Nordic napping

[suedehead]

So, I spotted this one this morning:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988

Whilst at first you may think 'blimey', I can actually see the logic! Anyone tried this? Do you reckon it leads to healthier children?

Are we all just paranoid about someone nicking our babies...!?

I do this with my baby (4.5 months) as she sleeps far longer outside than she does inside the house. I wrap her up really cosy, put the plastic rain cover to keep the wind off her and watch her out the kitchen window so I can hear her and get her in when she wakes up. She has warm clothes on, a sheepskin underneath, a fleecy sleeping bag and a blanket too so she's nice and cosy.

I live out in the country though so we don't have any passers by/ neighbours - otherwise I'd be worried about her being kidnapped!

Someone I work with has a daughter who is married to a Norwegian and lives in Norway. She was telling me that their baby sleeps in a freezing cold room and it's considered totally normal over there.

DDs first nursery was in an old mansion house with a huge lean too at the back beside the kitchen. They had a collection of old solver cross prams and allt he baies were wrapped up outside for sleep time all year round. i was more impressed by how they got them all to sleep at the same time than worrying about the temperature.
My aunt also looks after her grand daughter during the day and puts her out for a nap in an old silver cross int eh garage with the doors wide open.

In the big old prams you didn't need raincovers: you just turned the pram away from the prevailing wind!

As a 60s baby, I can also remember prams being left outside shops.

The house I lived in when DS was first born was fecking freezing. He napped well and slept through the night from 8 weeks. We have also gone camping and when everyone has moaned about it being freezing at night my DS has slept like a log until gone 9am! At home he would have been awake at 6.

The central heating is not on in my house at night and not on at all in the bedrooms. I can't sleep in rooms with heat!

I was put in a shed when it was lashing down!

I'd never have left DC outside in the buggy (London here too) but 3yo DD had most of her naps in the buggy and therefore outside. Reflux didn't give much option! But once she was asleep I'd find a cafe in the park and sit outside with her.

However, having just found out that ave pollution levels here are 2.7 times recommended adult maximum I am wondering whether I unwittingly contributed to her asthma.

It was me that mentioned the Cat! I didn't think it was that ridiculous or that I was being over paranoid -a cat can be attracted to the heat of the baby -my friends cat always tried to get in her babies pram. I think it would be quite unlikely a cat would suffocate a baby but it was more a scratch or lick I was thinking about.
It wasn't an issue I just made sure I was at patio or in the garden with the baby.

I've never been called a paranoid mother before - I thought I was pretty laid back!

I am loving the digression on this thread (rabbits... Flying bears)
To be perfectly honest, I've never given it a second thought whether what I do (let Ds sleep outside in pram if we've been out walking &he seems tired, or if it is simply a nice way to get him some fresh air on an otherwise boring house-bound day) should be categorised/named/flamed and I REALLY do not understand why some people have issues with a child napping in the safety of his/her own (private & enclosed) back garden under the watchful eye of a parent.
Someone mentioned 'survival instinct' being the reason for sleeping so well????
(Aren't small children notoriously good at letting you know when they're not happy????)

Have slept all 3 of mine outside in the pram and later buggy for naps, and in all weathers. Quick spin round the block and then parked outside the back door, all wrapped up and snuggly. Still do it with dd who is 19 months. None of them have ever napped in the cot in the day, but slept well at night. Think fresh air is good for them and all very healthy nod robust so don't think it scarred them.

"hang on a minute grey - there were no raincovers in the 70s" - ha, not only were there rain covers (aprons, they were called) but the fabric was robust and completely waterproof so when it rained, you'd get a little puddle on top, over where the baby's legs were.

My older babies used to love sitting up in the pram while we walked in the rain, splashing their hands in the pram puddle!

If it was truly Baltic, you'd just fasten the top part of the apron up against the hood - you had a cosy baby who could still see out over the top, but who remained warm and dry (unlike his poor Ma).

Have to say the two cats I had when ds was a baby (both Siamese and very "people" cats who never put their claws out) never wanted to be anywhere near ds as a baby. They would positively avoid him.

On the other hand, one of our current pair (still both Siamese), I had to warn my downstairs neighbour, when she had her baby, that he had a tendency to sleep on your head, so not to be too welcoming to him (we share the garden). He's older now and doesn't do it any more but at the time he was only about 6 months old.

Oh, excellent, let me smugly jump on the bandwagon of another parenting craze.

