While many spend thousand on finely crafted cribs for their newborn babies, other countries confine their new babies to a simple cardboard box.
It may sound mean, but some say it’s actually best for the baby.
“Baby in a Box accomplishes a lot of the things The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends,” Pediatrician and AAP spokesperson Dr. Corinn Cross told. CBS Los Angeles. “You want to have your baby without any other loose bedding so a baby in a box if it has a nice fitted mattress and just a little sheet on top of it. That’s a great place to sleep there’s not bumpers, there’s no pillows, there’s not stuff animals. There’s a lot less things for the baby to suffocate on.”
For almost 20 years, expecting mothers in Finland have been given a starter kit for their baby with clothes, sheets, and toys placed inside of a box that can be used as a bed. The boxes are used as the baby’s crib until about six to eight months.
The infant mortality rate is twice as high in the United States than it is in Finland at 6.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the CDC. That’s why one California company decided to set kits that were similar to the ones that Finland provides.
The Baby Box Co. sells the box alone with items inside for between $70 and $225.
“Sometimes the simplest solution is the safest solution,” says Baby Box co-founder Jennifer Clary.
Clary and her partner Michelle Vick were inspired by Finland’s program for administering these boxes to their mothers and decided they would adopt that model and offer the boxes to all mothers everywhere.
“The Finnish model is an amazing program that has done wonders for Finland. We are taking that program as inspiration and adapting it to fit the circumstances – social, political, economic, and structural – of the United States,” Baby Box Co.’s website states. “And we are adapting the program as we need to to make it work in all the other countries in which we operate. As we expand and evolve the program, we will take inspiration and ideas from other successful models and adapt/incorporate them as makes sense in order to do the best job we can to help parents and families.”
You can learn more about these baby boxes and the benefits of keeping newborns in them by watching the video below.
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