1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Topics:

Warm and safe night

Keeping your baby warm and safe at bedtime during colder months.

By
//
Originally published in Today's Parent December 2006

We know a lot more about reducing the risk of SIDS than we did even 10 years ago. But some of those safety recommendations don’t seem conducive to a long winter’s nap. No fluffy comforters? No puffy bumper pads? For a person like me, who sleeps cocooned in flannelette and down from November on, it seems cold comfort for a little baby.

But health professionals have a different and somewhat surprising perspective. They say babies are often kept too hot, and that overheating can increase the risk of SIDS.

“In such a cold country, it’s easy to make the mistake of overdoing it and bundling the child up,” says Calgary paediatrician Peter Nieman. “When little babies are overdressed, they sweat more and lose more fluids, and it changes their metabolic rates.”

“A lot of parents are not getting the message that they’re not supposed to have bumper pads or big bulky comforters,” adds Leanne Landriault, a nurse educator for newborn and postpartum with the Women’s Health Program at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. “The goal is not to let them get their heads under the blankets, not to overheat them, and not to have anything in the crib they could bury their faces into and not get enough air to breathe.”

Can we manage all that and still have our babies sleep comfy and cozy? Sure we can. Read the tips Landriault and Nieman offer on the next page.

Subscribe to Today's Parent for just $14.95* That's only $1.25 an issue!

May We Also Suggest...

What do you think?