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Baby sleep environment
After emerging from the warmth and safety of a baby's womb into the wider world, the first place to live is on a futon. Babies from newborns to 3 months sleep for most of the day, 10 to 20 hours or more. This sleep is not a sleep for the purpose of rest like adults, but a sleep for growth. Therefore, the place where the baby sleeps is also an important place for growth, so it is necessary to consider the setting.
Babies who have just been born cannot regulate their body temperature, and the amount of heat they produce in their bodies is very small. However, if you warm it too much, it will overheat. In fact, fever in infancy is likely to occur due to such external temperature factors, and it is easier to get rid of it by wearing light clothes and wiping the body with a cold towel to dissipate the heat.
All Canadian houses have a fixed heating system, so it doesn't get too cold indoors. The baby's sleeping place should be well-ventilated, but not directly exposed to the wind, hot air, or direct sunlight. In addition, please avoid the place near the glass window because the temperature change is large.
In winter, the room gets very dry because of the heating. If it is dry, it is easy for bacteria to stick to the mucous membranes of the baby's nasal cavity and throat, making it easier to catch colds, so moderate humidity is necessary.
Especially from around 2 months, babies develop sweat glands and become sensitive to sweating, so use absorbent underwear and bedding and change them frequently.
The number of sweat glands is the same as that of adults, and since this number is on the surface of a small baby's body, water is released more and more. It makes sense that babies and children are prone to dehydration.
Please pay attention to sufficient hydration (breastfeeding, etc.) and temperature and humidity control.
Considering these things, the conditions required for baby bedding are bedding with good heat retention, moisture absorption, and moisture release. If you use terry cloth or cotton for the sheets or the items that you put directly on your baby's skin, you will be able to maintain these conditions and easily change the clothes. The baby's bones have not yet hardened, so prepare a bedding that is firm enough to support the underdeveloped spine and neck bones. It should not be so soft that the body sinks when the baby is laid down.
Babies sweat a lot during the night, especially when their backs get sweaty until they can roll over.
Would you prefer your baby to sleep on the crib or on the floor? Cribs are actually better than floors. For babies under 6 months old, the first thing is that they are surrounded by fences and are safe. , the one that often shifts the body. If there is no fence, there is a danger of falling.
Accidents often occur when a newborn baby falls off on a sofa, couch, or adult's bed because it is safe to keep it from moving. Never leave your baby unattended in such an area.
In addition, babies after 4 months can roll over, and even when they can't, they can move their bodies quite a lot, so there is a greater risk of falling without a fence. Also, there is a danger of getting your arms or legs caught between the fences, so attach a guard mat that is tightly attached to the outside of the fence so that you cannot push it out with your hands and feet.
Crib height also affects airborne dust. At 10 to 15 cm above the floor, a stagnant band of dust is formed. When the baby is laid on the floor, the position of the baby's face will be exactly at the belt, and it will absorb a lot of dust.
In addition, the vibrations of people walking around and downstairs will be heard, and if there are small children or animals, there is a danger that they will climb on top of the baby or fall. Cold air collects at the bottom, so the baby is also placed in an environment that is colder than the room temperature that adults feel.
After about half a year, I often cry at night, but at this time, I often bring him to my own futon and put him to sleep again while nursing and comforting him. It's a story that I often hear that it's gone.
However, putting a small baby to sleep in an adult's bed is not only risky for the adult to crush it, but also suffocate in the adult's futon, or conversely, the adult's body will take the futon and get cold. That's what I mean.
It's a good idea to put him back in the crib as soon as the crying subsides.
Alternatively, you can bring the crib to the same height as the adult bed to eliminate the boundary between the bed and the adult bed so that even if you are co-sleeping, you can move the baby as it is when he sleeps.
Babies after 1 year of age are very active, and as they grow older, the crib may become narrower. Just as ego comes out, there are many cases where you want to sleep with your mother. Sleeping on a large bed with a parent and child in the shape of a river will also be physical contact. (if dad doesn't mind)
However, it moves a lot, so it is still dangerous without a fence. Nightstands are often placed at the bedside of adults, and they often bump their heads against them.
