Air Conditioning Not Harmful to Babies; Fans Reduce Risk of SIDS
As I sit here in the humidity brought by the first heatwave of the summer, laptop burning a hole into my
thigh, I can’t help but wonder how my infant son is coping with the heat. He’s pulled his favourite toys together in front of the baby gate behind which I’ve placed a box fan in an attempt to circulate the air. If the heat bothers him, he’s not saying anything; he grins one of his toothy smiles at me when he notices I’m watching him, then goes back to playing.
Downstairs there is a central air unit missing one of the parts it needs to drain properly. The knowledge of its presence is almost taunting us. I look forward to the relief we will experience when we are finally able to cool the house down by only a few degrees.
Like everything else having to do with childcare, you will run into a lot of differing opinions about how best to help your children handle warm weather. The bottom of the pyramid here is hydration – like adults, children need more fluid to replace what they lose through sweat. Don’t feel shy about being generous with water and bottles especially if your child is going through a growth spurt.
Juices and pop should be avoided because they don’t give your child’s body any extra benefit – in the case of pops and sodas, the caffeine in the drink will actually act to dehydrate. Sport drinks like Gatorade may be helpful in small quantities during extreme heat because they will boost the electrolytes in your child’s body and help them feel more replenished.
There is a myth circulating around that air conditioning units are not safe for children because the cold can cause a chill or asthma later in life. This is hogwash. Air conditioning is safe for babies and can help them get a full night’s rest rather than tossing and turning because they are wet, sweaty and uncomfortable.
If you’re not fortunate enough to have an air conditioner, or if you don’t use one because you don’t feel your climate is oppressive enough, you may choose to use fans to help circulate the air. Good news! Research has shown that fans can greatly reduce the risk of SIDS. Sadly, fans do not cool the air, they only circulate the warm air already in the room.
Leave a comment with your tips for beating the heat in child-friendly ways!
Scream Your Way to Exhaustion or Soothe Yourself to Sleep
After the baby had slept in his bassinet beside his mommy’s bed for the first four months of his life, my husband and I decided that it was time the baby moved into his own crib. At this point he was too long for the bassinet and had no room to move; I was having scary “what if” thoughts of him pushing his face against the side of the bassinet smothering himself. You could say the move was for baby’s comfort as much as for mom’s sanity.
After going to our weekly playgroup and talking to the moms there, the consensus I generally found was to put him in his crib and let him cry until he falls asleep; after a few days he will get into a routine and stop crying. The first night I took their advice and he cried and cried and cried until he was so exhausted that he did eventually pass out, but the next night I couldn’t do it. I was stressed, we were both miserable, and we were both crying. After doing a lot of research on the internet (I’ve never researched so much since getting pregnant) a lot of sites and books warn people not to let your child cry because he or she will stand a higher chance of SIDS. Rather than just exhausting themselves and giving up, some children have been found to actually stop breathing when constantly left on their own to “cry it out”.
I tried to think the way my child would. I put myself in his place and wondered what would comfort and relax me. We all know that when we go to the spa the one thing that relaxes us is the peaceful music. I tried listening to his Winnie the Pooh mobile but realized its song would actually get him more excited and ready to play rather than soothe and put him to sleep.
Finally I remembered the Ocean Wonders aquarium toy I had bought from my cousin when I was pregnant. What a life saver! It has a soothing light so the child isn’t in complete darkness and alone and it plays a variety of songs and nature sounds. If the song ends and your child is still awake you have a remote that can start the music again or he can push a button and make it go himself. Well, that did it and that night he slept peacefully without exhausting himself and without me standing in the hallway crying along with him. He just played with the aquarium and ever so gently went to sleep.
Nighttime With Baby
The first time my baby slept through the night was both wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful because I’d lost all concept of what sleep was. Terrifying because I woke up with a start at 4am and panicked because the baby hadn’t cried. When I went over to the bassinet and saw him sleeping peacefully, there was a chorus line playing in my head.
Four months later the baby has moved out of our room and into his own crib. That was another big step and a story for another time but suffice it to say the nighttime routine in our house has changed often and dramatically over the past year.
Sometime between 4-7 months, children begin to develop a sense of object permanence – the idea that when something is out of sight, it still exists. This is basically when your child learns there is only one of you – that when you leave the room you don’t disappear entirely. (What happens before that? Perhaps the child believes you stop existing? I wonder how that works on a practical level.)
