Fans save babies

Using an electric fan can help save a baby dying from cot death, researchers reported last night.

The new study, from the USA, suggests a fan can improve air quality in rooms with inadequate ventilation.

The study from California, USA, found that in the warm eastern fringe of the USA using a fan seemed to cut the risk of sudden infant death by 72 per cent.

In hot temperatures above 21 degrees centigrade – or 69 farenheit, fans almost halved risk.

Reporting in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the researchers tell how they compared 185 families that had experienced cot death with another 300 families.

The study was conducted by Kimberly Coleman-Phox, of Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California.

It showed that fans had an even more dramatic impact on babies chances than following the advice to keep a baby on its back. Researchers also found that giving a baby a dummy – or pacifier in the US – helped to reduce risk.

The researchers write: "In this study, the frequency of fan use was similar in young and less educated women as in other women; thus, fan use can be easily adopted by these populations.

"Although improving the methods used to convey the importance of the supine sleep position remains paramount, 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."

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162[10]:963-968

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