Five Risky Things Parents do with Their Children
The American Academy of Pediatrics has created a list of five things that many parents do that they believe are actually very dangerous:
1. Moving a baby up a car seat too early
I have to say that infant car seats are far too convenient to cart about for me to want to move my child up too early, but I can certainly relate to the sentiment of being excited about your child growing up and wanting to move them onto the next stage too soon.
2. Letting a baby sleep in a swing
This is such a tempting thing to do when you have a baby who rarely sleeps! But sleeping in a sitting position seems to increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, so it's really not worth doing.
3. Letting your baby watch 'educational' videos
The manufacturers of these videos have tried to convince us that our children will become geniuses by watching these things, but in reality they hamper babies' ability to learn language - something they need to do in person with loving adults.
4. Keeping babies off their tummies
This is a similar thing to the sleeping in swings thing - deep sleeping is nice for parents, but dangerous for babies
5. Microwaving your baby's bottle
This can cause dangerous hotspots in the milk, and cause the release of the dangerous chemical BPA that is found in some plastic bottles. It's just as easy to warm it under a running hot tap or, even better, teach your baby to enjoy room temperature milk!
It's easy to feel guilty as a parent when we hear the things we've been doing actually turn out to be dangerous, but it's important to remember that all we can really do is the best we can with the knowledge we have and in the circumstances we're in at the time.
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