As a parent, it can be hard to convince small children to sleep with their door closed.
When it comes to babies, however, the decision for whether to leave it ajar or not is in your hands.
There are benefits and risks to it – you need to evaluate both sides.
So, Should You Shut Your Baby’s Bedroom Door At Night?
Strongly yes, but there are situations where it would be great to leave the door open. Fire departments and their staff do numerous fire prevention education in schools, and one thing they stress to the children is how crucial it is to close the door before sleeping. The information passed by fire departments to school-kids is similar to what you will find on the internet. Apparently, a closed-door can help prevent the spread of fire into the room in the event of a fire accident. Also, during winter, or if your home is located in a cold climate zone, it makes sense to shut the door so as to boost the warmth in the room. However, air conditioners tend to run efficiently with open windows and doors, so you would be more inclined to let the system running at night with an open door if your baby needs the service.
Three Reasons To Leave The Baby’s Bedroom Door Closed
1. You Don’t Know What May Creep into The Room
Open doors at night make most people uneasy, rightfully so. When you are fast asleep, you don’t know what may creep into the room.
The same applies to babies – what if your baby gets abducted? You’ve probably seen news stories detailing how a small child disappeared in their room at night never to be found or, ahem, ended up in the hands of abductors.
You can’t be really sure of what might occur, you can only take precautions.
Maybe you are even not sure about the safety of your home and your children.
If you live in a location infested with all sorts of crawling critters like spiders and snakes that might threaten the safety of your family, it would only make sense to leave the door closed.
2. Closed doors help contain fires
The US fire department has explained why keeping your kid’s bedroom door closed could mean the narrow difference between survival and death.
Most exhibitions of this discovery entail a closed bedroom door – a fire is lit outside the room and allowed to creep all the way to the door.
The end results?
Well, the outside part of the door facing the exterior of the room ends up sustaining serious burns.
But because the door normally fits tightly on the frame, there is very limited air exchange between the room and the outside, a situation that reduces chances of a fire creeping past the frames into the room.
This, of course, will depend on the material used to make your door.
A strong hardwood door with a proper finish and even, better yet, a fire retardant, will perform better than a light softwood unit with a loose-fitting frame and no quality finish.
Therefore, closing the door to your baby’s bedroom can mean life and death in event of a fire outbreak – at least not a fire outbreak that may start within the room.
With closed doors, fires from the bedroom would be devastating because the smoke would take time to get out of the room.
The noise too may be hard to detect, thus allowing the fire to rage on undetected for some time. This will certainly put your baby at great risk.
3. Is it cold outside? Close the door
No parent would leave a sleeping baby behind an open door during the winter.
Closed doors trap the air inside and also prevents cold air from flowing into the bedroom. This makes it one of the best ways to boost indoor temperatures during cold seasons.
Open doors are the exact opposite – they help lose the warm air in the room to outside, thus exposing your baby to the cold.
Three Reasons To Leave Your Baby’s Door Open
1. Open doors are great for aeration and proper circulation of air
Is your baby struggling with a respiratory illness?
If yes, then you’d be excused to let them sleep with an open door.
The same applies if you want proper air circulation in the room for the sheer comfort it provides.
Also, if the room has mild odors that you would want to escape to the outside with time, an open door can be a great way of getting rid of them.
2. Is it hot outside? Leave it open
Babies are highly sensitive to even tiny temperature variations.
Extreme temperatures can easily make them uncomfortable and restless and may even be harmful to the baby’s health.
Parents are normally advised to keep the temperature in the range of 23 – 27 degrees Celsius, depending on the outdoor climate you should keep monitoring the temperatures at regular intervals.
And because babies can’t adjust their temperature very much like adults, they are more vulnerable to overheating and overheating issues as well as heat illnesses such as heat stroke, heat rash, dehydration, and heat exhaustion.
On the other hand, a bedroom that is too cold may severely lower the baby’s body temperature to point of chilling him.
Fortunately, pediatricians are totally OK with the use of air conditioners in rooms with babies.
Even better, open doors help boost the efficiency of the A/C machine.
Still, you will need to dress the baby in light clothes that cover his legs and arms. Doing so can protect him from possible temperature fluctuations in the room.
3. A baby monitoring method
Any parent can tell you how unpredictable babies can be. It is never a surprise when they wake in the dead of the night and begin crying immediately they realize they are alone.
This is why you should never leave the door closed – for you to hear those cries, the door needs to be open.
Summary
To close or not to close your baby’s bedroom door – this common yet not-so-hard dilemma shouldn’t keep you pondering. You are justified to close the door, here is why:
- As a parent, you don’t know what may creep into your baby’s bedroom at night when you are fast asleep.
- Open doors at night are a source of unease even among the adults, and there’s a good reason for that.
- If you are a keen newsreader, you’ve probably seen news stories detailing the abduction of small children from their own rooms at home
- You can’t be really sure of what might occur, you can only take precautions.
- Also, if you are not very sure of the safety of your home and your children, it makes sense to lock the door behind your baby
- If you live in a location infested with all sorts of crawling critters like spiders and snakes that might threaten the safety of your family, it would only make sense to leave the door closed too.
- The US fire department has explained why keeping your kid’s bedroom door closed could mean the narrow difference between survival and death.
- In the event of a fire outbreak, the outside part of the door facing the exterior of the room ends up sustaining serious burns.
- Because the door normally fits tightly on the frame, there is very limited air exchange between the room and the outside, a situation that reduces the chances of a fire creeping past the frames into the room.
- The resilience of your door against this kind of fire, however, will depend on the material used to make your door.
- A strong hardwood door with a proper finish and even, better yet, a fire retardant, will perform better than a light softwood unit with a loose-fitting frame and no quality finish.
- Therefore, closing the door to your baby’s bedroom can mean life and death in event of a fire outbreak – at least not a fire outbreak that may start within the room
- If it’s cold outside, a parent is justified to close the door
- Closed doors trap the air inside and also prevents cold air from flowing into the bedroom; this makes it one of the best ways to boost indoor temperatures during cold seasons.
- Open doors are great for aeration and proper circulation of air
- If your baby is struggling with minor respiratory issues, you’d be excused to let them sleep with an open door
- Babies are highly sensitive to even tiny temperature variations.
- Extreme temperatures can easily make them uncomfortable and restless and may even be harmful to the baby’s health.
- Parents are normally advised to keep the temperature in the range of 23 – 27 degrees Celsius, depending on the outdoor climate you should keep monitoring the temperatures at regular intervals.
- Pediatricians are totally OK with the use of air conditions in rooms with babies
- Also, open doors help boost the efficiency of the A/C machine.
