Like many new parents, my husband and I worried about sudden infant death syndrome when our daughter, Rosalind,  was a newborn. We followed the Canadian Paediatric Society recommendations about not using blankets or keeping stuffies in the crib?they can become suffocation and entanglement hazards?and swaddled instead. We never used pillows or crib bumpers either. But as soon as she could Houdini her arms out of the swaddle (I think this was around the two-month mark, though exact dates are fuzzy given the sleep-deprivation), we moved on to a sleep sack?an increasingly popular option when traditional blankets are considered no-nos.
The recommendation not to use loose blankets or any soft items in the crib is really only for the first 12 months of life, says sleep medicine physician Joanna MacLean, who is also a paediatric respirologist and the medical director of the Stollery Children?s Hospital sleep lab in Edmonton. After the first year, blankets, when used in a safe way, pose less risk than when your baby is younger. This means one of the many adorable baby blankets we received as shower gifts would now be a good choice for our 18-month-old daughter, while a queen-sized down duvet would not. ?Make sure it?s a small blanket, and not something that can get wrapped around the baby?s neck,? recommends MacLean.
As babies grow into toddlers, they may also get more attached to comfort objects or stuffed animals. After the age of 12 months, having a favourite stuffie in the cri...