How to (Safely!) Put Your Infant to Bed
Do you need the right pillow, blanket, and mattress just to sleep through the night? Hear us out: You should be just as concerned with your baby’s sleeping environment, because where and how a baby sleeps can contribute to their overall safety.
How can you create the best environment in which to put your newborn down to sleep? Hosts Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft are here to show you some methods that will help your little one sleep safe and sound.
Newborns sleep best, and are safest, in an empty crib. “Anything in the crib around your baby could be hazardous—could be a suffocation risk,” Alok says. “I know there are so many cute crib sets, and bumpers and everything,” Bethany adds. “But it really isn't safe; you just have to take everything out.”
Your baby’s crib should have a firm sleeping surface with tight bedding that will not fall over or unintentionally wrap around the baby. (Swaddling, however, is OK in infants too young to roll around, as long as your baby’s head and neck are free and their arms are in the swaddle.) Cribs for newborns shouldn’t have drop-down side rails. A safe crib will have four firm sides with slats no wider than 2⅜ inches apart: Anything wider could result in baby Houdini slipping out of the crib.
Parents and guardians should put babies to bed on their backs, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in the baby’s first year of life. Alok explains you should always put your baby down to bed in their crib—not a chair, the couch, a baby rocker, or a car seat brought into your home, no matter how tempting—as only a crib provides your baby with a proper sleeping angle and environment. And “products like wedges, and special mats, and home oxygen monitors,” he adds, “are not actually going to reduce babies’ chances of SIDS.”
Some families opt to keep their newborn close by at night instead of in a nursery. Bedsharing, as the name suggests, occurs when parents share a bed with their baby. (Unfortunately, this method can increase the child’s risk of SIDS or suffocation well past toddlerhood.) With co-sleeping, a parent or guardian sleeps near their baby, either sharing a bed with them or sleeping close to their baby’s crib. Parents and guardians should consider sleeping in the same room as their cribbed baby for the first 12 months of the baby’s life to prevent SIDS, Alok says.
Like you, your infant deserves to have a good night’s sleep. And perhaps more importantly, they deserve a safe night: “While you create the optimal sleep environment for your baby,” Alok says, “make sure it’s also the safest one possible.”
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