In the children's goods section for newborns, you can see a fairly wide selection of different pillows - both rectangular and curly. But does a newborn and a baby really need a pillow? This question often worries young parents, who, relying on their own feelings, are sure that the baby cannot do without a pillow. The well-known children's doctor and TV presenter Yevgeny Komarovsky answers these questions.
Permitted age
In the rules of healthy children's sleep, which were formulated by Dr. Komarovsky, the pillow has a special place.
This object, without which adults cannot imagine their sleep, according to the pediatrician - and most pediatricians agree with it - a child under two years of age is not needed at all.
Usually this statement causes a storm of emotions and bewilderment, because the child, according to the parents, may not sleep without a pillow, he will have a headache. This is a delusion, says Komarovsky.
In addition to the fact that there is no need for such an accessory for sleeping in a newborn and an infant, its use can be quite dangerous:
- sleeping on a pillow increases the likelihood of sudden infant death syndrome (not reliably proven, but there is an assumption);
- a baby after 4–5 months of life, when he masters active coups, can turn in a dream and block the nasal passages, as a result of which asphyxia may occur;
- sleeping on a pillow in the first two years of life increases the likelihood of deformation changes in the cervical vertebrae;
- the pillow filler can cause an acute allergic reaction of the first type - an immediate one, which is often accompanied by the development of respiratory edema and death of a person.
A child's body has different proportions than an adult's, says Komarovsky. Babies' heads are larger in size and percentage of body size, and therefore balance is important. - both the head and the body during sleep should be on the same horizontal plane.
By the age of 2, the balance changes, and sleeping on a pillow becomes quite acceptable, provided that the parents take the choice of the product with full responsibility.
When is it necessary?
Sometimes there are exceptions to this general rule for using pillows in childhood. Usually situations are considered in which a pillow may be recommended for a child under the age of two.
These situations include:
- congenital torticollis;
- prevention of torticollis with outlined changes in the tone of the neck muscles;
- frequent profuse regurgitation, neurological abnormalities;
- hypertonicity or hypotonia of the muscles of the child, which needs correction (at the discretion of the doctor).
In all these cases, we are not talking about pillows that are sold in children's stores and so please the eyes of parents who went shopping for a newborn, but about special products called orthopedic. To buy this "just in case" and start using it from the first days of a baby's life is a parental crime... An orthopedic product, if there is no need for it due to the peculiarities of the baby's state of health, is no less harmful than any other pillow.
Today, sellers of children's products go to any tricks, just to sell something to their parents, and therefore so-called anatomical pillows appeared on sale, which are not orthopedic.
If you want to buy such a baby, ask your pediatrician's opinion - whether he sees at least some reason for using the product, whether the baby needs it. In most cases, this is a useless and dangerous purchase.
Tips for choosing
Thus, the choice of a pillow, if the baby is healthy and an orthopedic product is not shown to him, should be taken care of only when the baby is 2 years old. Evgeny Komarovsky points out that improperly selected product increases the likelihood of pathological tension in the muscular frame of the neck, which can become not only the cause of restless sleep, but also the cause of headaches, curvature of the spine.
Despite the abundance of types of products and the stormy imagination of those who produce them (pillow-balls, products in the form of toys), the best choice would be a regular rectangular pillow... It fits perfectly into the crib if the baby sleeps in it; it is comfortable even if the child is spinning a lot during sleep.
The optimal length is considered to be a length in the range from 30 to 45 centimeters, a width from 40 to 65 centimeters. These parameters do not play a big role. Much more important is the height of the pillow. Ideally, it should be equal to the distance from the child's ear to the shoulder, or from the base of the neck to the shoulder, plus 1 centimeter.
Thus, for children under 2 years old (according to indications), the height should not exceed 1–2 centimeters; at 2–3 years old, the child can sleep on a pillow whose height is about 6 centimeters. At preschool age from 3.5 to 7 years, you can buy a product higher - 8-9 centimeters.
Pay attention to the sloped pillows - their height gradually decreases at an angle of about 25 degrees. Such a product is located not only under the baby's head, but also goes under his back, which ensures a more harmonious development of the neck muscles and vertebrae. There are also porous pads on sale - they can allow air to pass through, even if a child buries his nose in it in a dream.
Orthopedic pillows are best chosen according to a specific doctor's recommendation... They are always somewhat shorter than usual. On the sides there are small rollers that fix the position of the head, as well as grooves that support the neck.
Down and feather pillows, which are so respected by grandmothers and great-grandmothers, are not suitable for children, since such fillers often cause child allergies. In addition, parasites grow in them, and getting rid of them can be quite difficult and troublesome.
Pillows with fillers made of camel or sheep wool, from the point of view of hygiene and hypoallergenicity, are better, but they are short-lived, quickly lose their shape and height. Therefore, they also cannot be considered the best choice for a child. Holofiber almost does not allow air to pass through and is definitely not suitable for sleeping in the summer. While sleeping on such a pillow, the child is threatened with diaper rash in the neck, head, ears. The synthetic winterizer has the same characteristics.
When choosing a children's pillow, you should give preference to such fillers as artificial fluff and special memory foam ("memoriform"), cotton. Pillows filled with buckwheat husk also use quite positive reviews from specialists and parents.... These have one drawback - when the head moves in a dream, the pillow rustles.
The pillowcase must be made exclusively from natural fabrics. This will help protect your baby from contact allergies.
Do I need a stroller pillow?
No matter what grandmothers say, a child under 2 does not need a pillow in a stroller. Previously, when strollers did not have the function of lifting the backrest, a one-year-old baby was really given a pillow for support, but today this is not necessary - you can put the baby in a stroller without pillows.
In winter, when the baby is dressed in a warm overalls, his legs are higher than his head, and a small pillow may well come in handy - flat and hard, unlike a pillow for sleeping. You can choose this separately, and some models of strollers are supplied with such a pillow as a pleasant bonus for customers.
In the next video, Dr. Komarovsky and a baby products consultant will explain and show you how to choose the right pillow for your child, at what age you need it and what to look for when buying.
