Ceiling Fans and SIDS

One of the newer recommendations for SIDS prevention is to run a ceiling fan in the baby's room. We have been doing that since our LOs were born. Now they are 11 months old. Now that it's winter, their room is quite cold, colder than the rest of the house. Lately they have been waking up with cold hands. They are sleeping with 3 layers - long sleeve onesie, cotton sleeper, fleece sleeper, plus socks. We keep our thermostat at 67 degrees at night, but it's cooler in their room.

1) Do you think it's okay to stop using the ceiling fan? (I am concerned about lack of ventilation in the room. We never open the window in their room because it's on the first floor).

2) What do you think about using blankets? I'm not concerned about them being smothered in a blanket. My only concern is them getting the blanket wrapped around their neck somehow.

 

I know that the recommendation is to have nothing in the crib but we always used blankets with no problems or have you tried sleep sacks? As for the ceiling fan, I hadn't heard that one. I would think it would be just fine to leave it off.

 

I think at 11 months it would be OK. I put a blanket in with mine.

 

Does your ceiling fan have different settings? I know ours has a winter setting or a summer setting.. depending on which way it turns.. brings the warm air down for the winter. I've never had a ceiling fan in the room. I don't see any reason you need to keep using it. SIDS risk goes down after 4 months I believe.

 

I always used a blanket for my last singleton but it was a crocheted one so there were "holes" in it if it ended up on her face. I would think the SIDS risk is gone by now but I could be wrong?

 

We use the sleep sacks and we have a cool mist humidifier running with a fan that oscillates. I think the important recommendation is air circulation, so maybe set up a rotating fan on low just to keep air flow and not point it directly on them. Ceiling fans are sure nice in the summer though! I do use a blanket occasionally and tuck it into the end of the bed. They also sleep with loveys. They are very active and wiggly so I guess I stopped worrying about a month ago - the blanket I use is a thin cotton one - not a comforter or anything like that.

 

My twins use sleep sacks. My heater is set to 73. I hate the cold. :laughing:

 

Definitely check if your fan can be reversed. If not, you can use a regular fan on low pointed away from them as pp said. All of our bedrooms have something to keep the air moving even though we are well passed SIDS risk!

 

We just switched the direction of our ceiling fan in the boys room. My guys are still swaddled at night, but I have sleep sacks ready to go once we stop. What I did with my other kids was put them in a hanna zipper, then a fleece footed pj, and then the sleep sac. I live in NJ so it's pretty cold here in the winter.

 

My kids like white noise, so we use a small regular fan just pointed away from them. We don't have ceiling fans in their rooms, but I have heard that recently about it lowering the risk of SIDS. Mine used a small blanket at that age, but they didn't stay on them. It was more of a lovey. Even now, I'm covering them back up before I go to bed.

 

I agree with the others in that it would be okay to turn it off now since the risk of SIDS is down by this age. :good:

 

We have an angel care monitor for Ty (almost 11months) and I dont think ill get rid of it any time soon though even though I know the rick of SIDS goes down at 6 months. We did have a fan going in our room would still have it going but it broke Ty uses a blanket at night ad since about 6/7 months. Have you thought about possibly putting a space heater in there room to warm it up and leaving the fan on to move the air around. We have one that we run in the boys room all the time.We can set the temp on it so it goes on and off. it also shuts off if it gets knocked over and its a cool touch. Just a thought.

 

I use a regular fan put in front of a little electric oil heater. It circulates warmer air around the room, but not too warm. The babies room has two outside walls and it's very, very cold where we live. They also have a couple blankets in there beds.

 

I would think that if you are bundling them up so much then you are defeating the purpose of the ceiling fan because you can increase the incidence of sids by overheating your babes. I have to admit I have never heard about the ceiling fan and sids so it must be a recent thing because I used to do discharge teaching on SIDS when I worked in the NICU. The weather where I live has been around -40 all week so I keep the house at 71 and my boys sleep in long sleeved onsies and sleep sacks and they seem to be content with that. My boys have also used blankets but they kicked them off a lot which is why I went to the sleep sacks.

 

As pp's said, the risk of sids decreases once they can lift their heads up and turn them to the side really well. So if you want to turn the fan off it's probably fine. I use a small fan in my big kids room as white noise, and we have a bigger fan in our room to circulate the air (the babies are still in with us).

I keep my house very cold, around 63 year round, and my kids have all used blankets from birth. At this age the twins have 2 small blankets each, which they are rapidly outgrowing. They are cotton blankets, so very breathable if they do get them over their faces somehow. Like big receiving blankets just thicker/warmer.

 

We have a ceiling fan but it is right on top of the bed which we don't like so we got a slim standing fan to serve as air circulation and white noise. Actually we have it turned towards the wall so the air doesn't blow directly on anyone but still keeps the air in the room moving. But we have gone nights without it too. I should think it would be fine at their age to go without.

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I switched the ceiling fan to the winter setting. I think that helps a bit. I will probably introduce blankets soon.

 

The ceiling fan advice re SIDS is relatively new. I heard that and rolled my eyes. From what I've read, it's pretty clear that SIDS is caused by the outgassing of flame retardant chemicals in crib mattresses as they interact with ordinary household fungi. All the "advice" - back to sleep, cool room, ceiling fan, SIDS rates increase with subsequent children - beats around the bush regarding toxic gasses released by the mattresses. Yes, you can diminish SIDS rates by doing this and that. But how about preventing the gas escaping in the first place. If you're concerned, you can wrap your babies' mattresses with gas impermeable plastic. Buy or make your own. It seems to work perfectly, and protects the mattress too!

We still try to encourage air flow in our twin's room, but if the mattress is wrapped, you won't really need the fan.

Good luck!