Ensure The Right Humidity Level
In general, indoor relative humidity of between 30 and 50 percent is optimal, says Energy Star anything higher could lead to bacteria growth. In colder areas during heating season, it should range from 30 to 40 percent to prevent window condensation. Some of the humidifiers in Consumer Reports ratings have built-in humidistats, which turn off the units when the humidity reaches a desired level. But you also can measure humidity yourself, with a tool called a hygrometer, available for $10 or less.
Misha Kollontai, the engineer who leads humidifier testing for Consumer Reports, uses an inexpensive combination thermometer and hygrometer, which measures both room temperature and humidity in his baby daughters room. That lets him address two sleep hygiene issues at once: The recommendation for the temperature babies should sleep in is between 68° and 72° F, lower than some people keep their homes, he says.
Another solution if your humidifier doesnt have a humidistat: Turn on the humidifier 3 to 4 hours before the babys bedtime, then turn it off when you put the baby to bed.
Tobie Stanger
Are Humidifiers Safe For Babies
When using a humidifier, there are a few things you need to know.
- Burn Risk: Hot-water vaporizers are generally more hygienic as they heat the water to create steam that is hot enough to kill potential bacteria . However, they also pose a burn risk for small children. If you choose a hot-water vaporizer, make sure its out of reach of your child. Opt for a cool mist humidifier if you cant ensure your child wont have access to the vaporizer.
- Cleanliness: If your model has a filter, you need to clean or replace it periodically. In any product that holds water, bacteria and mold can grow, which can cause health problems. Make sure you keep it clean and well-maintained to prevent unwanted health issues.
- Over-Moisturizing: If you introduce too much moisture into the air, it can cause mold and other allergens to grow in your childs room or other areas of your home. You can purchase a hygrometer to monitor the moisture level and prevent it from becoming too high. A level of 30-50% is ideal for health, while 43% has been shown to be best for preventing the travel of airborne bacteria and viruses .
Pro
Mineral Deposits And White Dust
Lastly, did you know that you should use distilled water in your humidifier? The reason for this is because certain areas have hard water in their tap. Hard water has a higher mineral content, which will eventually cause mineral deposits and limescale in the reservoir. These deposits are tricky to remove and can even affect your units functionality in the long run.
Using hard water with ultrasonic humidifiers can also cause white dust around the humidifiers proximity as a by-product. If you have a baby, the last thing youd want to do is busy yourself with constantly wiping every surface.
But before you start cleaning your model, remember that manufacturers have specific instructions that you must follow. Abiding them will elongate your units lifespan and will also allow you to use it more efficiently.
Overall, a humidifier is an excellent addition in the nursery. As long as you keep it thoroughly cleaned and within the recommended humidity range, you can appreciate its benefits for your little one. You can use this device whether your baby is sick or not, without a specific time frame. But just like with everything you introduce to your baby, consult his/her pediatrician beforehand.
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Fridababy Humidifier With Diffuser And Nightlight
As the name depicts, this humidifier is the most erudite having almost all provisions one needs. The Fridababy 3-in-1 Humidifier with Diffuser and Nightlight is available in whitecolour-producing ultrasonic vibrations to turn water into the cold hydrating mist that lasts more than 12 hours. There is also a knob that lets you adjust the direction and pressure of moisture according to your desire.
It also serves you as a diffuser by adding aromatherapy-grade essential oil, which helps your baby breathe properly, which covers nearly 320 square feet with a 0.5-gallon tank. This ability enables the humidifier to maintain a suitable atmosphere. A refreshing environment is all we need around us, especially our babies in this world full of pollution, which we cannot get until we are in a place where there are no people around us. But humidifiers are a great help in this scenario by providing refreshing and moist air.
What do We like?
- Automatic shutoff ability helps in switching off the device without any hustle from your side.
- Color-changing lights can give an aesthetic look to your room, and your kid can play the best in this scenario.
- Availability of diffuser maintain the moisture in the air
- Suitable size and weight, let it fix anywhere you want
What We Dont Like?
