when are babies/toddlers allowed to sleep with a blanket?

[Anonymous]

I usually put my daughter in a cotton one piece if it is warm out (long sleeves and long pants) and then I put a fleece sleep sack over it if it is cold. I forgot to put the fleece on her tonight but I think it's going to get a little chilly, and I don't want her to be cold. Can I stick a blanket in her crib in case she wakes up and is cold? (if I put a sleep sack on her now I will wake her up..) she is just about 17 months old and I am hesitant .. all those "no blankets" warnings have gotten to me!

[Anonymous]

I let my daughter sleep with a blanket at 4 or 5 months. I never really got the warnings - obviously some things are def dangerous for babies but on the whole - babies are not idiots. If they can't breath they don't want to be in that situation. It's kinda like baby gates on top of stair cases. We brought into that whole safety thing with baby #1. Came 2nd and 3rd kids whatever - our children learned how to do steps faster because they were never kept from doing it - we had no gates. They never tumbled down. They never wanted to so they didn't We also don't baby proof everything in the house (actually we don't have anything baby proofed come to think of it) and our kids, who are definitely not geniuses, never tried to swallow cascade for example They just aren't going to take a knife and try to stab themselves - I mean - people really need to give some credit to little ones. No they should not be left unsupervised in the kitchen for example but I pretty much guarantee that they aren't going to try to suffocate themselves with a blanket as long as it's not oversized.

[Anonymous]

My DS is 18 months and has been sleeping with a blanket since around 14 months. I think most people start around 12 months, although I have no idea what the "rule" is. I felt that we were late in starting with a blanket compared to our friend's kids.

If you're concerned about the temperature and blanket, you could use a small light blanket or a crocheted one (my feeling with that was always that even if he got caught in it, he could breath through the holes). The problems with blankets is that they usually don't stay on very well -- my DS is constantly rolling out of his -- but I figure if the kid is still sleeping and not upset, it must not be bothering him that it's a little chilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I let my daughter sleep with a blanket at 4 or 5 months. I never really got the warnings - obviously some things are def dangerous for babies but on the whole - babies are not idiots. If they can't breath they don't want to be in that situation. It's kinda like baby gates on top of stair cases. We brought into that whole safety thing with baby #1. Came 2nd and 3rd kids whatever - our children learned how to do steps faster because they were never kept from doing it - we had no gates. They never tumbled down. They never wanted to so they didn't We also don't baby proof everything in the house (actually we don't have anything baby proofed come to think of it) and our kids, who are definitely not geniuses, never tried to swallow cascade for example They just aren't going to take a knife and try to stab themselves - I mean - people really need to give some credit to little ones. No they should not be left unsupervised in the kitchen for example but I pretty much guarantee that they aren't going to try to suffocate themselves with a blanket as long as it's not oversized.

Really? Are you nuts?

It's obvious that the warnings are overly cautious, but your approach is totally inappropriate. Babies and kids don't avoid getting hurt "because they don't want to." They don't have the life experience and world knowledge to know what can be dangerous. If your baby wants to go down the stairs and thinks she can, she is going to try to do it. One misstep, and she has fallen down the stairs. If your toddler wants to explore the kitchen cabinets and finds dishwasher capsules while you have your back turned to cook something, he is going to put one in his mouth if he thinks it looks pretty or reminds him of candy.

I absolutely think OP could use a blanket safely, but using one at 4 or 5 months seems ridiculous to me. The problem is that sometimes babies get caught in blankets and aren't able to free themselves, or they get caught and are too sleepy/young to wake up and realize they don't have good air flow. Obviously, it isn't something that happens often, but the warnings against blankets exist for a reason. The idea of being cocky about not baby-proofing is just ridiculous: "I'm lazy, and my children got lucky, so it's fine." What?!

[Anonymous]

Our ped oked a blanket at our 18month check up, we're still using a sleep sack but when he out grows it within the next month or so I'll be moving to a blanket.

[Anonymous]

Hey - I answered OPs question. The people that sold us our house had 2 kids - when I had my first baby I was SHOCKED they did not use baby gates or baby proof their house cause I was as a first time mom, of course worried about everything. Come baby 2 and 3, I understood. NO your baby will NOT fall down stairs. They won't. They may try to go down the stairs and not be able to and trip a little but on the way down they will definitely try to catch themselves. It's your job to stop them from hurting themselves but my point is that they are MUCH more resilient than you think. A 3 yr old can accidentally fall down stairs - they too will try to catch themselves if possible. Hell, they do it once, the next time they will be really careful. In fact they will learn really fast how to get down. For example my daughter at 12 months on her own, never tried to walk down. She would turn around and scoot down one step slowly at a time each stair which I thought was brilliant but of course she isn't really brilliant because a lot of babies will do that. Did I teach her that? No - she just isn't stupid (and I totally am not suggesting she's really smart - it's totally normal behavior).

