Danger in Blanket Cover

Danger in Blanket Cover

Older infants are at risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrom (SIDS), especially if they sleep with a blanket, according to a study by the University Hospital Muenster. Physicians, therefore, recommend that a sleeping bag be used instead.

In the study, conducted by a research team led by Dr Mechthild Vennemann, more than a quarter of the infants who died of SIDS were found under blanket. Their average age was 30.5 weeks, reported the Aertze Zeitung.

Previously, it was thought that SIDS victims found under a blanker had pulled it over their heads as they were dying, and that the blanket itself was not responsible for the death.

But a more plausible explanation, in the view of the researchers, is that the blanket causes the baby's temperature to rise because a large amount of body heat escapes through the head.

This causes the infants's brain to overheat, which together with the reduced supply of oxygen under the blanket could be fatal, they said. - dpa

Source: Family Ties, the Sun, September 8, 2009