- The cleaning area is unreachable, which means accumulation of bacteria
- you can use it in bathrooms and kitchen etc. due to the weight and dimension ratio
Bottom Line
Vicks Vwm845 Warm Mist Humidifier
Special features:warm mist humidifier, aromatherapy, product dimension 7.9 x 12 x 14.3 inches, 1-gallon water tank capacity, item weight 5 pounds,
This humidifier is also built with a unique medicine cup segregation as well as a separate chamber for aromatherapy. The blend of these two features makes it potentially one of the most medicinal humidifiers out there, depending on usage. It also comes with small dimensions as well as lightweight for easy mobility around the home while having a mist output rate that is quite impressive.
Following the Vicks trend in humidifier design, this product comes with a cool design, with a completely transparent water tank for aiding visual monitoring of water level. The mist output rate is varied with the use of a control knob also, while the device, in general, can be quickly taken apart and cleaned .
The unique medicine cup allows the user to make use of Vicks Vaposteam, which is added for an increase in the action of steam, and relief of breathing passages. At the backside of the unit is the aromatherapy chamber, which contains vapor pads for taking in few drops of essential oil, which further adds medicinal value to the mist produced.
Pros:
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Where Is The Best Place To Put A Humidifier
You want to place it somewhere in your baby’s room where they will not accidentally knock it over or be able to reach any wires. You’ll also want to place it somewhere where the mist can disperse well into the room. So you don’t get a build-up of moisture on any surfaces or the ceiling.
Be sure to check what size room your humidifier is made for. If your room is too small, you could find the humidifier causes condensation and dampness. If the room is too big, it could be ineffective.
Things To Consider When Selecting The Best Humidifier For Baby
- Ease of maintenance:
Before you purchase a humidifier for your infant at home, you should ensure that it can be easily uncoupled for cleaning. After a while when using a humidifier, there is a tendency for molds and other organisms to grow in the water container or outlet of the humidifier if it is not cleaned properly.
This should be avoided at all cost because infants are still young, therefore have really weak antibodies and could easily get infected by the pathogens released by the humidifier. Since you must ensure the humidifier is germ-free at every moment, purchasing an easy to clean good humidifier is advisable.
- Humidifier mode of dispersing moisture:
Several types of humidifiers exist based on their method of humidification. The ultrasonic cool mist humidifier produces mist utilizing ultrasonic sound vibrations, and the impeller warm mist humidifier makes use of a fan or disc rotating at very high speed to create the mist. These two humidifiers are known not to disperse materials from their water tanks into the indoor environment.
All in all, it is really advisable to go for the humidifier with ultrasonic or evaporative humidification when purchasing for infants.
Why? some humidifiers tend to release the residue in the tank alongside the water into the air. This may be dangerous for the infant in that it may leads to another form of respiratory ailment
- Presence of a filter:
- Area of effective coverage:
- Built-in diffuser:
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Best Humidifiers For Babies From Consumer Reports’ Tests
But dont assume your infant needs one
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When youre choosing a humidifier for your babyand yourself, for that mattersafety is key. And humidifier safety comes down to two major points: Getting the right unit, and maintaining it properly to prevent the growth of potentially unhealthful organisms.
Keep in mind that a humidifier is typically not necessary for your babys health. But you may still want one for comfortfor instance, to make heated rooms feel less dry. Heres how to shop for and use a humidifier meant for your baby. Below, we list several great humidifier choices from our ratings, focusing on units made for small rooms like a babys nursery.
Best Cool Mist Humidifier
Price: $$$Key features: This Honeywell humidifier offers ultraviolet technology to kill up to 99.9 percent of bacteria in the water. Beyond that, its 1-gallon capacity allows it to run for 24 hours on low, making it a good choice for medium-sized bedrooms.The cool mist is made using evaporation blowing moisture off a wicking filter. The manufacturer claims that using this method means you cant over-humidify a room. Reviewers say this unit is easy to clean a feature well worth paying attention to for something that needs cleaning as often as a humidifier.Considerations: The price for the units and the filters has been going up over the past few years. Its a bit bulky, and some people feel that does make a good amount of noise even on the lowest setting
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Buying Guide For Best Baby Humidifiers
You want the healthiest, safest, and just plain best for your little ones, from the food they eat to the detergent used to launder their clothes to the shampoo that cleans their hair. But when it comes to keeping babies happy and healthy, some new parents forget about one of the most important factors of all: the air their baby breathes. Newborn skin is far more sensitive than yours, and your babys eyes, lungs, and nose are more prone to uncomfortable symptoms from dry air, including irritation, congestion, flaky patches, and chapped lips and skin. The solution is a humidifier.
