Your baby has to spend his/her early two-three years in a cot, so this is your responsibility as a parent to choose the best one. This is more like an investment that’s why you need to get one build to last and keep your baby safe. In the first two years, the babies need to sleep a lot; they usually spend most of their time sleeping. If your baby used to spend more time in the cot, you must take cot’s protection into your consideration. This article is all you need to know about baby cot to make sure of their safety and comfort.
Once you are in the baby’s store to buy a crib cot, you have to check the safety measurements of the furniture besides the design and look of the cot. The reason behind taking care of safety measurements is to diminish the deaths that occur every year due to suffocation. Following are some very important guidelines when looking for your baby’s cot:
The Frame Of The Cot
- The distance should be at least 50 cm between mattress top and cot’s topside; this can be helpful to prevent your baby from climbing once they start moving.
- Cot bars must be in a vertical position, so your baby cannot use the horizontal bars as ladder and climb out of the cot. The distance between the bars shouldn’t be more than 6.5 cm so the baby couldn’t get stuck between the cot bars.
- Experts recommended that parents should go for that cot with bars on all of the four sides. This can be very helpful for air to circulate inside the cot when your baby sleeps.
- Make sure that the baby’s limbs can’t get in contact with the head and foot board of the cot.
The Mattress Of The Cot
- This is highly recommended by the experts that one should buy a new cot mattress; and in any case, if you are going to use second hand, carefully check the cleanliness. And it must be dry and should have cracks or tears inside the mattress. And the mattress must be firm with no shagginess that fits the cot with no gaps at all.
- The cot’s mattress should be kept hygienic as possible as you can, you can use a removable top panel. You can wash this panel or wipe clean covering of the cot at high temperature. You can also go for a mattress protector that would be helpful in stopping it to get wet of the nappy leaks or baby dribble.
- Mattress for the cot is of two sizes; standard and continental. And it should fit the cot equally.
- The cot mattress shouldn’t be thinner than 8 cm and it must be firm rather than soft. The baby needs proper support when he/she is sleeping.
- The mattress must have BSI numbers on it; actually, these are the safety standards approved by the manufacturers.
- There are three types of mattresses available in the market; foam, spring interior, and coir cot. This is totally up to you to check the mattress by touch and do research on which one best suits your baby.
Used Cot Mattress
If you want to keep down initial cost, better go for a second-hand mattress for your baby. But you need to make sure of the above-mentioned safety measurements. Furthermore, you should keep in mind while buying the used piece for the cot;
- If the mattress is too old and the paint is getting weird; you should repaint it if you buy such a mattress. Because the mattresses made before 1970, might have used leaded paints which are quite toxic if your baby chews and swallow if they are teething.
- The new safety standards have mentioned that the paints used on cots should be safe enough for kids.
- If the mattress has a drop-side mechanism; better to check properly whether it works smoothly or not. And it remains in the up position or slides down.
- If you find any sticker inside the cot, better to remove them as they might be peeled off and lead to a hazardous matter.
- Keep checking the cot, whether anything is sticking out of the rail that might seize your baby’s clothes.
- Check carefully that there must not be anything inside the cot that can help your baby to use as a foothold and he comes out of the cot.
- If you are not satisfied with the cleanliness and condition of the mattress, you shouldn’t buy it. Move on to the next or buy the new one as nothing is more important than your baby.
Placement Of The Cot
- Babies are not able to control their body temperature, that’s why the cot shouldn’t be placed near an electric heater or a window. Putting blind chords is again risky, as babies can get entangled and choke.
What should be inside the Baby Cot
- The expert advises that the clear cot is the safest cot for the infants; there should be no toys, bumpers, or wedges inside the cot. This is because of some authentic studies conducted that the safest way for your baby is to sleep on the flat and clean mattress.
- If you put something inside the cot, you might be increasing the risk of head covering and your kid can be a victim of an accident. This can make your baby suffocate or strangle inside the cot, or they can use the toy or other stuff to climb from the cot.
- You shouldn’t place pillows and duvets inside the cot as these are the major reasons of suffocation in babies younger than one year. Duvets can make the baby and cot both too warm.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Parents who keep sharing their bedrooms with their young and infant babies for the first six months or a year, those babies have a lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is also known as cot deaths. Below listed are some of the very basic and important guidelines that can help you towards preventing cot deaths. Only you can encourage the safe and peaceful sleep of your baby,
- The room where baby sleeps shouldn’t be too hot; because babies who face overheating are at the maximum risk of getting affected by the SIDA. They can get extremely hot as the room’s temperature getting hot, or might be you have put too many clothes and bedding inside. The ideal room temperature for kids lies between 16 and 20ºC.
- You should keep checking whether the baby is sleeping on their back and their feet rest at the foot side of the cot. This is what can make them stop moving down under the cot cover.
- Be very sure that the baby shouldn’t sleep with hot water bottles or electric blankets. If you are worried that the baby got cold because of the temperature, you should put in when the baby is out. Once you put your baby inside the cot, do remember to remove all such stuff. It’s already mentioned above that the bumpers, pillows, and any other stuff is not recommended if the baby is under one year.
Ease Of Use
- This is very important; sometimes what seems little annoying things can become a major source of headache particularly for sleep-deprived parents.
- The drop-side of the cot must be very smooth to operate, and it shouldn’t be too heavy for you.
- The cot should be low in height that you can bend over it easily; if you got heightened cot your back might get suffered.
- The cot should not be able to get opened by the baby, but it must be easily opened by your one hand.
Size Of The Cot
- Do remember that you are buying a comfy and safe bed for your small baby; some cots are surprisingly big which you should avoid.
- You need to check the dimensions of the cot once it’s fully assembled before buying it, and know-how well the cot will get fit in the place at your home.
- Do check the weight of the cot; would you be able to lift it alone if needed?
- Do you consider whether it fits through the entrance if you want to move it from one place to the other?
- If you place the cot in your room for the early few months, you have to plan the place accordingly.
Assembling A Cot
Some of the cots take too much time to assemble as there are lots of parts to bring together. No matter if you assemble it once, it’s important to keep checking the joining parts to make sure the safety of the cot.
Castors
You can move easily the cot if it has castors, but this must have lockable brakes at least on two wheels to make sure the safety.
Conclusion
Babies over 2 years are old enough to shift them from cot to bed or floor mattress, or in a toddler bed. It would be much safer if the mattress would be on the floor as you can keep them away from climbing in and out. In case of rolling out of their mattress, they would not fall far. Make sure that there is no gap between the wall and the bed. These simple yet important tips are essential to keep in mind when you are going to welcome a new addition to the family.