Should Babies Sleep Without Socks?

It is a curious question how babies should be dressed while they sleep. Because of the possibility that the baby may get cold while sleeping, mothers may prefer to wear socks. But is this true? Should babies sleep without socks or should socks be used?

We talked about whether babies should be put to bed with socks!

There are advantages and disadvantages to sleeping with babies in socks, so experts are split on the issue. We will first tell you about the benefits and harms, and we will offer you little tips for your baby to sleep soundly.

Benefits of babies sleeping with socks

• According to an article published in 2018 in Medical News Today, one of the important health platforms, sleeping with socks balances the body’s temperature. It is important for the body to reach a balanced temperature in order to facilitate and maintain the transition to sleep. This is prevented when the feet are cold.
• Body temperature needs to drop by 0.5-0.8 degrees to go to sleep. When the baby sleeps with socks on, the blood vessels expand and there is more room for blood flow, resulting in a decrease in blood pressure. Therefore, this situation sends the message to the brain that it needs to be obeyed. This phenomenon is called vasodilation .
• Sleeping in socks can accelerate circulation in the feet. This ensures healthy blood and oxygen flow.

Harms of babies sleeping with socks

• We said above that sleeping with socks is good for circulation, but a wrong and tight-fitting sock negatively affects blood circulation. This invites many problems.
• If the socks are too tight and not clean enough, it causes problems such as fungus and odor.
• For babies to sleep comfortably, the room temperature they are in should be between 18-20 degrees. If the room is around this temperature and still wear socks, the baby will be uncomfortable with overheating, and his sleep will often be interrupted.

• For the same reason, sweating occurs in the feet. This affects both sleep quality and causes problems such as the fungus we mentioned above.
• Babies need to wear as comfortable clothes as possible while sleeping to get quality sleep. For this reason, it is necessary to avoid clothing products that are tight, cover most of the body, and elastic. Therefore , it may be beneficial to choose products such as overalls for sleeping, especially in the newborn period .
• While sleeping, the core body temperature drops, but the skin temperature rises. This can even cause a fever with overheating if the ambient temperature is high and the baby is put to bed with extra clothes such as socks and beanies.

In other words, we can answer yes to the question of whether it is harmful to put babies to sleep with socks under the above conditions.

When should babies wear socks?

Experts recommend that babies wear as few socks as possible. Because babies know life with their bare feet. They explore all the textures and temperatures they step on with their bare feet. In addition, it is much easier to crawl, walk, run and hold on barefoot. It is argued that especially when babies are doing walking exercises, their feet should be bare.

At this point, the question of whether babies should wear socks while sleeping in winter comes to mind. Don’t worry, it’s not a cause of illness for your baby to walk around the house or sleep barefoot when the weather gets cold. The cause of the disease is bacteria, virus and some microbes. Of course, your baby should not be without socks in a cold environment. However, if the temperature of your home is suitable, you may not need to put socks on your baby.

For your peace of mind, check your baby’s foot, hand and nose temperatures before going to sleep. If all 3 are too cool, you can wear socks.