Infant care is very important. It not only involves physical development but also involves mental health. Infant not only needs proper diet but also need proper sleep. Sleep helps infants to grow and if infants help sleeps adequately they become energetic.
Baby Care Important Tips
- In winters, do not over cover infants with extra clothes. Covering a child with too many clothes leads to overheating, this is dangerous for the child.
- Make a habit that the child should sleep on its back.
- Never try infant to sleep on stomach.
- The infant should never sleep sideways. It is recommended that 15-20 minutes after breastfeeding child can sleep sideways. But after some time, it should be seen that child should sleep on the back.
- When a child takes feed in a child, it is recommended that the child should be taken on the shoulders of either parent, and the child’s back should be patted. This helps a child to take burp. This prevents the child to regurgitate milk. If the child doesn’t take a burp then it is said that take while keeping a child on shoulders or try to burp after 15-20 minutes.
Benefits of Sleeping on Back
It prevents a child from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). It is a condition in which a child dies in sleep. Its main cause is when a child sleeps on the stomach. When sleeping on the abdomen, the child’s nose and mouth are covered inside the bed. This results in difficulty in breathing.
It prevents the child from respiratory tract infections like cough, difficulty in respiration, and pain in the ears.
Type of bed
Now a day’s beds are decorated and it is very attractive. It should be kept in mind that the bed should not be very soft and spongy. The soft and spongy bed easily pressed and the child’s head can be struck inside the bed. This may cause difficulty in respiration and can cause death.
- Avoid soft pillows, bed, and water bed.
- Always use a thin and little hard bed for infants as this kind of bed will not be pressed and will be useful.
- It is said that a mattress of 1-2 inches thickness on a hard cot is the best bed.
Causes of sudden unexpected infant death during sleep
- Suffocation
- Difficulty in breathing
- If a person accidentally sleeps on an infant
- Sometimes cause is not known
Precautions of Infant Sleep
- A child should sleep on the back.
- Always have a firm sleep surface.
- Patients should insist on room sharing and should not have bed-sharing. Bed-sharing can lead to accidentally lay on a child.
- Avoid soft bedding.
- Avoid overheating.
- Avoid exposure to tobacco smoke, alcohol, and illicit drugs. This should not be used by parents.
- The supine position is the best position for the child. A firm crib mattress with the fitted sheet is the recommended sleep surface to reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation.
- Cribs with missing hardware should not be used. Many deaths are seen due to repaired cribs or cribs missing parts.
- Only mattresses designed for that product should be used.
- No pillows, quilts comforters, etc should be placed under a sleeping infant.
- Infants should not sleep on adult beds even alone due to the risk of suffocation.
- Infants should sleep in an area with less hazard, free of dangling cords, electric wires, and other blind cords to avoid strangulation.
- Devices like strollers, swings, carriers, and slings are not recommended for routine sleep for infants.
- Infants less than 3 months are at higher risk of death while bed-sharing.
- Bed-sharing should be avoided in case any of the parents are smokers.
- In cases of intoxication when having the use of drugs or alcohol or any other sedative medicines.
- Soft objects like plush toys, pillows, quilts can obstruct the nose and mouth leading to suffocation.
- If the room is overheated then it may lead to SIDS.
- Dress for the environment, no more than 1 layer more than you the adult would wear for comfort.
- Always evaluate for sweating or feeling hot to touch.
- The baby should sleep on their back. They should not sleep on the sides as they can roll more easily onto the stomach. Children with problems of gastroesophageal reflux should sleep on their backs.
- Newborns should be placed skin-to-skin with their mother as soon after birth as possible at least for the first hour. After feeding, or when the mother needs to sleep or cannot do skin-to-skin babies can be placed on their backs in the bassinet.
- If the baby falls asleep in a car seat, stroller, swing, infant carrier, or sling, you should move him or her to a firm sleep surface on his or her back as soon as possible.
- Provide a safe sleeping environment night and day.
- A safe sleeping place for infant reduces the risk of sudden infant death and various sleeping accidents which may be fatal.
- Always place baby on the back.
- Nothing else should be kept in a crib except a baby.
- Never place baby to sleep on a couch, sofa, or armchair as these places are dangerous.
- Bed-sharing when the baby was premature or with low birth weight is dangerous.
- If medicines or drugs are taken by parents which makes it harder for them to wake up, then bed-sharing is dangerous.
- Breastfed babies have a lower risk of SIDS. Breastfeeding is recommended for at least 12 months, or longer when the baby desire.
- Keep the cot free of soft objects and anything loose or fluffy. It should not contain anything which causes suffocation or smother the child.
- Don’t use products which are sleep positioner, these are used to keep babies in a specific position. This can cause a flat head (plagiocephaly). This increases the risk of suffocation.