"This finding (about fans) by itself is new, and it fits into other findings," said Li. "All those seem to be a piece of a puzzle that points to rebreathing, a leading hypothesis," said Li.
Many doctors hypothesize that "rebreathing" a pocket of stale air trapped in covers, sheets or beneath the baby can cause SIDS. According to the hypothesis, adults and older children do not suffer from rebreathing because they could move in their sleep before they suffocated.
"Their [newborn] neck is so weak, and their head cannot move, that they cannot struggle to regain the air, or the airway to get rid of this re-breathing," said Li.
Dr. John Kattwinkle, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics SIDS task force, found the study "interesting" but he sees a connection to temperature, not rebreathing.
"I'm not really sure if that's going to affect rebreathing," said Kattwinkle. "Probably, the fan going in the room is not going to diminish this."
However Kattwinkle, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia in Richmond, thought the finding fit better with past research that overheating is a risk factor, as well as the so-called arousal threshold.
"If the problem is arousal threshold being diminished, then this could help," said Kattwinkle, who explained that infants may be more likely to sleep lighter with a fan is blowing on them and would therefore be more likely to wake up if they're rebreathing.
"You just need to wait for confirming studies before you hang your hat on it," said Kattwinkle. "We don't want people to think that it's OK for the baby to sleep its stomach if you use a fan."
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