06 October 2008

Too simple, it'll never catch on

U.S. News and World Report has an intriguing story:
Just keeping the air moving around a bedroom seems to dramatically reduce a baby's risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), new research suggests.
"What we found in this study is that if an infant had a fan that was used in the sleeping room, the infant's risk of SIDS was reduced by 72 percent compared to no fan in the room," said study senior author Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist in the division of research at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. The report appears in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Li said the prevailing theory is that SIDS occurs because an infant re-breathes carbon dioxide and doesn't have either the strength to move from harm's way or a properly developed neurological system to warn of the impending danger. "For whatever reason, carbon dioxide is trapped in the airway," he said. And the exact reason that happens is still unknown.
Rico says he sleeps with a close-quarters fan (a CPAP machine), so SIDS won't get him...

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