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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
@Cultural norms with a newborn
Had a visit with the midwife yesterday and she was reminding me of safety and avoidence of SIDS.
Somethings she said:
Have the baby sleeping in the same room with you at all times.
Having the baby sleep with a pacifier at ALL times, if you do it some of the times it can increase chances.
Swaddle only up to 48 hours old.
Don't let the sleep on top of you in bed, they could get too hot.
Don't co-sleep.
This list has changed since I had DS two years ago. Are there different things in the country where you live? I know Korea you would wrap up a baby in a comforter in July because of the importance of keeping them warm.
Re: @Cultural norms with a newborn
Baby isn't supposed to leave the house for at least 40 days.
Having the baby in wind will give the baby colic.
I think Germany's pretty similar to England, except with the swaddling. For the first month or so, though, there was usually a 3-hour period in the night when LO would only sleep if she was on me. I talked to my midwife about it, and she said that although officially you shouldn't do it, she advocated doing what you need to do (within reason) to make sure that you and baby get the rest you need. She said one of her friends is a neo-natal dr and always advised patients to never, ever sleep with the baby on them. Then she had her own and slept with it on her for the first 3 months because that was the only way the baby would sleep. You do what you have to do.
Sorry, that was kind of a ramble...
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Only swaddling for 48 hours sounds weird to me.
I'm in the US...we were just told to put the baby on his back. I have had doctors and nurses tell me never ever to let the baby sleep in our bed. We do it sometimes though when he won't sleep any other way.
My grandma was telling me to give him mashed up fruits starting at like a month old, lol. Oh and that I should use only blankets made with woven fabrics because they are warmer.
I really can't think of any other culture specific things I've been told about baby. An older Ethiopian lady told us not to let him sleep with a pacifier because it was bad for his ears. ???
That's so funny how things have changed in the two years since you had your DS!
Are you already out of the hospital?
The swaddling thing seems so weird to me. Our child could not have slept without swaddling...we swaddled her utnil she was rolling from back to front.
I was in the US and was told the normal things like on back, nothing in the crib, sleeping in same room. Here in Japan there was a SIDS campaign poster at the doctor and the cartoons depicted no smoking, sleeping WITH your baby, and no drinking.
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swaddle up to 48 hours old??? In Oz most people swaddle until the arm popping up reflex is gone - usually until at least 3 months, Genna was swaddled til she was 6 months old
they also do NOT recommend pacifiers here at all for SIDS reasons, I have heard that it can help - as the constant sucking keeps a baby out of that deep deep sleep which they think may contribute to SIDS, but that is not a recommendation here
main thing here is NO cot bumpers (unless they are the completely breathable ones), swaddle and then sleep bag so there's no risk of blanket over head oh and always on the back!! SIDS is a HUGE thing here, they really drill it into you - and thus the rates of SIDS in Australia has gone way way down in recent years
Nurses in the US told us to swaddle w/ arms out b/c the startle reflex prevents SIDS and is meant to be there so they don't sleep too deeply. We still swaddled arms in as we'd heard that was ok from many. But, that was the reason I heard and might be part of the 48 hour thing?
We heard it's ok to swaddle until they can work their arms free. Once that happens, there's danger of it over their mouths.
No kids, but I know from friends here that swaddling isn't done in NL. It's actually considered mean/cruel. Strange how different things are regarding swaddling in different countries. From what I've seen here everyone just uses sleep sacks with arms out and warm pj's. If it's really cold they might add a blanket that's tucked in around the crib and comes up to about the waist, again arms are free.
(A co-worker of mine had a baby that apparently had some issue where the doctor actually told him to swaddle his son. The doctor said that he realized it was mean, but it really was the only option. He was telling a co-worker about that who had young children and responded along the lines of 'wow, cruel, but if the doctor says you have to, I guess you have no choice.')
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What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home Dfunny how thoughts about swadding are SO different in different countries
EVERYONE I know here does it
dd wasn't swaddled tightly - she could move her arms around inside the swaddle, she just had a HUGE startle reflex - so keeping her arms inside a wrap meant she didn't throw her arms up completely & wake herself up ALL the time. It SO isn't mean - she was totally comforted by it - when I'd swaddle her she'd sigh and just go to sleep cause she liked the feeling of being cuddled up by the blanket. Now that she's older she has a sleep sack and a comfort (small) toy to soothe herself to sleep instead
I can't imagine how LITTLE sleep we would have got if we hadn't swaddled!!
plus here they totally recommend it for SIDS - and say to swaddle until the baby can roll over, thats when it becomes unsafe as they could role over and not be able to role themselves back without their arms free
its just so good cause you don't have to use blankets - granted a sleep sack does the same thing
'Nurses in the US told us to swaddle w/ arms out b/c the startle reflex prevents SIDS and is meant to be there so they don't sleep too deeply. '
I have never heard of that - I don't think that's true
well this is what they recommend here (Oz)
http://www.sidsandkids.org/safe-sleeping/
South African moms seem to go into a sort of confinement here. Mom and baby don't come out for the first 3 months. And if they are out, they are always wrapped up and covered with a blanket over their head. When they're a little older, it's onto the back with a towel (I don't know how they tie it so well!).
I also just read an article entitle "African babies don't cry" about how a woman in Kenya was taught by her grandmother to nurse the baby anytime it makes the slightest sound.
I've read that 'African babies dont' cry' blog post as well, found it interesting mostly in the sense that I find it SO strange/counter-intuitive this notion (in the US, not suer about other places) that babies have to be taught independence, be toughened up, etc. They are friggin babies!? I don't get it.
But regardless of why/how they are crying, the thing about crying making their lungs stronger is not true in any medical sense.
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Interesting. I guess it's just another reason we have to stop labeling things as "African." Even two countries as close as Ethiopia and Kenya are so different.
And, Enid, I'm sure you're right. There probably is no biological merit in crying. Maybe it's just their roundabout/unconscious way of getting mothers to build a baby's independence.
Hmm. There's official guidance and then norms.
I was told all of these things. But we swaddled for 4 months, didn't use a dummy/paci, and coslept for 5 months. Our HV toed the party line but then also suggested doign whatever worked for us. Maybe our HVs are more lenient here?
Everyone I know here room-shared for varying periods - very few made it to 6 months, unless like us, they had to. Most used a dummyt, but not for SIDS. Most have bed-shared at smoe point, but few at newborn stage.
The other interesting things is weaning. I could talk for hours about BF guidance and weaning suggestions...
Thats the African South Africans... Although I wish I could do the towel thing, I have tried so many times. My sisters and I all grew up tied to the back of our nannies backs with the towel. It freaks me out when you see the African Mama's with the baby on their back and a black bag of goods on their heads walking down the road.