You’ve got the crib with locked sides and the firm fitted mattress. Now it’s time to dress them up!
Not so fast.
Before adding anything to the crib, you need to know the basics of creating a safe sleeping environment. How dangerous can a crib and mattress be? Plenty, when you consider the risks of injury and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
For the first six months, the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends baby sleep on her back in a crib placed in the parents’ room. Through to age one, baby should continue to sleep on the back at night and during naps. If baby should turn, return her to her back – until she is capable of making the move on her own.
As for what should and should not be in the crib, Health Canada states that bedding sets – comforter, bumper pad and decorative pillow – should be kept out as they pose a suffocation hazard.
What else should come out of the crib?
· Soft mattresses
· Stuffed toys
· Sleep positioners or rolled-up towels
· Quilts
· Duvets
· Regular pillows
· Any other loose or soft items
· Anything with strings longer than eight inches, including mobiles, pacifiers and crib toys.
Many experts recommend keeping soft toys and blankets out of the crib until 12 months of age; a pillow until age 2. Instead, dress the crib with a fun fitted crib sheet and wrap baby in an eye-pleasing swaddling blanket, sleeper or sleepsack to keep her warm (but not too warm) at night. To keep her entertained, add a mobile and a crib toy – both tightly fastened without any small parts -- but be sure to take them down when she starts pushing up on her hands and knees (around four or five months) and can potentially reach it.
You can transform that spare bedroom into the nursery of your dreams. But stick to decorating the room, not the crib.
Image: jzuidema79, stock.xchng
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