So far, the reason is unknown, if there is only one, which causes sudden infant death, the first cause of death among babies between one month and one year of age.
However, numerous investigations have managed to identify a number of factors and facts strongly related to it, such as having smoking parents (especially the mother), sheltering the baby too much to sleep, that the baby's head is covered while sleeping or excess temperature in the room. Of course, the environment in which the child sleeps is one of the keys.
A new study tells us again about sudden death and a curious way to prevent it: use a fan in the baby's room while he sleeps So that the air circulates.
According to the results published in the scientific journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the use of the fan represented a 72% reduction in risk Sudden death of newborns compared to those who sleep in an unventilated room.
The explanation is that re-inhaling carbon dioxide is one of the factors that they believe could cause the baby to die, so improving the ventilation of the room would contribute to not breathing again the carbon dioxide exhaled by the baby himself.
They have noticed a more significant decrease in risk, of 94%, when the fan was used in especially adverse environments such as a warm room.
But attention, they have also released a revealing fact. For babies who slept on their stomachs or on their sides, instead of on their backs as recommended by doctors, a fan in the room lowered the risk by about 86 percent.
And another revelation. The danger was reduced by about 85% in babies who shared the bed with people other than parents, always assuming they slept in a room with a fan.
For their part, they have only noticed this decrease in risk in children who did not use a pacifier to sleep, as previous research has already linked the use of the pacifier as a way to prevent it.
We will see what experts think about the effectiveness of this prevention method. Anyway, unless it is found to be "the key" to prevent sudden death, I doubt that the parents turn on a fan in the middle of winter, and it is certainly not recommended at any time of the year to place the fan so that the air flow points directly to the baby.