Even if the child were to lie on the side of a wall and there was an adult on the other side, the moving child would climb over the adult and roll over, so it would be hard to say that it is safe.
After all, it is better to let the child sleep in the child's bed, including the meaning of independence.
When the crib gets narrower, give him a normal twin size bed and be sure to put bed guards on both sides (off-the-shelf guardrails that can be inserted into a normal bed on the market). Bed guards are net type so you don't have to worry about pinching your neck or body. If you sleep in a bunk bed with your siblings, make sure your little one uses the bottom bed. When it comes to elementary school, fences may not be necessary.
Finally, let's talk about your baby's sleeping position.
Babies over 6 months old can roll over on their own, and they can change their position on their own, so you can put them to sleep in any position you like. I have to put him to sleep.
There are three main ways babies sleep. Upside down, prone, or sideways. In Europe and the United States, sleeping on your stomach was the mainstream. It is said to prevent the deformation of the soft baby's head, and in order to prevent the flat back of the head from forming, sleeping on the stomach became a boom in Japan more than ten years ago.
However, now the medical side is working to ban sleeping on the stomach globally. The reason for this is that sleeping on the stomach has been pointed out as one of the major causes of the dreaded Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Babies under the age of 6 months have immature neck bones, so it is not easy for them to move their bodies on their own, and their respiratory functions are still immature. It is not uncommon for a person to fall into a state of suffocation and cardiopulmonary arrest by pressing the nose and mouth with a mattress when lying on the stomach. Prolonged chest compressions also reduce respiratory function.
In Japan, 70% of the infants who suffered cardiopulmonary arrest during the two years from 1995 to 1997 were on bedding, and half of them were lying on their stomachs.
There is also data showing that in North America, the number of infants suffering from cardiopulmonary arrest has decreased by 70% compared to the time when prone sleeping was the mainstream, as a result of teaching and popularizing sleeping on their backs.
These staggering numbers give you an idea of just how dangerous sleeping on your stomach can be.
Babies often spit up their breasts, but sleeping on their stomach is said to prevent them from accidentally swallowing vomit and suffocation. However, the vomit may stick to the futon and face and lead to suffocation.
Babies under 6 months should always sleep on their back.
Sleeping on your back won't make your baby's head look bad. The shape is genetically determined. A newborn baby's skull is so soft that it may appear flattened at times, but as it grows it settles into the shape of its genetic code.
From around 3 to 4 months, the hair on the back becomes thin, but this is just a baby's hair is thin and soft, and it is easy to rub and fall out. Don't worry, they will regrow and become bushy within a few months after birth. Elderly people often tell me that once a baby's hair is shaved, good hair grows back, but this is a superstition. Babies under the age of one have particularly thin skin that is easily damaged, so shaving can easily create small scratches on the surface of the head, which is dangerous, so it is wise to stop shaving.
After the baby suckles, burp to expel the swallowed air, but it may or may not belch. If you can't do it for 2-3 minutes, you don't have to force it out. Milk may be spitted up with belching, or the milk may squirt out of the mouth after drinking, but this is not abnormal. If you are worried about vomiting, after drinking, roll up something like a bath towel on the back of the baby and place it on the baby's back. Occasionally, if you turn it to the left and right, you can also ventilate your back and it is comfortable. But keep it at a slight incline. If the slope is too strong, your body will fall and you will fall on your stomach, so be careful.
Babies up to 2 years old do not need a pillow. A folded towel will suffice. Raising or fixing the head of a baby with weak neck muscles will put a strain on the neck muscles.
At first glance, letting the baby sleep in the child's room from an early age and the parents resting in a separate room seems to promote independence, but this is dangerous.
Babies don't know what will happen and they don't have the ability to evade when something is neglected. Even if you have a monitor on, it doesn't matter if your parents are asleep.
At least until the baby can stand up, sit up, and get out of bed on his own, it's best to keep him under the supervision of his parents.
It is very important to prepare your baby's sleep environment, as it also prepares your baby's living environment. Please think about it with the whole family.
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