(edit title) Babies napping outside in the cold in Sweden Babies sleep Options

[skogsbo]

Man didn't evolve through the past 500,000 years living in buildings, its probable our bodies do better, have become engineered etc to breathing fresh air. At least most Swedish house don't have decades old carpets , they are proper germ and dirt homes.

[Pursuivant]

I think In Finland it is an "official recommendation" that was launched in the 1920's by Arvo Ylppö. The reason being tuberculosis. There were sanitoriums built and the treatment was - fresh air. So babies had their "lungs strengthened" that way. Which makes sense. For a baby to sleep outside in the fresh air is much healthier than in a small room with tuberculotic grandma.

If you think about it a few hundred years back you will find the obvious, babies were looked after whomever could not work which was some old coughing grandma in a chimneyless smoke cottage. Someone found out if the baby was out with the mother and put hanging in swaddling on a treebranch was much more healthy.

It might be argued doing this in a modern city with all the air pollution might not be quite the idea it was, but in the countryside, surely. For the BBC article you should also emphasise that -5 is nice and dry weather instead of the soggy English weather.

[Kaipa]

Yes and please don't have the usual BBC middle-class reaction that because this is practised in Sweden it must represent some advanced child-rearing technique that the UK should follow if it wants to produce healthy balanced shildren. My swedish nephews and nieces still have colds and suffer from asthma despite being left out in the cold... so to speak

[skogsbo]

I think In Finland it is an "official recommendation" that was launched in the 1920's by Arvo Ylppö. The reason being tuberculosis. There were sanitoriums built ... (show full quote)

I think In Finland it is an "official recommendation" that was launched in the 1920's by Arvo Ylppö. The reason being tuberculosis. There were sanitoriums built and the treatment was - fresh air. So babies had their "lungs strengthened" that way. Which makes sense. For a baby to sleep outside in the fresh air is much healthier than in a small room with tuberculotic grandma.

If you think about it a few hundred years back you will find the obvious, babies were looked after whomever could not work which was some old coughing grandma in a chimneyless smoke cottage. Someone found out if the baby was out with the mother and put hanging in swaddling on a treebranch was much more healthy.

It might be argued doing this in a modern city with all the air pollution might not be quite the idea it was, but in the countryside, surely. For the BBC article you should also emphasise that -5 is nice and dry weather instead of the soggy English weather. ... (hide full quote)

Exactly how many centuries are you going back to find chimneyless houses?

[johnjohn]

We often leave our newbie outside in the pram after our evening promenade and enjoy some hot toddies and some peace and quite. Unfortunately we often forget and one of us has to get out of the warm bed at 3AM and hope the mercury isn't too severely negative.

[skogsbo]

What doesn't kill them, makes them stronger.

[Pursuivant]

Exactly how many centuries are you going back to find chimneyless houses?

Well, as a "common abode" maybe 200, of course in the cities and in rich houses people had had chimneys since the 1700's in the countryside, but president Kekkonen was born in a "rökstuga" in 1900 and you could still find the occasional one in the 1950's in remote and pisspoor areas...

[skogsbo]

Don't think so, our old farm house, 200 yrs old, has 2 chimney, and older original house by us 1700 s with chimney, even older ruins in the forest, now just a rough square of stones, plus a pile or square in the middle for the chimney. Some of these are 400yrs, plus. They certainly weren't rich, mainly abandoned 200 years ago because it was too tough. Elsewhere, like Georgian and Edwardian era houses in UK, all with chimneys.

They may not have had buggies to put their kids outside in 2-300 years ago, but they certainly had chimneys inside.

Edit, are you saying houses were built in Sweden in the 50s with fires inside and no chimney?

[jostein]

Wrong people, wrong millenium, wrong country?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvTRUI05hU8&t=21m21s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen

[Pursuivant]

Edit, are you saying houses were built in Sweden in the 50s with fires inside and no chimney?

I was talking about Finland, and I would say not "built" in the 1950's but you would have them - 100-200 years old maybe, lived in. Usually people had the money for bricks to build a proper stove, or carry a metal one out, but you'd have a fishermans or hunters cottage like that in roadless places.

And yes, what you describe is "rich" farmhouses

[Puffin]

I am a reporter for BBC News in London.. - Is this common in Sweden?

Very common where I live in rural Sweden - everyone does this. Even nurseries and daycare put children under 3 outside at nap-time

- Why are parents encouraged to put their children outside?

I believe it is thought that being outside in the fresh air is healthier - better than breathing dry centrally heated air

Swedes are by nature nature romantics and tend to enjoy spending time outside even in winter families tend to skate/ski/walk outdoors - people even light fires on frozen lakes and BBQ

When I moved here that it shocked me at the first sight of a sunny day come April/may Swedes were running out with their patio furniture to sit outside

- How cold can it be ? What temperature is considered too cold?

Round here down to about minus 15-18C or so - but in Sweden there are special thick sleeping bags called an åkpåse - plus a snowsuit

- below that ar nursery they usually put the prams indoors with windows open

- How long has children taking naps in the cold outside been going on? A hundred years or more?

no idea about Sweden - but you need to remember that this used to be common practice in the UK as well - my mother was encouraged by the health visitor to leave her babies in a pram outside the front door for at least 1 hour each day in the 1950s and 1960s- TV shows like Call The Midwife shows babies out in pram - often forgotten in the so called risk society

- Why is it considered good for the baby to be out in the cold air?

see above

- Is there any actual evidence that it is good for the child? Perhaps they suffer less from colds?

don't know . however there are whole "outdoor daycares" that spend the whole day out in the open called i Ur & Skur preschools (know as the Forest Schools in Britain) You might also wish to contact the outdoor association Friluftsfrämjandet (literally Fresh Air promotion)
They have done various research although you may need Google translate

http://www.friluftsframjandet.se/for_barn/iurochskur
http://www.friluftsframjandet.se/iurochskur
http://www.friluftsframjandet.se/c/documen...p;groupId=27679

[byke]

wasn't it common in london in the 1930's to have pre made grates that allowed children better access to what was considered fresh air?

 

 

[Kaipa]

Just to get back to the original thread. Why does BBC radio 4 run so many features which always project Sweden as the most enlightened and advanced social model in Europe? There always programmes about how great Sweden is for children. How healthy Swedes are compared with the British. How advanced the healthcare system is. How they are the happiest people in the World etc. Often the programs are featured on "Woman's Hour" and focus on gender issues.Many of the programs are in fact well made and informed but why are there never any programs about some of the ugllier sides of Swedish society. We all know about the recent rape of a young woman in India but there is never any mention of the Stockholm tube rape or the Göran Lindberg,sex-crimes trial.

Are we being a bit selective about how we view other countries?

[skogsbo]

I was talking about Finland, and I would say not "built" in the 1950's but you would have them - 100-200 years old maybe, lived in. Usually people had the money ... (show full quote)

I was talking about Finland, and I would say not "built" in the 1950's but you would have them - 100-200 years old maybe, lived in. Usually people had the money for bricks to build a proper stove, or carry a metal one out, but you'd have a fishermans or hunters cottage like that in roadless places.

And yes, what you describe is "rich" farmhouses ... (hide full quote)

Are you now telling me Småland farmers 1,2,300 year were rich and they abandoned their farms because life was too easy?

[Puffin]

Obviously those bakstugasittare were just too damn rich!!
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstugusittare

But then a quarter of the population emigrated in the mid 1800s