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Keeping a room well-ventilated while a baby sleeps could significantly reduce the risk of cot death, an American study suggests.

Having a fan on during sleep could reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 72 per cent compared to not doing so, researchers found.

Leaving a window open in a poorly-ventilated room could also prevent unexplained deaths classified as SIDS, particularly in warmer temperatures.

Previous research has suggested that a warmer room can increase the risk of breathing problems but the association between room ventilation and risk of SIDS has not received sufficient attention, the authors added.

About 300 babies under 12 months old die each year in Britain. The risk is greater among boys, premature babies and those of low birth weight.

The latest study involved interviews with mothers of 185 infants who had died from SIDS and those of 312 randomly-selected infants from the same county in California.

Mothers were asked about several factors, including use of an electric fan or open window in the room at the baby’s last sleep, use of a dummy, the location of the room, bed surface, bedding, the number and type of covers over the baby, and room temperature.

Use of a fan in warmer room temperatures (above 21C /69F) was associated with a 94 per cent decreased risk of SIDS compared with no fan use, said Kimberly Coleman-Phox, who led the study at Division of Research of Kaiser Permanente, the private health provider, in Oakland.

The findings were published yesterday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Inadequate ventilation in a room may increase the likelihood that carbon dioxide exhaled by a baby accumulates around its nose and mouth, which could cause suffocation, the researchers suggest.

This event, known as “rebreathing”, could be reduced with improved airflow in a poorly-ventilated room, they add. They concluded: “Use of a fan in the room of a sleeping infant may be an easily available means of further reducing SIDS risk that can be readily accepted by care providers from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds."

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