Seeing a child napping alone in the cold outdoors in Denmark, Finland, or any other Scandinavian country doesn’t have to be worrying. In these places, parents often place children outside to sleep, as children can sleep better in the fresh air.
When Danish singer Amalia Bruun posted a photo on Instagram of her and her 4-month-old son Otto exploring their garden, the internet started talking. Otto isn’t sleeping in the photo, but Bruhn shared that her son “sleeps outside most of the time.”
January is the coldest month in Denmark with a low average temperature of 37 degrees Fahrenheit. The practice is also common in Finland, where parents leave their children to sleep outside when the temperature drops to -16 degrees Fahrenheit.
Following Bruun’s Instagram post, several Nordic parents shared how they too let their kids take naps outside and why.
According to Cathy Palmer, London-based sleep consultant, children who sleep outdoors sleep longer, sleep better and are less exposed to germs than those who sleep indoors.
But the approach is not without risks. Babies can experience hypothermia when they sleep outdoors during the winter. In summer there is a risk of sunburn and heat stroke. At any time of the year, there are concerns about kidnapping and exposure to air pollution in urban areas.
Parents in Scandinavian countries, generally more trusting than their American counterparts, may not hesitate to leave their sleeping child outside in a stroller for a drink or snack. For many parents, it is preferable to leave children outside alone than to take them to a noisy place where they can worry.
But some sleep experts say babies shouldn’t be left alone to sleep either indoors or outdoors.
“Surveillance worries me,” Dr. Jennifer Shue, a pediatrician in Atlanta, Georgia, told Insider. According to her, if the parents were not around, they would not have known, for example, that the child had stopped breathing.
Parents who allow their children to sleep outside often take steps to ensure the safety of their children.
According to Shu, some parents use wheelchairs with lockable wheels and braces to keep the stroller from rolling. One Finnish mother who commented on Bruun’s Instagram post said she keeps a thermometer in her baby’s stroller to monitor the temperature outside.
According to Shu, parents will even install a video monitor in the stroller to watch the baby from a distance. They can also wrap the baby in fleece, put him in a sleeping bag, and use an insulated stroller, Shu added.
“It’s their custom,” Shu told Insider, “parents in the Scandinavian countries let their kids take outdoor naps. “They’re clearly ready.”
Parents in Scandinavian countries who prioritize their children getting outdoors as much as possible often quote the saying, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes,” Shu notes.
According to this philosophy, babies and children can go outside at any time of the year, as long as they are dressed appropriately. Educators in Denmark and Sweden also apply the same concepts in their teaching. Many schools follow the forest school model which promotes the use of the outdoors as classrooms.
Sleep and play habits in Scandinavian countries are very different from those in the United States. For American parents, putting their babies to sleep on a hard, flat surface at the same time every day and meeting the standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics can be stressful.
In 1997, Danish mother Anette Sorensen was arrested in New York for leaving her child to take a nap outside a restaurant, reports The Guardian. According to the New York Post, Sorensen was charged with endangering children and spent 36 hours in jail.
Some parents have said they would like to see US sleep standards relaxed. One American mom commented on Bruun’s post, saying she hoped outdoor daytime naps would become more acceptable and lamented that American parents are “so worried” about their sleep patterns.
But once temperatures dip below freezing, the risks of sleeping outside can quickly outweigh the benefits, as kids can’t regulate their body temperature the way adults can.
“Infants’ body temperatures drop four times faster than adults, and they can become hypothermic,” Shu said. She advises parents to keep their homes around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Palmer said she won’t encourage her clients to let their kids sleep outside, but she won’t directly discourage parents from doing so if they choose to.
”As long as they’re safe, sane, and taking care of their kids, I don’t have a problem with them trying to do that,” Palmer said.
Post time: May-19-2023