AIBU to leave baby outside?

[GingerRodgers]

Happy to be told if I am but dh and I can not agree on this one.
On occasion we have taken dd for a walk and she has fallen asleep in her pushchair. When it's cold and dry she is obviously wrapped up well and warm when we're out.
When we get home the only place the pushchair can go is in the hall right next to the radiator.
Alternatively we can wheel her round the back and put the pushchair on the back garden.
The garden has a high fence with a locked gate. The kitchen faces directly out onto the garden.

I say it's better to let her sleep in the garden and watch from the kitchen rather than leave her next to the radiator as she will overheat and undressing her will wake her.

Dh is aghast at the thought and can not bring himself to leave her outside at all. Thinks I'm being beyond unreasonable for even considering it.

So, AIBU and if so why?

For the record, dh doesn't know why IABU but I just am

YANBU I've left my baby in the garden when the weather is nice. I think it's good for them in the fresh air. As long as she's secure and you can keep an eye out what's the problem? I think more people should do it.

My biggest worry would be that a bird would shit on the pram. but no, YANBU.

My dd is 10 months old and has had every nap outside since she was a month old - rain, shine (or snow!) The only weather we avoid is fog (bad for their lungs). She refuses to sleep indoors. I have a big silver cross pram and she's well wrapped up (pram suit and blankets). She sleeps up to 3 hours at a time.

We were all brought up this way and my sisters do the same with their children. All the kids are extremely healthy and hearty. I believe the fresh air is very good for them - much better than a stuffy house!

Yanbu. If you can see the baby from the kitchen and garden is secure then don't see a problem.

This is normal in some countries Norway has already been mentioned but it's true. The size of the pram you need somewhere like Norway just to get through the snow, they barely fit through the doors :o

Babies need to sleep and getting hot and sweaty in their out door clothes is pointless. Fresh air won't hurt them, does ten good in fact.

When my dad was born (march baby) the midwives all came to the same conclusion, he was looking a bit peeky so they wrapped him up and put him outside in his crib in the snow for a couple of hours. It did the trick, oh and he is still here 67 years later with no ill effects :)

All mine slept outside in their pram/pushchair. With a raincover if it was wet or snowing. The only weather I didn't put them out in was fog (as advised by midwife). They slept much better outside.

YANBU. I use our cold conservatory at the moment but if we didn't have it, baby would be outside and I would watch her from the kitchen.

I see a couple of people have referred to the danger from cats. My mil thinks they will lie on babies faces. It always seemed unlikely to me and DS did a very big literature search when first gc was expected. Has anyone first hand experience of cats being a danger to babies or is it just an old wives tale?

Ds2 had a lot of breathing problems for the first year. We moved to the country (for that reason) and left him outside for all his naps, no matter the weather. Within weeks he was absolutely fine. It might have been a coincidence, of course.

It's much safer to leave him out - keeping an eye on him - than risking him overheating inside. Everything you've said makes sense. YANBU.

Great idea, lovely fresh air!

I grew up with cats. I owned a cat. Never did any of the cats go near my face at any age. Or near dds face.

I've never heard of any kids being squashed/suffocated by cats either. Unlike all the other animal attacks that papers go to town on.

used to do this with all of mine. park them under the kitchen window and get on with making dinner! they slept well and woke up happy. whats the alternative? attempt to remove layers without waking them? leave them wrapped up in the house so they overheat? it is an obvious convenience if a bed on wheels (pram) that they can sleep wherever they are!

I think the theory isn't that a cat would deliberately smother a baby but more that a pram might look like a very inviting place for a cosy snooze.

My cat never went anywhere near cots or prams but my old flatmate's cat liked to sleep wrapped round her head. So I'd say it makes sense to use a net (which needs to be taut to be effective)

I've got 3 cats a dog and 2 babies. Never had a problem

Bragmatic
OP what is your DH's reason for being so against it? I always left dd, and leave ds, outside asleep in their buggies.

Same as you: private garden, high fence, latched gate, in sight. If you are watching from the kitchen, I honestly can't understand why anyone would have a problem with this. If a cat/fox appeared, you'd see it within seconds. If your window/door is open, you'd also hear him within seconds.

Sorry, just saw that your DH doesn't have a reason. There are lots of good reasons on this thread for why you should leave babies outside. You win then

I just used to pick my DD up and bung her in her cot. If we were at home home the cot was for sleeping in, nowhere else. If she woke up she stayed up.

YANBU, being wrapped up and outside is far better than wrapped up and over heated inside.

Can your DH explain the difference between your DC being outside in the pram while you go for a walk, and also being outside in the pram in the garden while she sleeps and you watch from the window? Presumably it's the same thing as if you just went for a longer walk, except that you don't have to!

The best thing about the house we recently moved into is that it has a drive and I can park the car, leave sleeping DD2 inside and watch from the kitchen window while I have a brew, put some washing on, do a bit of work etc. She currently resists naps during the day but gets really tired, so if she nods off in the car I want to let her sleep - DD1 was the same for a few months and I spent lots of afternoons either sitting outside our old house in the car or in a carpark somewhere (sometimes working on my laptop!) for an hour while she caught up on some Zzzzs.

Let her sleep and yes definitely better than next to the radiator - bet she'd wake up if you tried to unwrap her too!

I wish I had a secure garden so DD could be left outside...
I have to make a judgement whether to either a) keep doing laps of the estate so she can get a long enough sleep or b) hope she is asleep deep enough to get up the doorstep, unzip the footmuff, remove hat and mittens without waking her up. Even then she still has an extra cardigan/jacket layer so I am paranoid about her overheating and she is usually very hot when she does wake.

Most of the photos of me as a child in the garden have a pram at the bottom of the garden with one of my brothers or cousins sleeping in.
I used to leave DS1 outside the back door to sleep but couldn't with DS2 as by then I was in a house with steps up to the front and no back entry.

I do think fresh air is good for them - I used to love seeing their little rosy cheeks when they had been outside playing.
Nowadays they have tablets or ipods surgically attached to their hands and their backsides are glued to the sofa

I must admit, a nice big pram is cosier and more comfortable imo, but a buggy for a short while is ok.
Don't feel a buggy is entirely wind- and cold-proof really.

Just remembered that when mine were little I used to layer up with a little sheet and plenty of blankets in the pram rather than lots of clothes - they had a little coat but not a proper winter coat - then it was relatively easy to adjust the blankets when we got in. If you switched the radiator off then that'd work wouldn't it?

DD had all her naps in her buggy outside until she got too big for her to be really comfortable.