Will a fan help prevent SIDS for your baby?
October 7, 2008 by Sherry Osborne
Filed under Parenting
All the morning news shows were full of the buzz about a study that claims a fan in your baby’s room might reduce the risk of SIDS for your baby.
The statistics from the study show that fans reduced the risk of SIDS by 72%. It also offered extra protection to babies who sleep in a warm bedroom. One belief for the helpful nature of the fans is that it improves the circulation of the air in the room, which helps prevent the babies from breathing in carbon dioxide – this happens when the baby exhales and then re-inhales it from a pocket between the baby and the mattress.
I find this interesting but I think that it’s important to remember other important ways of protecting your baby from SIDS – proven methods like putting your baby to sleep on his or her back, and not smoking around your baby.
It should be noted this study only covered 185 infants who died from SIDS and 312 who did not.
(photo: flickr)
After my sister brought the finding of the SIDs study to my attention I immediately went out looking for a fan that would not take up room in my small nursery. I was ecstatic when i found a number of smaller yet powerful fans at http://www.vornado.com/. I bought the clip fan because of the lack of floor room and feel much better about the situation.