Overheating a Factor in Infant Deaths
A report from the University of Washington School of Medicine called for a "vigorous public campaign warning of heat stress as a preventable risk factor" in crib deaths, alongside what is now recognized as the most important presentative -- putting infants to sleep on the back and not the stomach.
"Although the risk of thermal stress is widely accepted abroad, it has received relatively little attention in the United States," said the study in one of issues of ***Pediatrics,*** published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"The incidence of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) in the United States can likely be further reduced by educating the public against the dangers of overheating, as an integral part of the back-to-sleep campaign," it said.
The authors said they based their conclusions on a review of existing studies, including some that have said cases of sudden infant death syndrome might be caused by babies "rebreathing" exhaled air, causing suffocation.
The report said rebreathing would rarely cause death.
"We conclude that deaths attributed to rebreathing could more logically be attributed to thermal stress. Still, in a preventive program against SIDS, both thermal stress and rebreathing should have as common objectives the avoidance of prone sleeping, soft bedding, and covering the head," it said.
Excessive sweating, high room temperature, infection with fever and excessive bedclothes are factors in heat stress, the study said. in addition it is known that more crib deaths occur in winter than summer, it said.
"It is possible that both thermal stress and rebreathing are interrelated cofactors of a lethal process that could lead to (death) through failure to arouse or respiratory failure," the study concluded. "Defects in brain stem function from earlier injuries could increase the susceptibility to either mechanism."