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Re-activateMost parents of young babies know the feeling. You wake suddenly in the middle of the night with a sense of panic, and tiptoe to the crib to make sure your baby is still breathing.
Losing a baby to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a very real fear for parents. It happens when a baby under 12 months old dies suddenly while sleeping, for no apparent reason. Although not common (it happens to around one in every 2,000 infants), SIDS is still the leading cause of death for babies ages 1 month to 1 year.
Research shows that simple steps, such as putting a baby to sleep on his or her back, can greatly reduce the risk of SIDS. Now a new study suggests that having a fan on while a baby sleeps might help as well.
The study found that 11.7 percent of healthy babies had slept with a fan on, compared with 3.6 percent of babies who had died. After taking into account other things that might have affected the babies' risk of SIDS, researchers found that fan use was associated with a 72 percent drop in risk. Having a window open also seemed to help, but the difference in risk was small and may have been due to chance.
Fans seemed to help most when there was something about the infant's sleep conditions that increased the risk of SIDS: For example, if babies slept on their stomach, or their room was warm (more than 70 degrees F).
Read the rest of this post on our health blog. And to learn more about preventing the conditions that may lead to SIDS, see our safe sleep tips for babies, and the rest of our new crib Ratings report.
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