Most Parents Don't Know Basic SIDS Risk

Keeping Room Too Warm Could Be Fatal To Baby

NEW YORK, Updated 5:30 p.m. EST November 30, 2000 -- Most parents keep their babies' rooms at too warm a temperature, which could increase the child's risk of dying from sudden infant death syndrome.

A new survey commissioned by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, a British organization, found that 63 percent of parents with young babies did not know that they should keep their baby's room at around 61 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Only 41 percent of those surveyed even knew the current temperature of their home within two degrees. Sixty-two percent did not have a thermometer in their baby's room.

Reuters Health says that babies who sleep in overheated rooms are known to be at higher risk of SIDS.

A separate British study found that mothers of babies who died worried about their baby being too cold, while mothers of babies that lived worried their child was too hot.

Besides keeping the temperature low, FSID recommends the following for lowering your baby's SIDS risk:

• Place them on their backs to sleep
• Don't allow anyone to smoke in the same room as the baby
• Monitor their body temperature by feeling their stomach
• Keep the baby's head uncovered

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