Researchers reported that using a fan in order to circulate air in the room lowers the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) in a study of over 475 babies. The best advice for preventing SIDS was placing the babies for sleeping on their backs.

It has been widely accepted that babies should sleep on a very firm mattress, remove all pillows and toys from the crib, and refrain from keeping the infants too warm.

These suggestions helped decrease the rate of SIDS in the United States by half a decade to over 2,000 in 2003. Despite these improvements, SIDS is still the main cause of death among infants that are aged 1 month to a year.

To those who may not know, SIDS is the instant death of a healthy baby that cannot be recognized by any other reason. Thee infants could have abnormalities in their brain that may prevent them from waking when they aren’t able to get enough oxygen.

Many experts believe that this may require more research; however, many others believe that using a fan creates a sufficient amount of air for the infant.

Researchers decided to interview mothers of less than 200 infants that died from sudden infant death syndrome and mother of over 300 infants of parallel age and race. The mothers answered many questions that concerned their children’s sleeping environment.

Investigators also began to look into other factors and found out that the fan usage was associated with an over 70% decreased risk of SIDS. Less than 5% of the infants who died due to SIDS had a fan in the room, according to their mothers. That fact was compared to the 12% who lived.

In the end, the results show that using a fan actually reduced the chances for most babies of developing SIDS who slept in unhealthy sleeping environments.