Question: Transitioning
Is transitioning difficult ? Is there a specific technique ?
The hammock is an early development product for newborns up to around 12
months. As far as transitioning goes, it really depends on the baby's personality;
some develop their 'independence' faster than others. We suggest that you
look for 'signs'- restlessness in the hammock even though they have slept
in it for months, refusing to go into it etc
As in most things, there is no magic formula. Let your baby tell you when
it's time. Some babies will transit to another bed option more easily than
others. However, even with difficult transtions, bear in mind that the hammock
allows your baby to thrive for many months, making life much easier all
round
Question: Rolling Over
Can my baby roll over in the hammock?
Yes, eventually when your baby is strong enough- around 4-6 months, most
babies will be able to roll over on his side or tummy, with effort (in warm
weather/countries, some babies sleep in the hammock without the mattress.
This makes it considerably harder to roll over)
The Amby design is not ideal for tummy sleeping (not recommended anyway)
because of the ergonomics of the hammock sling design. Sleeping on the tummy
in any hammock is not recommended for long periods of time.
As for sleeping 'face down', this practice is not recommended for any bed
until your baby is strong enough to lift his head readily and with ease.
Some older babies tend to like sleeping on their side. This is fine.
Bear in mind that most normal healthy babies tend to roll and turn (experiment)
in any bed When this occurs , monitor your baby and if you feel that it
is time to transit, then do so gradually to make the transition easier.
Question: Sitting Up in the hammock
As my baby gets stronger, how do I prevent him from sitting up in the hammock?
Tie a little toy or something on the crossbar. This will attract your baby's
attention when he wakes and may deter him from trying to sit up right away.
We do not recommend leaving an older fully awake baby in the hammock without
constant supervision. This should be the general rule regardless of what
bed your baby sleeps in.
Many parents of particularly active babies who still like the hammock as
their baby's preferred bed, place a light mattress under the hammock, in
case the baby crawls out. It has to be noted here that by this time, the
hammock will only be a few inches from the ground, with your baby in it.
Some even go as far as placing a playpen around the hammock (particularly
if the baby is sleeping in his own room) .In any case, make sure that baby's
room is 100% safe regardless of whether he sleeps in our Amby or not.
DO NOT use a harness of any kind to keep your baby in the hammock - it can
be extremely dangerous.
Question:
We live in California and we are expecting our first baby in a couple of
months. We have been through your web site with a fine tooth comb (great
site, by the way, with lots of information and pictures of beautiful babies)
and we are really interested in what we see. Furthermore a few of our friends
have been using your hammock and have found it just fantastic. However,
we do have a crib handed down to us, but we are still very keen on the hammock.A
couple of questions not answered anywhere in your site might well make up
our minds for us.
1. How long has the Amby Hammock been on the market ?
2.Has there ever been SIDS or other injuries attributed to the Amby Hammock
?
We thank you for your time
Emily and John Balfour
Both your questions have been partly answered in the 'How safe
is the hammock' question towards the bottom of our FAQ page.
To answer your questions more fully:
1. The Amby Nature's Nest baby hammock has been in the Australian
market for close to 13 years now, (my daughter, whom I designed the
hammock for, is now almost 14 years old).
In Australia alone,we have sold well over 15,000 units to private
homes,child care centres and maternity hospitals. Many of these institutions
have used our hammock for the past 10 to 12 years with great success.
About 2 years ago, with the growing popularity of the Internet as
a marketing tool, we were able to expose the hammock to the world.It
has been received extremely well in the USA, Canada and English speakers
in Europe (Our web site is only in English).
2. The National Surveillance for Injuries from Nursery Furniture Use
(Aust) monitors all injuries incurred from nursery furniture use.
To date, there has not been one single case of injury or SIDS attributed
to our hammock.
In fact a few years ago,when the Tasmanian Department of Consumer
Affairs put an interim ban on "all baby beds that swing or rock" because
of 2 incidence of babies who died in rocking cradles, the Amby Nature's
Nest Baby Hammock was specifically exempt from this interim ban even
though it "swings and rocks".
The Amby Natures Nest Baby Hammock has been tested and passed both
by the British Standards (BSi) and the Japanese Standards (JMGSL).
Please see Amby
Awards, Tests and Safety Standards.
However, there can be no better test for any product than in the market
place. Our hammock has stood the test of time. It's ever increasing
popularity, not only in Australia, but world wide bears testimony
to it's safety and functionality as the best baby bed for young babies
in the market today.
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I have heard from friends who have used the Amby Hammock
that it is good for colic and reflux. How does the hammock help relieve
the symptoms of these conditions?