For maximum comfort, indoor air should have a relative humidity of around 40% to 50%. Far too often, however, particularly in the winter, the humidity inside your home is quite a bit lower than that. And that spells discomfort for everyone in your family, but most of all for your baby or toddler.
Are Humidifiers Good For Babies
Getting your home ready for a new baby can seem like a never-ending task. Whether youre a first-time parent, or an established family, the list of must-haves and to-dos stretches on and on. Youve got the crib and decorated the nursery, but have you thought about getting a humidifier?
You might be wondering whether or not humidifiers are good for babies, or maybe youve heard all about the benefits of using a humidifier for your baby and youd like to know more. In this article, we examine the use of humidifiers for babies and what youll need to be aware of to keep your little one safe and healthy.
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Choosing The Ideal Humidifier For Babys Room
There are quite some factors you need to take note of before purchasing a humidifier for your baby congestion. Firstly, you have to consider your pocket.
That is, how much you are willing to spend on the device. At this stage, you must ask for the price range of the type of humidifier you want to buy. Here are the other factors that should influence your choice of the humidifier
How Often Should You Clean It
As with anything in our homes, it’s important we keep it clean to reduce the spread of bacteria. To keep our humidifiers and our rooms clean, it’s important to clean out the water tank every one to three days and to change the water daily. Follow Paediatrician Sara Connolly’s advice on how to clean your baby’s humidifier efficiently:
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Maintenance Of Baby Humidifier
Keeping the maintenance of the humidifieris somehow complex. Its a gadget that works on electricity. Besides spitting moisture in the air, the dirt from the air is also stuck into this sometimes. There is a separate space for this, and cleaning this part is necessary as it can become harmful instead of beneficial.
Also, try to place this baby humidifier in the corner from where the moist can spread equally all around. The accumulation of water or usage of impure water can cause the growth of bacteria that is also alarming, so cleaning the water portion is necessary.
How to select a humidifier and the benefits of using a humidifier for your baby, here Ive shared a video
Recurring Colds And Coughs
Have a baby or another member of the family with recurring colds and coughs? It may be time to give the humidifier a good clean. These symptoms are often mistaken for the latest cold virus floating around the local preschool. However, they could be the result of an allergy to something that the humidifier is spewing around. Worse, infectious bacteria that someone brings home may find its way into the humidifier and spread around. While the normal child or adult immune system may be able to handle this quite well, the baby may not. In fact, its advisable to clean out the humidifier and change the filter every time after someone in the household recovers from a cough or cold to keep microorganisms from building up. Better yet, anyone who has some sort of respiratory infection shouldnt be allowed near the baby, or even in the room with the little ones humidifier.
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Rimposky Cool Mist Humidifier
The best dual stream humidifier, perfect for twins or room sharing
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This neat teardrop-shaped humidifier has an unusual feature, two nozzles that rotate from the top of the unit, allowing you to direct dispersion of humidified air in any two directions of your choosing. This feature would be fabulous for sharing a bedroom with baby, or for twins in their nursery.
The floral design over the metallic base makes for a chic, feminine style, and the unique shape will look elegant in any room. At 3L, the tank is deceptively large, and the unit disperses a whopping 380mL per hour, easily the most powerful humidifier weve seen, so its recommended you use it in a medium to large sized room.
The soothing nightlight rotates through gradients of green, blue, and purple. This can be a peaceful thing to watch at night, but for those that need the pitch-black dark to be able to sleep, be aware that it unfortunately cannot be turned off.