The benefits of a travel cot

When traveling with a baby or even visiting friends or family during the day, a significant number of people still do not use a travel cot.

Whether they sleep with their babies in their beds or use other people’s cribs, both of which are widely discouraged by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, there are still a large number of people who do not use an item essential to happiness and safety. of your baby. .

And it doesn’t have to be expensive. A basic travel cot can cost as little as £ 25 and will support you and your baby for years and years.

A safe place for your baby to sleep

The key benefit of a travel cot is that it gives your baby a safe and familiar place to sleep when you are not at home.

As parents, we all understand the importance of our babies getting regular, good quality sleep, but the time when sleep is most disrupted is when you are away from home, a time when you want your baby to have a dream. deeper than ever. .

A key reason babies don’t sleep when they are put to bed outside the home is because they are unfamiliar with their environment.

Especially when they are very young, a baby’s sense of smell is much more developed than his sense of sight. Therefore, by placing your baby in an environment that smells familiar and then appears familiar with use, you are more likely to ensure that your baby sleeps well even when you are away from home.

By using a crib that has been stored in your home and has sheets that have been laundered in the same way as your own crib sheets, the travel crib will quickly become familiar with your baby and become a home away from home , making you more relaxed and happy to sleep.

When you use a travel cot regularly, your baby will understand that when placed in the travel cot it is a time to relax and sleep. Giving your baby this “break” from new experiences and pairing him with something familiar will give him a chance to relax his senses, lower his arousal levels, and fall asleep much faster.

In fact, some mothers use their travel cribs as a relaxation space for their babies and when they get too excited in a new environment, they place them in their crib for a while, just so the baby can regroup, recharge, and relax. of all the new stimulants that can get exhausting.

Easy to use

Today’s travel cots are so compact and lightweight that it’s easy to take them with you wherever you go. It can easily fit in the back seat or trunk of the car and is much less cumbersome than the average travel system. And when you arrive, compact travel cribs take just a couple of minutes to set up and take up little space, which means you can usually place them in a friend’s room or in the corner of a hotel room and you will always have an environment for your baby who knows it’s safe, comfortable, and familiar to be inside, making the chances of her being happy with her surroundings even greater.

And if you find that even a standard lightweight travel cot is too heavy or if space is at a premium, you can always go for a pop-up travel cot. Typically contained in a bag the size of a large shopping bag, a pop-up travel crib takes a few seconds to set up and weighs less than an average large shopping bag, making it an ideal crib to take to places. more remote or when you will be moving more often.

Useful at home

Even when you’re not traveling and at home, a travel cot can be incredibly useful.

When you first bring your baby home, your baby will sleep for a large part of the day at a time when she may not feel ready to go up and down the stairs to care for your baby. By placing your baby in the downstairs travel cot to sleep during the day, your baby can have his or her own safe sleeping environment within sight and reach of you, no matter what you are doing.

It is also believed that by differentiating a baby’s daytime sleep from their nighttime sleep by using a different environment, such as their travel cot in a room brighter than their bedroom, babies get used to falling asleep much faster and overnight. You will sleep through the night at a younger age.

And when your baby is not sleeping, your travel cot can also be used as a safe place for your baby to play. Whether you want to protect your baby from boisterous pets or siblings, or just want to keep them and their toys from wandering off, a travel cot provides a safe and solid environment for your baby, ensuring that they can relax and play with ease. .