If 22mo DS happens to fall asleep when we are out, but I want to come in, I always leave him in the back garden and watch him through the patio door. It never struck me as unusual and I have been doing that since he was about 6mo (summer baby). Undressing him always wakes him up, leaving him in his coat means that within 3 minutes of being inside he wakes up a sweaty, crying mess. In the garden he will sleep as well as he does in his cot and wakes up happy. I have no idea if it prevents colds, I would say that he gets an average number of those, but recovers quickly and never has antibiotics. Then again, he has always been robust.

I don't put my baby outside to nap but if he falls asleep in his pram when we are out and I come home. He stays put outside, where I can still keep an eye on him and he sleeps longer than the days where he has a nap indoors.

It's funny though, in autumn on a beautiful crisp day we'd walked to a friends house to visit her and her baby, where we were constantly being judged for leaving him on her porch in full view of her French windows. She couldn't rest and she made me feel like a bad mother for it. She was the one all fretful though and I got 5 minutes peace to have a cup of tea though.

We live in France, not sure if it is a french thing but i did it with DS (2.4) after I remembered a friend told me about her Danish SIL doing it.

DS was born end of October and it was the only way of making sure he got more than and hour of fresh air a day. Wrapped up DS in 4 layers - including a hooded furry all in one plus blankets for his walk, then he nodded off and i left him on the verandah and i sat inside on the sofa snoozing watching him through the french windows. He easily slept for 3 hours. In the summer he would sleep outside most days, till his naps became erratic and has almost dropped them

I remember seeing an article a few years ago about a Danish couple arrested or in some way getting majorly negative attention from the New York Police for parking their baby outside a restaurant or cafe in NY. I recall hordes of prams left outside all the shops, the post office and the pub in the Dublin suburb I grew up in and wondered what the NYPD would have made of it.

Both my DCs are Nordic nappers, but then they're half Nordic :) when DS was little, we lived in England and I used to sit outside with him (had shared access and other issues with safety in the back garden).

Like Honeytea, I did worry about the "being in the same room for the first 6 months" so although DD was born over here, I've sat outside with her too (no safety issues otherwise, we live out in the country) when she was under 6 mos. In fact, I still do sometimes, nice to sit and read outside.

Don't see why this has anything to do with CC... If they're not asleep by the time they're dressed (it's a bit of a process...) then they fall asleep within minutes of jiggling the pram or walking around - if I feel like it, I combine naptime with a workout and take them for a walk.

They do sleep longer outside, not sure about the virus-resistance, but I'm sure they're not MORE ill for sleeping outside IYSWIM.

Whoever worried about the babies being cold - really, really not an issue: they wear thermal underwear, a woolly layer (like a knitted sleepsuit), a snowsuit and a sleepingbag. If anything, I worry about DD getting too hot!

MIL thinks it's neglect though, and tells us birds might go for their eyes etc...

Also, whoever said the babies must be cold:

I have seen a cat jump into a pram - we were all sitting out in the garden, baby lying flat in a pram, and the family cat jumped in and started to lie down in the warm cosy pram area - of course, this took him far too close to the baby's head, and there was the possibility he could have smothered him. Mum of the baby went ballistic - she had cat covers on order but they hadn't arrived yet - and the cat went home with a friend that night.
I know that the old story was that cat's could "suck baby's breath" but I think that is probably a load of tosh - more likely that they'd lie on their faces/too close to their faces and potentially smother or scratch them.

meant to say, re CC: we have babymonitors over here too, you know... No different to have them sleeping on the patio with a monitor, than sleeping on a different floor indoors with a monitor?

My mum did this with both me and my sister, especially in winter...she was from Yorkshire and said it was normal. I would have done it but for living on the second floor with no hard garden.

Mine slept outdoor a lot. Everyday for the first year. They were well wrapped up and the dog watched them outside the patio window. When it was snowing they had a hot water bottle in the pram ( old silver cross) We live in the country. Mil was concerned about child napping. I might have laughed at her.

Both very very healthy very few illnesses.

I thought everyone did this I did, and all my friends did. Scottish too.

All my children used to go outside the back door for their naps in their pram. I had a silver cross pram which used to have a rain cover (for when it was raining, natch) and a cat net when the weather was fine. Never had a problem with cats getting in.

The only weather I didn't put them outside in was fog - not sure why ...it was something my mum told me. We all went out in our prams too during the 1960's.

I think as long as the baby is well wrapped up then they'll be fine.

Fresh air is good for children.

Dress them well and get them used to outdoor activity, besides it is excellent preparation for the joy of family camping trips!