Today, bed time involves realizing the baby is tired and putting them to bed at the right time. If we do this too early we have to console a crying baby. If we do it too late, the baby works himself into such a frenzy of tears he has no idea what’s going on. As long as he goes to bed on time, the crying only lasts for a few minutes until he realizes he is tired and passes out. Usually.
Baby Sleeps on His Back
We can’t stress enough the importance of placing newborns to sleep on their backs. Research has shown that babies who are placed on their backs to nap are less likely to succumb to SIDS.
The ‘Back to Sleep’ campaign is a new phenomenon. While the jury is out on exactly why sleeping on the back is better, the number of SIDS-related deaths in the USA has dropped from 5,000 to 3,000 annually since back-sleeping parents has been recommended to parents.
Some babies – especially newborns – are soothed when placed on their stomachs. If you do need to place you baby on their stomach, supervise them the entire time. Place them on their back when they are to sleep.
In regards to choking and vomiting, babies are hard-wired to spit up and placing them on their back does not increase their risk of choking.
Sharing the Bed with Baby
The issue of co-sleeping with baby is one that doesn’t come up in our household. For us, it just isn’t something we would be comfortable with. When he comes home with us the little one will sleep in our room in his own bassinet until he’s old enough to go into his own crib.
Other parents decide that the best place for baby is in bed with them. Parents worldwide share their adult beds with their infants and find the practice increases their closeness to their child, makes feeding easier, and helps sync their sleep patterns with the baby’s.
Experts Say No
In North America, the practice is generally frowned upon by those “in the know”. The reasons given by the likes of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) include:
Bed-sharing increases the risk of SIDS when one or both adults is a smoker
Bed-sharing increases the risk of suffocation because the baby can become wedged between the mattress and headboard/nightstand
Bed-sharing increases the risk of suffocation because the adult can roll onto the baby during sleep
· Co-sleeping increases the risk of strangulation when the baby is placed in a bed containing a headboard with bars or gaps wide enough for part of their body to become entangled
Experts Say Maybe
Interestingly, I was able to find a report from the AAP that suggests research data neither condemns nor endorses bed-sharing. You need a subscription to view the full report, but you can find a link to it below.
In short, research data indicates there are risks associated with bed sharing, while conflicting research indicates the practice is safe.
Does Common Sense Say Yes?
Let’s consider the issue from a practical standpoint. The number of babies born in North America over the last 10 years is in the millions. The number of babies who are known to have died as a result of bed-sharing is in the hundreds. Just looking at the numbers, I wouldn’t be inclined to see this issue as a danger to my child, particularly given the positive developmental opportunities that exist here.
However, if even one baby were to be hurt, I know that I wouldn’t want it to be mine so regardless of the numbers and arguments, every parent has to decide what they feel is best. But I offer this list of preventative measures to help keep baby safe:
- Don’t smoke. The health advantages of quitting notwithstanding, I won’t go on about the risk to the child or repeat the ‘quit now message’ we’ve heard so much it lost all meaning. Just don’t smoke – if you do smoke, don’t co-sleep.
- Always place baby on her back.
- Never co-sleep in a waterbed.
- Make sure your headboard (and footboard, if you have one) is of solid construction and doesn’t feature holes for baby to become stuck in.
- Make sure your bed frame is tight and secure, and there are no spaces large enough for baby to fall into. The two-finger rule that applies to car seat installation applies here.
- Never sleep next to your child if you have consumed any kind of drug, including cold medicine and alcohol. Your body will not be as intuitively aware of the baby’s presence in your sleep and you risk smothering your child.
- Keep pillows and soft blankets away from baby as these pose a choking hazard.
- Get your doctor on-board with your plan. Even if your pediatrician is against bed sharing, s/he may be comfortable enough to give the green-light if you can convince him that your setup is sound.
A Middle Ground – Side sleepers
I would suggest the use of side sleeper (sometimes known as “Co Sleeper”) beds as the middle ground for parents who are considering co-sleeping with their infants but are concerned about the possible risks. These products are essentially a bassinet with three rails that attach to the side of the adult bed. Babies and parents gain the benefits that come from bonding and sharing a sleeping space, while also enjoying the protection of personal sleep environments that are tailored to their softness requirements.
Arm’s Reach (http://www.armsreach.com/) is one company that specializes in the construction of co-sleepers, Baby Bunk is another (http://www.babybunk.com/).
Useful/Source Links:
http://aapgrandrounds.aappublications.org/cgi/content/extract/8/4/46
look good