Now do I think you can leave a kid unattended for any period of time? NO. Which is why I'm saying that if you are home you aren't really going to need gates absolutely. If your house has like 4 stories well yeah duh. Maybe gates are good. But depending on your home and common sense, I assure you any kid is going to do their best not to fall down the steps - this is what adults think is that they have no concept of helping themselves or wanting NOT to be hurt. They've done a lot of studies on babies and what I am suggesting is that babies are smarter than you think they are. OF course you have to use common sense but on the whole adults are much more prone to panicking is all I'm saying. And yes, my kids are happy healthy kids who it seems like are really well adjusted. There have been studies that prove for example that if you give kids sharp objects even at an early age, what happens is not that they end up maiming themselves but that they are less fearful and even better at doing certain things at an earlier age because they were given the opportunity to discover. It's the adults who are always thinking worse case scenario. It's the same thing in so many respects - as in these moms on this forum who complain about their kid doing this or not doing that - it's called discipline. My first kid - I have like very little control over. He pretty much ignores me like every other 5 yr old when they don't want to hear you. My little one - I started disciplining her at just before 12 months and guess what? She will eat all her food, she will clean up, she will do what I ask her because I started very early. A lot of adults think that at 7 or 8 months or whatever, the baby is still a baby and you have to walk around tippy toe with them. I got news - babies are SO SMART. They know so much that you do not think they know. They may not be capable of expressing themselves or yes, absolutely, accidents will happen if you don't watch them but by and large, my point is, you have to consider your average kid someone who does have a brain.

In my daughter's case, she enjoyed using the blanky we gave her as a pillow for her head. It was not big and it would not have smothered her - I would watch her sleeping and believe me - my kid was the first to cry if anything bothered her. 4-5 months is not a completely helpless newborn FYI.

[Anonymous]

My son started using a blanket for naps at daycare around 17 months. He just (around 23 months) rebelled against the sleepsacks so we are doing a blanket at night now too. I worry he will be cold because the blanket doesn't stay on too well, but it's not too cold at our house at night so hopefully he will get through winter not too much worse for the wear til he learns how to keep the blanket on...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey - I answered OPs question. The people that sold us our house had 2 kids - when I had my first baby I was SHOCKED they did not use baby gates or baby proof their house cause I was as a first time mom, of course worried about everything. Come baby 2 and 3, I understood. NO your baby will NOT fall down stairs. They won't. They may try to go down the stairs and not be able to and trip a little but on the way down they will definitely try to catch themselves. It's your job to stop them from hurting themselves but my point is that they are MUCH more resilient than you think. A 3 yr old can accidentally fall down stairs - they too will try to catch themselves if possible. Hell, they do it once, the next time they will be really careful. In fact they will learn really fast how to get down. For example my daughter at 12 months on her own, never tried to walk down. She would turn around and scoot down one step slowly at a time each stair which I thought was brilliant but of course she isn't really brilliant because a lot of babies will do that. Did I teach her that? No - she just isn't stupid (and I totally am not suggesting she's really smart - it's totally normal behavior).

Now do I think you can leave a kid unattended for any period of time? NO. Which is why I'm saying that if you are home you aren't really going to need gates absolutely. If your house has like 4 stories well yeah duh. Maybe gates are good. But depending on your home and common sense, I assure you any kid is going to do their best not to fall down the steps - this is what adults think is that they have no concept of helping themselves or wanting NOT to be hurt. They've done a lot of studies on babies and what I am suggesting is that babies are smarter than you think they are. OF course you have to use common sense but on the whole adults are much more prone to panicking is all I'm saying. And yes, my kids are happy healthy kids who it seems like are really well adjusted. There have been studies that prove for example that if you give kids sharp objects even at an early age, what happens is not that they end up maiming themselves but that they are less fearful and even better at doing certain things at an earlier age because they were given the opportunity to discover. It's the adults who are always thinking worse case scenario. It's the same thing in so many respects - as in these moms on this forum who complain about their kid doing this or not doing that - it's called discipline. My first kid - I have like very little control over. He pretty much ignores me like every other 5 yr old when they don't want to hear you. My little one - I started disciplining her at just before 12 months and guess what? She will eat all her food, she will clean up, she will do what I ask her because I started very early. A lot of adults think that at 7 or 8 months or whatever, the baby is still a baby and you have to walk around tippy toe with them. I got news - babies are SO SMART. They know so much that you do not think they know. They may not be capable of expressing themselves or yes, absolutely, accidents will happen if you don't watch them but by and large, my point is, you have to consider your average kid someone who does have a brain.

