You are hereHome / Baby / Safety Safe-Sleep AlertWhen your baby suffers from acid reflux, you know that bedtime can often be the worst time of day for symptoms; as your baby lies flat on his mattress, acid can be more easily splashed up into the esophagus, causing your little one pain. Elevating you baby's mattress can help him sleep on an incline and reduce reflux symptoms. Check with your doctor, and once you receive approval, you can use pillows or a rolled blanket to complete the process. Remove the bedding and the mattress from your baby's crib. Measure 6 inches with a ruler and use a small piece of tape to mark the spot. Elevating the mattress to about 6 inches at the head brings the incline to about 30 degrees, which is the height recommended by Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Elevating the mattress too high could result in the mattress sagging or your baby rolling in the night. Roll a towel or stack pillows on the crib base at the head of the crib only.
Stack enough material to reach the 6-inch mark. While baby stores sell wedge pillows for the same purpose, because the pillows or towels aren't coming in contact with your baby, you needn't use any special safety materials. Replace the mattress on top of the pillows, towels or wedge. Place a fitted top sheet over the mattress. Towel, blanket or pillow Gain 2 pounds per week Gain 1.5 pounds per week Gain 1 pound per week Gain 0.5 pound per week Maintain my current weight Lose 0.5 pound per week Lose 1 pound per week Lose 1.5 pounds per week Lose 2 pounds per week Should Baby Cribs Be Slightly Elevated on One Side? Should You Lay a Baby With Acid Reflux on its Belly? How to Convert a Crib Into a Full Size Bed About Sleeping Wedges for Babies With Reflux What to Give a 5-month-old Baby for Reflux? How to Turn Crib Into Toddler Bed Foods to Avoid While Breastfeeding to Prevent Reflux Foods for Children With Acid Reflux
Signs and Symptoms of Acid Reflux in Toddlers How Far to Incline a Bed for Reflux Infant Sleep & Reflux A Diet for Breastfeeding Moms of Babies with Acid Reflux Safety of Crib Netting Alternative Medicine for Acid Reflux Disease Infant Grunting in Sleep When Should a Baby Be Moved From a Bassinet to a Crib? How to Paint a Baby Crib Does Rice Cereal Help Reflux? Chewing Gum & Acid Reflux Can Spearmint Gum Cause Acid Reflux? To help ease a baby’s gastric discomfort that may interfere with sleeping, try elevating the crib mattress. This can be done easily using materials that are within your reach. You may prefer to elevate the mattress or the crib itself. Below are instructions on how to elevate a crib mattress in less than an hour. Step 1: Inspect the Crib and the Mattress Check the baby’s crib first. Double check if it is clean and ready for use along with its bedding and mattress. To ensure comfort, use a breathable mattress.
Remove the mattress to see if the support platform is enough to keep the mattress stay in place. If it is already in place, you can now choose several options to start elevating the crib mattress right away. Step 2: Elevate the Mattress You can try to put a pillow underneath the mattress to have it elevated. Consider a soft pillow placed under the head side of the crib mattress. Examine the sides of the crib if it is securely covered with the bedding. The middle part should not sag. Make sure the mattress stays in place.Another option is to elevate the mattress with the help of a blanket or a comforter. Use a soft type small blanket or comforter. Fold it and place it underneath the head side of the crib mattress. Make sure that the desired elevation is attained. Evaluate if it would help ease baby’s discomfort while sleeping. Another way is to use a towel. Roll the towel and place them underneath the head side of the crib mattress. Check if the elevation is enough to offer comfort for the baby.
You can also use books on each head side of the mattress. Phone books of the same size will also do. It is very important that these objects are placed under the mattress and not inside the crib with the baby. Equally important is that the elevation is very subtle; it should be just enough to facilitate the burping of any gastrointestinal gas but not enough that the baby will slide. Step 3: Adjust the Crib If the options presented above don’t work well, consider the idea of adjusting the crib itself. Measure the crib first. Make sure the adjustment is based upon the growing baby’s size. To elevate a baby’s head, a couple of notches lower is recommended until a 30-degree angle is achieved.One way is to remove the wheels at the bottom of the crib. A solid support such as wood blocks must be placed underneath the legs below the head side of the crib. The height of the crib must also be considered first. Increasing the height to 5 to 6 inches may give you the preferred inclination.
The crib mattress should suit the baby properly after the adjustment. The elevation must be only a few inches utmost; otherwise the crib will be unsafe for the baby. Lastly and most importantly, check the crib frequently if it is secure and stable after the modifications done to avoid falls or accidents.When a baby lies down to sleep he loses the beneficial effect of gravity, which helps keep the stomach's contents in the stomach. Oftentimes, nights are the worst times for children suffering from A common suggestion to reduce nighttime effects of reflux is to have the baby sleep on an incline so that the feet of the baby are lower than its head. Usually this is done by tilting the baby's mattress, which is easiest and safest. Or you could tilt the Regardless of the method, you are looking to elevate the head of the baby at about a 30° to 45° angle higher than his Method 1: Tilt the mattress. With most cribs, you can change the height of the mattress by
simply raising or lowering the mattress's supporting platform. Remove the sheets and mattress covering, and then remove theThe mattress will be resting on a supporting platform (may be solid or springs). Where this platform attaches to the crib-frame there may be attachments that allow you to lower the mattress as the child grows older. While maintaining the head portion of the mattress in its current location, lower the feet portion one or two positions. If there are not attachments to lower the mattress-supporting platform, you can still tilt just the mattress by inserting pillows or blankets under the mattress. It is of utmost importance that if you do this, you do not cause the mattress to bend in the middle, but instead try to have the entire mattress flat but tilted. Method 2: Tilt the crib. If either of the above methods don't work, or if the elevation is maximized, you may need to tilt the entire crib. Doing this may cause the crib to be rather unstable.