Claire
Does your baby need a hat right after birth? It’s common practice in a lot of hospitals, but did you know that it’s not always necessary.
Putting a hat on your baby covers up that oxytocin triggering newborn smell! Smelling your baby’s head will help your body release more of the hormone oxytocin which will aid in breastfeeding and decrease postpartum bleeding!
Putting a hat on your baby after childbirth Is not necessary to help them maintain their temperature. As long as you are keeping your baby right on your skin with a warm blanket on top, they are totally fine and can thermoregulate without a hat! If your baby is lying in their basinet you might want to pop a hat on.
That being said, if you really want to use a hat, go ahead! It’s totally your choice and it’s a common practice in a lot of hospitals.
If for whatever reason your baby cannot be put skin-to-skin right away, a hat is great for them!
Premies especially benefit from this practice, so we are not knocking placing a hat on your baby head not long after birth. We just want you to know all the options. 🧐
Always put a hat on your baby when you go outside, especially if you live in colder climates, but also as protection from the sun. Also, side note, baby hats are soooo cute!!
Did you put a hat on your baby after birth? Why or why not? 🎩
Originally posted 2021-04-27 16:03:43.
Their heads are wet after they’re born. We dry them off as best we can but the hair is still damp. A baby can get too cold if they’re wet..
I wasn’t given a choice in my baby wearing a hat, a midwife just appeared with one that was far to small for her head and I was taken for surgery less than an hour later birth so the decision was completely out of my hands.
What’s the harm in putting a hat on?
The midwives kept putting a hat on baby and I kept taking it off as I’d been told about the oxytocin and wanted to breastfeed. I think I removed 4 hats before they stopped trying?!
they put hats on babies to shape their heads
Neonates need hats!
YES!!!!!!!! Our baby is a little furnace. She would NOT sleep in the hospital with a hat as she was too hot and uncomfortable. The minute we took it off she was so happy and slept well. But the nurses kept commenting how we should have a hat on her🤦🏼♀️
My hospital puts one on baby at some point, but it’s not an urgent priority. We have pictures from his first hour & I don’t think he got it until right before we moved to our postpartum room. Sometimes we used a hat at home, sometimes we didn’t 🤷♀️ But he did get one whenever we left the house (February baby in Canada).
We used a hat for our baby as recommended as she was pre-term, which I think is an important exception to acknowledge
Lol my son’s head was so big none of the hospital hats even fit him! Not even the reject too-big donated knit hats!
My daughter refused a hat- screamed until we took it off. From day 1 she has always hated anything on her head. Hats, headbands, hair clips. So, totally her choice, not ours!!
Never thought about this! Thanks for the info!
Oh! When we were in the NICU, they recommended that if we left the hospital we leave something with our scent: a hat, a shirt, etc so that when the nurses fed Hadley, she’d have our scent around her to comfort her.
My little ones are both heaters.
Apparently my son was too warm so they opted for no hat!
How about that!
My babies all had hats, only the first 2 wore them. My 3rd was a water baby though so when he first came out of the water they put a hat on him but when we transferred to the bed we left it off and he hasn’t worn one since.