nets and BPA-free bottles -- researchers have found that using a simple fan in the bedroom can also save lives.
Having a fan running near a sleeping infant was associated with a 72 percent decrease in the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, researchers reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
"Obviously, further research needs to be done," said Betty McEntire, executive director for the American SIDS Institute in Marietta, Ga. "But I really commend these researchers because every new data we have on SIDS is a plus."
SIDS claims 2,500 babies a year in the United States. Doctors are still looking for a cause, and more ways to prevent it.
Fans Just Part of the SIDS Picture "At that time, nobody knew the fan would have such an effect," said Dr. De-Kun Li, a co-author of the study and a senior research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.
"But at that time, we already knew that the sleep environment matters," said Li.
Doctors may not know what causes SIDS, but they have found that the "sleeping environment" contributes to it. Deaths from SIDS decreased by 56 percent from 1992-2003, after national "back to sleep" campaigns urged parents to put babies to sleep on their backs.
McEntire, who has worked on SIDS research since 1976, said only three simple steps have been shown to reduce SIDS: Don't smoke, don't put anything but the baby in the crib, and put the baby on its back.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Very interesting. Something (else) to keep in mind if I have another baby.
But won’t that leave a carbon footprint?
It would seem that danger from illness due to the airflow would outweigh the reduced risk.
How many of you sleep with a fan blowing air over you?
I sleep with a fan running all the time, summer, fall, winter, spring. I’m healthy as a horse.
They say in the article that the theory is that the baby is breathing in a pocket of stale air trapped in covers or around the baby, and that the fan going moves the air around.
In the summer, we have a fan on all night. If we’re chilly, we use a sheet (and a blanket over the baby, if we have one in the room).
A baby is exposed to the germs in your house due to contact with infected people; germs on surfaces or in the air generally don’t live long. Air circulation, unless someone in the room is coughing and sneezing a great deal, doesn’t seem a particular risk.
The research I’ve read suggests that many SIDS cases are a form of suffocation - either an obvious form, like the baby’s mouth being under a pillow or toy, or carbon-dioxide suffocation because it’s flat on its face and doesn’t move. Keeping the air moving around the baby could make a difference.
It's at once wonderful and horrible that something so easy may make a large difference.
I’m 50-ish and still sleep with a low fan on. 9 months a year. Something about having air moving around while I sleep ...
Honestly, I do all summer long.
I also believe that airflow is much more healthy than stagnant air.
Yes, a 70% reduction is dramatic, although with the sample size so small, we have to take the number with some caution
No doubt.
IMO no need to further study.
I can see a fan gently blowing air on a babies face area working like CPAP or BIPAP does..
How many adults use fans year around? How many of you know someone who feel like they would suffocate if it wasnt for that fan while they sleep or window breeze.
Also the air does become stagnent at sunrise/sunset.
It seems quite few do. I can’t I can’t even get to sleep with a fan running on me.
Exactly.
How many adults die peacefully in there sleep?
Same theory is Carbon Dioxide due to lack of air flow or some other medical condition (snoring ect).
I think that especially with elderly people, perhaps with diminished oxygen uptake due to emphysema or slow breathing, that the same guidelines used to reduce SIDS risk could save some of their lives as well.
Probably same researchers who said sleeping on their backs increased the risk, then said sleeping on their stomachs caused it.
The air near the mattress may be more than stale, it may actually be poisoned. New Zealand urges parents to wrap mattresses in polyethelene covers to prevent the release of gases from chemicals used in fire retardation. Moving the air, moves the poisons away from the baby. Preventing the release of the gases in the first place with the cover seems to be working amazingly will in New Zealand.
I wonder how much of SIDS is the “depth” of sleep. Granted that my experience is anecdotal, I sleep far better on my stomach than on my back. On my back, I wake up more during the night. If the baby is on their stomach, I wonder if maybe they sleep so deeply that they don’t breathe as well. I would think, then, that putting a fan in the room might add something to keep the baby from falling into as deep a sleep.
I sleep with the ceiling fan on every night.
LOL you sound like my husband.
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