Can newborns use pillows?

Sleep is the most important part of a newborn's growth and development process, because sleep is the basis for the healthy growth of newborns. Generally, babies need a lot of time to sleep every day. The task of parents is to provide their babies with a safe and comfortable sleeping environment. However, the management of the baby's sleeping environment cannot be the same as that of adults. For example, can newborns use pillows? Let’s take a look at the explanation below.

Under normal circumstances, newborn babies do not need to use pillows because the spine of a newborn is straight and does not have the physiological curvature unique to the adult spine. When a newborn baby lies flat, his back and the back of his head are naturally in the same plane. Therefore, if the newborn does not use a pillow to sleep, he will not suffer from a stiff neck due to tight neck muscles. Moreover, the baby's head is larger and almost the same width as the shoulders, so it is natural and comfortable for the baby to lie on his side. On the contrary, if the head is raised, it will easily cause the head and neck to bend, affecting the breathing and bone growth of the newborn, and may even cause accidents.

Baby pillow height:

Generally, newborn babies are prone to spitting up milk. At this time, you can choose to raise his entire upper body appropriately, or let him sleep on his side.

When the baby is 3 to 5 months old, the cervical spine begins to show forward physiological curvature. In order to maintain the physiological curvature and keep the body comfortable, the height of the baby pillow should be designed to be 1 to 2 cm. At this time, you can fold the towel in half and use it as a pillow for the baby.

When a child is 6 to 8 months old and begins to learn to crawl and sit, his thoracic spine begins to show a physiological curvature backwards, and his shoulders gradually widen. At this time, the child should sleep with a pillow that is 3 to 4 cm thick.

A pillow that is too high or too low is not conducive to its growth and development. Newborns who often sleep with high pillows are prone to hunchbacks. The baby shaping pillows currently on the market are not suitable either, because the skull of a baby is relatively soft, and the fontanelles and skull sutures have not yet completely closed. Long-term use of shaping pillows can easily cause skull deformation, making the head flat, or one side of the face larger and the other smaller, affecting the appearance and even affecting brain development. From this, it can be seen that according to the physiological characteristics and growth and development characteristics of newborns, there is no need to give newborns pillows to sleep, which is in line with the requirements of eugenics.