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...!?

This thread is fascinating. Seems to be loads of us Scots who not only 'Nordic napped' as babies but followed suit with our own. As an aside my DD has also always slept in a cold bedroom with the window open for fresh air even in the depth of winter. I can't stand not having a window open in our bedroom. Probably the result of being brought up in a farmhouse with no central heating and only an open fire in the kitchen. I remember ice on the inside of the window!!!!

Matildaduck I love the idea of the family dog watching the baby out of the window! I am going to suggest we buy a dog I want one anyway instead of a baby monitor when the time comes to buy one :)

see we are the opposite,we all sleep naked(kids with nappies or pants on,sometimes vests)and have the house as warm as we can/like it,id rather have no clothes on in a warm room than wrapped up in a cold room.

I do this with DD quite a bit. She sleeps best in her buggy, always has done. A few of my friends (and MIL) were a bit shocked but we're lucky that we have a secure garden and I can push the buggy up to the patio doors so can always see her. I also bundle her up warm and normally put the rain cover on just in case of a surprise shower, which has happened on a couple of occasions. I've no idea about the health benefits all I know is she sleeps better.

I'm struggling to understand why you wouldn't to be honest- if it suits you. You would happily walk round town with your baby snuggled in their pram.

People get in such a twist about doing what is right, what the evidence says is correct etc. Do what works for you, because it works for you I say

I'm a farmers wife and so my DS has to spend most of the day outside as that's were I'm needed. He always sleeps well, we wrap him up in a pram suit and a sleeping bag, plus I have some lovely wool clothes that my aunt knitted specially and they keep him so much warmer then anything else. Tbh when he is cross inside all you have to do is take him outside and he is so much happier. And he has only had one bug on the 6 m he's been around. I don't think I'd leave him outside a coffee shop though, there are so bad people out there which is sad, would be great if it was like Sweden.

I had a raincover on my doll's pram in the late 60s.

cory

It seems that Scotland must be a Nordic country, judging by all the posts from pro-Nordic Napping Scots . My SIL emailed me the BBC link this morning and said - tongue in cheek - that maybe I should put DS outside for his naps in all weathers. I already do! . She was shocked!

Another Scot who slept outside in all weathers, did the same with the kids as did the childminder - i used to pick up my son and swipe the snow of the pram to take him home :o

He slept on a sheepskin and in the winter would be wrapped up in his snow suit and blankets - with just his wee nose sticking out.

Always been good sleepers and are now 11 and 12 and they haven't had more than 5 days off school/nursery in their lives. No absences since they were 6. No2 son is slightly less robust but still healthier than the majority of his classmates.

My mum certainly put us out in the garden for naps in summer as I can remember playing around my little brother's pram. That was Edinburgh "summer," so hardly very warm.
She may have done it to us older ones in winter, I don't know as we moved house when he was a baby to somewhere the garden wasn't visible from inside, so I only remember that one summer.

She had a white nylon-y mesh cover with elasticated sides that she put over the pram "to keep cats off". We played brides with it, used it as a veil...

Abigail I think that unfortunately there are as many bad people in Sweden it is just they view risk very differently. The chance of a baby being stolen from outside a shop or abducted from a school is a possibility but very unlikely. The risk of a baby/child being killed in a car crash is much more likely, all car seats are rear facing well into childhood and most families drive nice robust cars volvos personally I feel their attitude to risk taking is very healthy.

Ds did some extreme Nordic napping today, he slept in his pulka (sledge) whilst we went ice skating on the lake, he slept the entire way and missed all the fun poor baby!

lol Auld - we were brought up in various flats in Edinburgh until I was about 1. We were all put outside irrespective of whether we could be seen or not - with the cat net in place :)

Also got left outside shops etc. Mum once went home and was putting the messages away and generally tidying round when she suddenly remembered that she'd taken a baby with her to the shops and that she didn't have one now. Whichever of my siblings or I that it was was still out for the count outside the drysalters :)

I was certainly left outside shops all the time in 1970's Scotland. parents didn't have a car and the silver cross monster pram probably didn't fit through the door of the butchers. DM joked that if anyone stole me, they'd bring me back again pretty quick - apparently, I was a reflux baby who never stopped greetin'.

God, I remember the cat net - it used to be the veil in my dressing up box. I was always the bride and my - younger - sisters relegated to my bridesmaids

Another one who used to leave DS out for a snooze at 6 months plus. He always fell asleep in the snuggly pram out for walks so I used to leave him facing the back door with the door open while I cleared up or prepped dinner. We lived in the middle of nowhere. He slept well.

He is 8 next week and has had 4 days sick off school in his life, and that was due to nettle rash. However I always put that down to him catching everything in his sweaty overheated nursery full of runny nosed toddlers sneezing over each other in the earlier years.

Now I'm in Switzerland I notice that every morning in Winter as I go to work, the Hausfrauen in the Street fling the bedroom doors and windows wide and hang out the duvets for a good airing. Children are outside as long as it's not a full on snowstorm. Fresh air is a tonic here.

