Can My Child Use a Baby Pillow or Regular Pillow
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by: frankwarehouse
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My first child happily slept in her crib until she was almost 3. The arrival of her baby brother meant we had to move her to a normal bed. We did not even think about baby pillows and blankets. She wore a sleep sack and was snug and happy. The sleep sack prevented her from crawling out of the crib, because she couldnt swing her legs up. She was so happy in the crib, I dont think she would have even if she was not wearing one. When we moved her to her bed, there was no drama. After getting her used to the big bed with a few naps, we transitioned her to nighttime too. It was a full size bed in a beautiful wooden frame. She had two pillows and a big comforter. We did not bother with one of those little baby pillows. We went straight to normal pillows.
My son decided not to follow the crib path his sister did. Early on, he learned to unzip his sleep sack. He could easily swing his leg up on the crib rail. For months and months, that is as far as he would go. One night, he finally flung the other leg over too. We immediately took the crib mattress out of the crib and set it up on the floor.
Moving him to a bed presented all these obstacles that we did not have to deal with when we moved our daughter to a bed. Since he was so young, it was not an easy transition. He was a couple months shy of his second birthday. We had to remove most of the things from his room for a couple weeks, so he could not get into trouble. Another parent recommended putting a gate on the bedroom door, which turned out to be incredibly helpful. He was so stubborn that for the first couple days, he would fall asleep sitting in the middle of the wood floor of his room. It took about a week to make the transition.
When we finally got him comfortable in his new bed routine, the advice from well meaning people starting coming in. "Oh, he is not old enough to be sleeping in a big bed." "It is dangerous." "He is too young for a big blanket and pillow." Wait. What? He is old enough to crawl out of a crib, but not old enough to use a pillow? Can he use a tiny airline baby pillow? Being an overly cautious mom, I checked in our medical baby books and online. Children under 2 years of age should NOT use a pillow or big blanket. Most of what I read says you can introduce those things around age 2 or when the child moves to a big bed.
Since my son was not yet 2, I decided to follow the advice and start with one of those baby pillows. It was so small, like an airline pillow, and I hardly saw the point. It got lost in the full size bed and my son did not seem to know it was really a pillow to put his head on. My son did not seem to need pillows or bedding; it was just my need to make it look like a normal bed that kept bugging me. We finally put pillows and a comforter on his bed after about a month. He loved sitting up with the pillows and snuggling like he did in our bed. And he actually used the pillows for his head, so he was happy to have a normal pillow instead of that baby pillow. Related articles Baby pillows - Personalized baby pillow -
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