As important as feng shui is for a comfortable and aesthetic home when you have a little human to care for, their safety becomes more important than where that piece of furniture looks best. As a parent, your child’s safety is something you will concern yourself with even after they have children of their own.

It is recommended that you never place a baby cot under a window due to the potential hazards. Windows can be broken easily from the inside or the outside, and the blinds pose potential risks from hanging cords and blinds that could fall on or seriously harm your baby.

It’s hard to imagine that there are things in the world that would hurt a small and innocent baby, but this is the world we live in. Accidents can happen but there are ways you can minimize these accidents. Keep reading below to find out the best recommendations for your nursery and why you should never place a baby cot next to or under a window.

Can I Put my Baby Cot Under the Window?

You should never place your baby cot under a window for various reasons. Windows pose more than just a risk of breaking and harming your child with fallen glass.

Did you know that strangulation by blind cords is one of the top leading childhood accidents in the US? From 2016 to 2018 there were 385 children’s deaths reported of which 82% of them were due to cribs and other nursery products. I don’t mean to scare anyone or get dark here, but you need to understand how real the dangers are.

While the nursery might look lovely with the cot under the window on a night when the stars are bright and shining, or on a cool summer’s day under a blue sky, placing your crib near a window can have fatal consequences to your little love.

Other places in the nursery are better suited to the placement of a cot as well as the other furniture items and decorations you want to use to spruce up the space.  

But then again, there are other multiple harmful and potential hazards in a baby’s room that are also best to be avoided when choosing the ideal place for the cot to go. So why shouldn’t you put the cot near a window and where is the best place for it? We have the answers for new parents right here. 

Why You Shouldn’t Place a Cot Near a Window

With your child’s safety at the front of your mind, you’ll be looking for ways to keep a nursery as safe as possible. Learning where you can and where you should not put their cot is a great place to start.

You might find some of the below reasons for not placing a cot under the window are things you never even considered.

Here is why you should never place the crib under or next to a window:

• Lights (including the sun and streetlights) can affect your bubs sleep cycle and result in a bad night’s sleep or no sleep at all. Nobody enjoys looking after a grumpy baby from a lack of sleep! Don’t forget, if a baby isn’t sleeping, you’re probably not sleeping either
• Air circulation is important in every room, especially in harsher climates with heatwaves and frost. Babies are susceptible to heat and cold more than adults are and have the right to clean circulated air to keep their breathing under control
• Blinds are a major hazard and when your baby is old enough to reach them, the cords and the curtains pose huge safety risks, but the blinds can also fall at any time too, seriously harming a small child
• When babies are old enough to play with toys in their crib, they can break the glass in the window by smashing the toys on the window
• Babies are vulnerable to cold and hot temperatures as their bodies are still learning to adjust to climates outside of the womb. Windows let the heat and the cold into a room so if placed next to a window you can potentially be risking your child’s health.
• Speaking of temperatures, if your baby is sleeping in his or her cot under the window during the day and the sun is out to play, your baby can get badly burned from the sun with more health risks like sunstroke to follow

Where is the Best Place for a Baby Cot?

As a busy parent, practicality can occasionally go out the window. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, life can be so much easier when practical judgments are made and there’s no room for hindsight.

With that in mind, when choosing where to place your baby cot you should always make the most practical choice rather than choose a place because it “just looks better over there.”

I understand that having a nursery where the words cute, fun, lovely, and pleasant are used when you show it off to family and friends can make anyone feel pretty chuffed with themselves. But if something happened to your child because of something you could have avoided with furniture placement, you won’t be so delighted by your actions anymore.

Here are some things to consider when renovating and refurbishing a nursery:

• Consider placing the cot closer to the bedroom door so you can get to your baby quicker when needed
• Baby proofing is necessary even when your precious little bundle is a newborn, they grow up so fast
• The cot should either be placed right up against the wall or at least 30cms from the wall so that your toddler doesn’t get stuck if he or she learns how to start climbing
• Less is more in terms of safety for your child’s nursery. The less there is to fall, pull on, play with when you’re not looking, put in their mouths, etc., the better protected they will be

Tips for a Safer Nursery

You might think that safety doesn’t need to become a concern until your baby is suddenly a toddler, but this simply isn’t true. Safety in a nursery is important for everyone entering the nursery so that nothing accidental can happen to your infant on your watch or when you sneak out of the room to let them sleep.

Here’s a couple of tips for a safer baby nursery experience:

• Don’t put your baby’s crib near a radiator
• Avoid having loose items near the crib such as ribbons, string, heavy objects that can fall off the wall, etc.
• Have your nursery chair or rocker close to the crib so when they fall asleep transferring them to the crib is easy
• Avoid rugs that can easily be tripped over
• Never place the cot near electrical sockets/wall outlets for what I hope is an obvious reason
• Avoid hanging any wall art or heavy decorations over the crib
• Do not place the crib under any type of shelving
• Avoid extra blankets and bedding in the cot
• Keep toys out of the cot

Conclusion

If you’ve been looking for nursery inspiration online you will have come across some beautiful images from influencers and interior designers that make you say “wow, that’s what I want for my baby nursery”. The problem is, sometimes they aren’t always practical, and they don’t always have a baby’s protection and well-being in mind.

I know they don’t do it on purpose, I look at their designs and think wow too and sometimes wish my brain didn’t always revert to safety first over how great it looks. But hey, I’m a parent and it’s now in my blood. So, take my word for it, don’t place the cot under the window, it’ll still look great somewhere safer.