Colic is usually a recurring condition that affects some 25% of
young babies. The actual cause of colic is yet unknown, but amongst
the factors that have been implicated are intestinal gas pains (small
bubbles of air/gas trapped inside a baby's under developed intestines)
and nervous tension.
When a baby is bounced gently to sleep in the Amby, it may have the
effect of 'pushing' the intestinal gas along and releasing the trapped
bubbles of air, which helps make the baby more comfortable.
The rhythm of the spring action also has the incredible ability to
soothe a baby, easing nervous tension, relaxing the muscles (an attack
of colic is usually accompanied by intense crying with legs pulled
up, abdomen becoming rigid and fists being clenched) and 'limping'
the whole body, rendering the baby a degree of comfort that is otherwise
lacking.
Gastroesophageal reflux is often caused by an incoordination of the
baby's upper intestinal tract. They tend to spit up or throw up frequently
after a feed and if a baby cries all the time, they fill their tummies
with air, grunt and strain. This can make the reflux worse.
Fortunately, in most cases, babies grow out of it. Reflux usually
starts to get better when a baby can sit up quite well without assistance
at around 6 months of age. Time, it appears, is the only 'cure' in
most cases.
There are, however treatments that can help relieve the symptoms of
chronic reflux. Apart from medication, one of the more effective treatments
is positioning. Theoretically, the best sleeping position is where
the baby's upper body is slightly elevated.
The Amby Hammock's ability to relax and pacify a baby helps. The 'head'
end of the hammock can also be easily elevated to an angle that is
best for a baby with reflux. Many paediatricians do send babies with
severe reflux to us for the Amby Hammock bed.
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There appears to be a rash of skull deformities in the
USA caused by the "Back to Sleep" program informing parent's to lay there
children only on their backs. The constant pressure of the child's head
on the crib mattress creates a flat spot. Would your product decrease the
amount of pressure on their skull?
The short answer to this is YES, the hammock will go a long way
in addressing this problem. The problem with cribs, bassinets and
cots is that they have a hard flat surface. Practically all South
East Asian and East Asian countries sleep their babies on their backs
(a cultural thing). It appears that babies who sleep on flat hard
surfaces e.g. the Japanese futon end up with flat heads. On the contrary,
babies in South East Asia, particularly the Malays, who sleep their
babies (on their backs) in sarong hammocks, have round heads
A case in point was a Japanese couple who lived in Australia for a
few years. They bought a hammock from us, used it, and then took it
back to Japan. Apparently all their friends in Japan remarked on the
roundness of their baby's head (both a desirable and sought after
thing). In our literature sent to Japanese inquiries, we stress the
roundness of a baby's head as one of our selling points.
Apart from the head, the hammock allows a baby's weight to be distributed
evenly. There are no pressure points to worry about.
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How does the hammock affect the spinal development of
a baby?
Posture- if you observe your baby in the hammock, you will see
that the so called 'curve' on her back is practically non existent
once she lies in the hammock, even though the hammock does look curved
when there is no baby in it. The 'curve' in fact flattens out once
a baby is placed in the hammock In any case there is not one iota
of evidence that cultures that use hammocks (and there are many of
them) as a baby, child and adult bed have postures or spinal development
that are any worse than our own in Western cultures.
We have had two of our own kids, one 11 and the other 6 who slept
in the hammock exclusively for 2 years. Their postures are in no way
different from the postures of their classmates and their spines are
not malformed in any way. They are both very healthy, happy and normal
kids who have, to date, excelled in both their school work and their
sports.
Many doctors, paediatricians and chiropractors actually buy and use
the hammock for their own babies. The question of spinal development
and posture has never been of concern to them. Indeed some even believe
that the suppleness of the hammock and it's accompanying suspension/floatation
effect may even be beneficial to spinal development.
Babies for at least the last few months of gestation would have been
carried in a much more curved position than some mid-wives would care
to admit.
In any case most, children and adults when sleeping on their sides
'curl' up anyway. If you care to observe a baby who is old enough
to be mobile in a cot in the morning, where will you find him? Most
probably curled up in a corner of the cot in search of some tactile
contact.
As far as we can ascertain, because the hammock as a baby bed is more
rampantly used in less developed countries than in developed countries,
there has been no study done on posture and spinal development in
babies nurtured in hammocks or indeed in adults who sleep in a hammock
all their lives.
However, what we can certainly ascertain in the definitive, is the
absence of reports of any prevalence or a noticeably high incidence
of malformed spines in the adult or children population in hammock
sleeping cultures
I think that in all our dealings with our babies, common-sense should
always prevail. Try not to be overtly concerned about comments made
by 'experts' who have very little or no knowledge of the product.
