Is Aircon Bad For Your Newborn Babies?

Is Aircon Bad For Your Newborn Babies? Babies are very delicate and sensitive to environmental changes. The rooms where they sleep should be air-conditioned for their safety, but it is also important to remember that not all air conditioners are safe for them. There are several reasons why using the air conditioner might not be good for a child below one year old.

As a parent, you want to do everything you can to make sure that your children are safe and healthy. Cooling the house is one of those chores that need to be done at times but can create issues for newborns if it isn’t done right. If you have an infant or toddler, here are reasons why air conditioning is bad for your newborn babies.

Read on – Is Aircon Bad For Your Newborn Babies?

1. Dirty Air Filters

In many houses, central heat comes from the same unit as the cooling system. When this happens, the filters for both will be located in a single place and likely need to be replaced around the same period. The issue with using your AC is that it will collect a lot of dust and dirt throughout the year.

Once the AC turns off, that dust and dirt will be blown into your home’s air ducts and then dispersed through the heating system.

2. Carbon Monoxide Exposure

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless gas produced by burning fuel such as oil, wood, or natural gas. Though it isn’t poisonous in small doses, CO inhalation can cause flu-like symptoms such as nausea, headache, and fatigue. Inhaled over an extended period, high levels of CO have been known to lead to death.

For infants whose bodies aren’t yet fully developed – even low levels of CO can cause behavior changes, vomiting, and seizures.

3. Low Humidity

The AC’s main purpose is to lower humidity. If it also heats your home, that means that one of the two most important elements for a comfortable indoor climate is being removed and replaced with something else. If you use an AC and heat indoors, your baby will be exposed to low levels of humidity.

4. High Noise Levels

Unless you have a soundproofed home or apartment, turning on either your cooling or heating system will immediately fill your house with noise from fans and blowers whirring away as they do their work. Since babies are more sensitive to noise than adults, even at low levels, this constant background noise is something that you’ll want to limit as much as possible.

5. Dry Skin

If you’re looking for a way to keep the humidity up inside (at least temporarily), you can always pick up a humidifier or vaporizer for your baby.

Though these devices come in useful when children are sick, using them for dry skin is more common. Because the heating system removes moisture from your home, it can leave your infant with dry skin even if you’re doing all of the right things for her.

6. Off-Gassing VOCs

When you use an AC indoors, there’s a chance that harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) will build up in your house and be continually released through outflow vents inside.

These chemicals are particularly harmful to infants. Many VOCs have been shown to damage brain development, leading to cognitive problems later in life. Some studies also suggest that children exposed to high levels of these gases as babies may develop learning disabilities such as ADHD.

8. Inadequate Fresh Air Intake

Even if you only turn on your cooling system for a few hours each day, it can still impact outdoor air quality. As mechanical ventilators suck outside air into the house to replace what’s being sent out, particles of dust and other pollutants are dragged through your heating and cooling system into your home.

This includes all of the allergens that an infant is particularly susceptible to, such as mold spores, pollen, and animal dander.

9. High Energy Consumption

The activated carbon in filters absorbs gases like benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. If high levels of these chemicals exist inside your home or apartment building, they can cause side effects ranging from difficulty breathing to cancer.

Using an AC inside also means using a lot of energy, as your system needs to work harder to bring in air from the outside and cool it down before pushing it out again.

10. Reduced Immunity

Colder temperatures also weaken the immune system by lowering levels of white blood cells – which fight infection – and increasing stress hormones that interfere with normal immune function.

Babies under one-year-old already have immature and underdeveloped immune systems, so they’re especially susceptible to infections when exposed to either cold or hot conditions for long periods. That’s why they should be kept indoors around an average temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius).

Of course, there are times when you need to turn on your AC – such as when your infant is asleep, and you need to leave the house for an extended period. Still, it’s best to crack a window open to let some fresh air in these circumstances.

Is Aircon Bad For Your Newborn Babies? – Conclusion

If you’re using your AC constantly, whether to keep yourself comfortable or your infant asleep, it’s time for you to consider ways in which you can improve the quality of indoor air for both yourselves and other members of your household.

You can either do this by investing in portable indoor air purifiers (which are perfect when traveling) or building green walls inside your home to eliminate pollutants through outgassing naturally.