In my daughter's case, she enjoyed using the blanky we gave her as a pillow for her head. It was not big and it would not have smothered her - I would watch her sleeping and believe me - my kid was the first to cry if anything bothered her. 4-5 months is not a completely helpless newborn FYI.

Total nutjob!

[Anonymous]

A blanket stays on DC exactly 1 second. Do your toddlers know to pull the blanket onto themselves when they get cold? I guess I don't see the point of a blanket this early given that they fidget so much at this age.

[Anonymous]

We introduced receiving blankets around 13 months during playtime during the day. We waited until we felt comfortable with how they were able to get under and out from under the blankets so that there was less hazard of suffocation/stragulation from being trapped in the blanket. By around 15 months, we felt they had enough hand control to untangle themselves from a blanket if they got caught and we started using them in the bed.

[Anonymous]

Our 7month old uses a blanket and is just fine. Granted as PP noted, sometime in the middle of the night he usually has it under his head or somewhere else where it's not necessarily keeping him warm, but I have no fears that he will suffocate himself. He usually ends up using it as a pillow.

At 17 months you will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey - I answered OPs question. The people that sold us our house had 2 kids - when I had my first baby I was SHOCKED they did not use baby gates or baby proof their house cause I was as a first time mom, of course worried about everything. Come baby 2 and 3, I understood. NO your baby will NOT fall down stairs. They won't. They may try to go down the stairs and not be able to and trip a little but on the way down they will definitely try to catch themselves. It's your job to stop them from hurting themselves but my point is that they are MUCH more resilient than you think. A 3 yr old can accidentally fall down stairs - they too will try to catch themselves if possible. Hell, they do it once, the next time they will be really careful. In fact they will learn really fast how to get down. For example my daughter at 12 months on her own, never tried to walk down. She would turn around and scoot down one step slowly at a time each stair which I thought was brilliant but of course she isn't really brilliant because a lot of babies will do that. Did I teach her that? No - she just isn't stupid (and I totally am not suggesting she's really smart - it's totally normal behavior).

Now do I think you can leave a kid unattended for any period of time? NO. Which is why I'm saying that if you are home you aren't really going to need gates absolutely. If your house has like 4 stories well yeah duh. Maybe gates are good. But depending on your home and common sense, I assure you any kid is going to do their best not to fall down the steps - this is what adults think is that they have no concept of helping themselves or wanting NOT to be hurt. They've done a lot of studies on babies and what I am suggesting is that babies are smarter than you think they are. OF course you have to use common sense but on the whole adults are much more prone to panicking is all I'm saying. And yes, my kids are happy healthy kids who it seems like are really well adjusted. There have been studies that prove for example that if you give kids sharp objects even at an early age, what happens is not that they end up maiming themselves but that they are less fearful and even better at doing certain things at an earlier age because they were given the opportunity to discover. It's the adults who are always thinking worse case scenario. It's the same thing in so many respects - as in these moms on this forum who complain about their kid doing this or not doing that - it's called discipline. My first kid - I have like very little control over. He pretty much ignores me like every other 5 yr old when they don't want to hear you. My little one - I started disciplining her at just before 12 months and guess what? She will eat all her food, she will clean up, she will do what I ask her because I started very early. A lot of adults think that at 7 or 8 months or whatever, the baby is still a baby and you have to walk around tippy toe with them. I got news - babies are SO SMART. They know so much that you do not think they know. They may not be capable of expressing themselves or yes, absolutely, accidents will happen if you don't watch them but by and large, my point is, you have to consider your average kid someone who does have a brain.

In my daughter's case, she enjoyed using the blanky we gave her as a pillow for her head. It was not big and it would not have smothered her - I would watch her sleeping and believe me - my kid was the first to cry if anything bothered her. 4-5 months is not a completely helpless newborn FYI.

This is such bad parenting that I laughed out loud. What happens if the 11 month old doesn't manage to catch anything on the way down 12 hardwood steps.