Babies will come to no harm when they sleep in the hammock. They should
develop (as most hammock babies do) into happy healthy and extremely
contented babies. Care givers will have the luxury of the sleep that
many have been deprived of because of an unhappy, restless and sleepless
baby.
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After difficult sleepers who eventually slept through
the night through "crying it out", I am very interested in a different approach,
specifically your baby hammock. My main concern is the transition to a bed
after using the hammock. Is it difficult? Is there a specific technique?
Will I find myself facing the same "crying it out" the third time only with
a two year old trying to get him/her into a bed?
As far as we are concerned, 'crying it out' is the least preferred
option. A baby's cries is a signal of distress, which is a result
of either a physical or a mental discomfort. When placed in an unsuitable
bed coupled with isolation a baby's feelings of comfort and security
are jeopardised. They feel abandoned and their confidence in a 'secure
and comfortable' environment is shattered. They can develop into 'difficult'
babies.
There are mothers in Australia who use the hammock in isolation in
the baby's own room and there are others who have the baby with them
in their room. Either way it seems that the transition to baby's own
bed or room does not appear to be a major problem.
Most babies who use the hammock as their bed develop into happy, healthy
and contented babies. They are less inclined to be insecure and they
do not seem to cry a lot. They are used to long, sound and unbroken
sleep- untroubled either by insecurity or discomfort. These are traits
that appear to be common amongst 'hammock babies' . They tend to be
'easy' babies and as is the case with most 'easy' babies, they are
confident and do not get ruffled easily. So the transition to a bed
is 'no big deal' to them. They appear to cope with it quite easily.
We get asked this question quite often by parents who bought the hammock
for their babies. So far, with tens of thousands of hammocks used
in Australia, we have not had a single letter from a parent complaining
about the difficulty of getting their child to switch over to a bed
when it was time to do so.
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When should babies start using the hammock and how long
should they sleep in it?
From birth to about 12 months or more. Many babies sleep in it for
much longer.
Ideally it's best to use the hammock from birth. In fact many mothers
in Australia take the hammock into hospital with them. However, there
are also thousands of babies who start using the hammock anywhere
from a few weeks to seven or eight months old. It appears that even
at that age babies take to it quite easily. As for how long , some
babies use the hammock as their exclusive bed for = up to two years.
It has to be noted that babies sleeping in the hammock tend to wriggle
and move around more than if they were sleeping in a cot/crib. This
must not be misconstrued as 'baby wanting more room'. This movement
is in fact triggered by the tactile touch that the baby experiences
in the hammock. As in gestation, moving and wriggling is all part
and parcel of muscle toning and physical development. Many mothers
have reported that their hammock babies appeared to grow faster than
their previous babies who slept in cots. This is quite understandable,
as a baby who sleeps better and is happy and contented will more than
likely feed better and therefore grow faster. |
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Do babies sleep in it at night as well?
Yes, definitely. it is a 'full time' baby bed. Many families take
it on holidays, to grandmothers and even to baby sitters. This gives
your baby the advantage of sleeping in his own special bed wherever
he may be.
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How safe is the Nature's Nest Amby Baby Hammock?
Extremely safe. Babies sleep in the SIDS recommended supine (on
the back) position in the hammock and there is really no avenue in
any part of the hammock design that can harm a baby. Arms and legs
cannot be caught in railings, air flows freely through the hammock
and with a height of only about 6 inches off the ground with a baby
in it, you will be free from the nagging worry of your baby falling
from the full height of a cot.
The Amby has been used extensively in hospitals, child care centres
and thousands of homes in Australia for the past 13 years. In that
time there has not been a single case of injury reported to us by
the National Surveillance for Injuries from Nursery Furniture Use
(Aust).
As for tests and safety standards, the Amby has been tested and passed
both by the British Standards (BSi) and the Japanese Standards (JMGSL).
Please see Amby
Awards, Tests and Safety Standards.
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Should babies always sleep on their backs in the hammock
?
Yes, the configuration of the hammock makes it virtually impossible
for a baby to sleep prone (on his tummy) in it. In any case recent
research has confirmed that the incidence of SIDS is greatly increased
when a baby sleeps in a prone position. (Refer to http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/issues/v153n11/abs/poa8555.html
for more information.) The desired and recommended position is the
supine (on the back) position. Once placed in the hammock, your baby
will remain in the supine position as the walls of the hammock makes
it extremely difficult for a young infant to turn on to his tummy.
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