I think the situation in the Nordics and here with darkness for hours during the day, and the depression that is associated with it means that you maximize what you can get. I see perfect sense in it, as long as the baby has correct clothing and robust pram etc. That said the atmosphere is dry, as opposed to putting the baby outside in the damp fret in Wales for example. Dampness seems to soak through everything......

I'm old. I had 5 Dcs and a big coach built pram.
All of them slept outside for all their day time naps from birth onwards.{70/80's]
Totally normal to see the big prams in peoples' gardens.
In very cold weather a hot water bottle was put in first to warm the pram.
All of them slept very well.
The prams were always left outside the shops. Infact Woolworth's had a sign to say no prams allowed inside! They were too big.
The steel bodied prams were very solid and waterproof not quite like todays.

I have very vague memories of being out in the pram in Lossiemouth when I was around 2; and I absolutely remember my younger siblings having their naps outside wherever we lived (forces family), whether it was snowing or spring time and everything else in between.

My children (19, 18, 16 and 4) all had their naps outside too, though DD3 couldn't sometimes as it was simply too hot where we lived when she was small.

Anyone from the 70's probably remembers this.....

Because DS3's first nap of the morning coincided with the school run I would put him in the pushchair as soon as he was ready and discovered that the pushchair was the only place he would fall asleep by himself without crying. As life was busy with DS1 and DS2 being able to put DS3 somewhere to go to sleep where he was happy and safe and did not cry or need to be rocked etc was a bonus so DS3 had all his naps outside in the pushchair come rain, sun, snow, etc! He was always warm enough, was positioned where I could see him and hear him, was in the back garden which was locked and had a rain/cat cover. The inlaws thought I was a lunatic but it meant that life with a 4 year old, 2 year old and baby was so much easier.

my mother told me similar tales of my upbringing.( born 1944 )As there was no central heating it was very little warmer indoors.I remember awful colds,blocked sinuses, chillblains.But we did wear vests!My mother said she would knock the snow off the pram.Happy days

Made it to the Norwegian press: www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/Britene-forundret-over-utesoving-7129101.html
Whilst this is normal in Norway, they also acknowledge some are against it, and refer to a doctor who advises that if children have ear or lung problems they should sleep inside.
I was pretty uncomfortable with babies sleeping outside at daycare on the really cold days, luckily we had a lovely Italian lady who gave extra blankets to snuggle up with! Also at the baby friendly cafes, there would sometimes be 15 prams lined up outside with baby monitors blinking while the mums sat all cozy inside with their coffees, I took my baby inside :)
I'm all for fresh air, but as for a nap, I'd rather be inside, so prefer my baby to be inside too, but it's a cultural thing.
We're in Sydney now, but talking about moving back to Norway, I told my 7 yo that Norwegian kids play outside when it's pouring with rain, she was horrified! A nice sunny cold day is one thing, but rain is pretty miserable.
polly made very good points earlier.

My Norwegian family leave theirs outside in prams, robust bunch!! Several broken bones each though from the skiing and sledding!

binfullofmaggotsonthe45 I don't remember that public information film but I did have one of these seats. It was in the early 1990's and I suspect I was most unfashionable. ::shrugs::

It's not just a Scottish thing. My mother left me and my brother outside as a baby in London and it was very common to do so. She used to put a cat net over the pram as I think at the time there were stories of babies being killed by being smothered by cats who sat on them. How often that happened i don't know but it was was a big concern back then - probably not surprising in an urban area where there were likely to be more cats. I know on one occasion my mother resorted to putting me at then end of the garden because I wouldn't stop crying (not a usual thing to do) and it apparently worked a treat but maybe I just cried it out!

However, after a few cases of babies being snatched, it became less common for children to be left in the street at least. I think in built up cities there was also concerns because streets got busier, shops got bigger, so more difficult to nip in and nip out as well as prams and pushchairs being less like moving beds and more flimsey so people stick to putting their children outside in their back gardens so you never see it these days. I don't think that means it doesn't happen. I've done it and I am down south. Not often, but certainly if the opportunity presented itself and I could stay where I could see or hear DC then I did.

I assume that it is healthier for children not because of the fresh air but because you aren't couped up with other people and in breathing distance of their germs. Probably easier for those in a colder climate to do it as you don't have to worry about sun protection and finding or staying in the shade as you would in a hot country. That would be more of a concern for me I think.

I live in sweden and find this a bit baffling. They are the most allergic suseptible-to-illness people ever! There is a law saying that the first day of sickness from work will not be paid for to discourage people ringing in sick - but they still do in spades. If this is supposed to good for health, god only knows what they would be like without it.

I thought that nowadays it was a practically thing. Babies are so wrapped up against the cold that you don't want to wake them up when going for a coffee. Going from minus god knows what into over 20 degrees.

In the olden days I heard that it was because the air was so dirty from a burning fire and little or no ventilation.