Why don’t parents let their babies sleep outside anymore?

[Busybusybust]

www.:boredomtherapy.com/cold-scandanavian-baby/?as=6d23842735449010537

All my four slept outside in the back garden during the day, suitably clothed for the time of year. I did have a big pram, but today’s prams are just as suitable. So why dont your babies sleep outside?

recently contracted a cold sleeping outside, you get cautious

You don't catch a cold from being outside

Why would they need to sleep outside? All 3 of my dc have slept perfectly well inside so why would I put them outside? Just for the sake of it?

PS After a very serious hospital procedure last year my DH (in patient for 3.5 weeks) loved the garden bed I bought him, and often slept outside, well wrapped up. He was deeply grateful for the sun and breeze and sound of the birds.

DD (now 13) slept in her pram outside our kitchen door until she was 18 months. She was an early waker (05.45 ish) and by 9.15/30 she was was ready for a sleep, this was when she was say 6 months.
I'd literally put her in the pram, get my keys, go out the front door, down the side if the house, along the back passage and in the back gate.
I'd push the pram to and fro for 5 minutes and hey presto....she'd be asleep.

I'd leave her on the patio until gone 11am fast asleep and pretty much get everything done.

I put this down to a few things.....

A) luck

B) her dummy 😊

C) the fresh air

and D, she had an old fashioned second hand navy silver cross monster of a pram (we loaned from a friend for a year) she loved it, she always slept well in it.

She was out in all weathers except pouring rain.

Why wouldn't they sleep outside? I read an article a few years ago, probably the one linked upthread, about how in Scandinavia it's a long established tradition that babies nap outside, very well wrapped up. I was treated in the same way as a baby as we lived in Scotland and my mum was a firm believer in putting the baby in the garden so she could 'get on' inside (very high housewifery standards, sadly not hereditary). I think there was an element of 'if the baby cries I won't hear it' about this but I've survived and so has my brother.

Mine did, the eldest is 12 youngest 4

The air outside is no different to the air inside

Not true. Houses tend to be pretty airtight. Unless your windows are open all day that air is pretty stale. Nothing better for the respiratory system than fresh air!

Mine did - and when the GC are in my care I sometimes pop them outside on the decking where I can see them but where they will get fresh air. It is usually when I have returned from a walk with them and I cannot see the difference between walking them in the pram and leaving the pram outside where you can see them. They rae quite safe there.

I put mine in the back garden and I sat by the kitchen window keeping an eye on her. She slept well outside.

Mine did.

Mine did, now 21 and 18. They always seemed to sleep better in their prams in the fresh air suitably wrapped up.
There was one occasion in the summer when I left DD in her pram in the shade with a net over the pram. Over the morning the sun moved round and she did get a bit hot as it hit the navy hood. I never found she got cold in the winter so long as she was appropriately dressed with sufficient blankets.

I think the advice to put them at the bottom of the garden went hand in hand with the old fashioned only feeding 4hourly didn't It?
As in mum did it as we were hungry but it wasn't "time " yet or it was "time for sleep and in the bottom of the garden you could ignore the crying til they slept...

I'm due in the next few weeks and it is my intention to get DD sleeping outside as soon as possible. We live in an exposed mountain area (so foxes and other people aren't really a concern). By the back door is fairly sheltered (in the scheme of things).

So a question for the op and the others who have had outdoor babies... What did you do in wet weather? Do I just put the rain cover on and carry on as I would normally, ie wrapped up for the appropriate temperature?

My twins did- big silver cross twin pram, hood up with a cat net.

Fresh air was considered a "good thing" - they certainly slept well in the pram!

I think the "curative powers" of fresh air are not fashionable now. When my mum (born in 1932) was a child she was "delicate" and went to an "open air school" where infants were expected to have a nap every afternoon - on the open varanda if wet, on their beds outside if dry. All year round. On the old fashioned "chest" or TB wards, the windows were kept wide open, with huge open fires to keep the patients warm.

I always have a window or two open a crack somewhere in the house on the coldest days so that their is air flow. Always sleep with our window open a bit.

Keeping your windows shut tight all the time can result in stale air and black mold.

Nothing i've read here so far has made me feel inclined to put a child outside for it's nap :)

I don't have a garden.

I live in a first floor flat. For my babe to sleep outside I'd have to concoct some sort of hammock/sling and dangle him from the window. Or get one of those 1920s window cages... or just leave him in the car park

I never knew it was a thing! Was never mentioned to me as being a good plan. Plus my first didn't sleep

I did, but they were by the back door of the kitchen with it open and I was watching them the whole time. There’s no way I could have left them outside if I couldn’t see them.

Mine did
With Dd1 it was 25years ago. My mum would also leave her outside shops.
Dd2 is 2. I put her outside in the garden from when she was a newborn. She slept for hours.Although friends have made comments about it.

Mine were at the back door (double patio doors) never at the bottom of a mile long garden.

eyri I didn’t put them Out in the rain. I would often park them at the back door open the patio doors and let the wind blow through though.

Mine did - and recently, they're all still preschool age.

They slept much longer that way and I got some housework done/a rest. Put them where I could see them out of windows and stayed in the two rooms closest to the garden so I could see them at all times.

I have to say I would not have put them out in my tiny front garden, despite living in a very middle class suburb.

And you may be right about tiday’s Prams. I had a Silver across coach built Jobbie (bought by MIL, - didn’t really want it at the time) they all slept like logs in it until they gave up their afternoon sleeps.

This baby will be sleeping outside in his/her buggy! Good ole fresh air, why not? We have best of both here as it's covered but still open (first floor flat)

This thread is making me all nostalgic for those lovely baby days.