Being a new parent is an experience that is fun to prepare for such as preparing the home and the nursery. It is important to make sure that everything is safe, and everything is ready before the little newborn baby arrives. One thing that many parents forget to consider is the quality of the air in the home. When preparing for your new arrival, make sure to decide if you might need to purchase an air purifier to enhance the safety of the air for your little one.
Why Purchase an Air Purifier?
There are many reasons why purchasing an air purifier for infants is important and much of it depends on where you live. If you live in an area that has high pollution, or if you live in an area where there is a lot of pollen or allergens, purchasing an air purifier can be very important.
Air purifiers, when purchasing the right one, can change the quality of the air around you and help to make sure that you are breathing air that is healthy and clean.
Newborns breathe a lot more than adults do, around 60 times in a minute compared to 20 times per minute that an adult breathes. Since most homes contain some kind of allergens, this means that newborn infant babies are breathing in these allergens close to three times faster than an adult.
Here are some allergens that you might find in your home:
- Pollen
- Dust
- Pet Dander
- Mold
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Odors
- Smoke
- Other pollutants
What Air Purifiers are Safe for Newborns and Infants?
When purchasing an air purifier, please note that not all of them are the same or equal. It is important that you follow this guide to make sure that you are purchasing one that will be beneficial to your newborn baby.
Here are a few things that you want to look for in an air purifier for infants purchase:
- Activated Carbon Filter
- True HEPA Filter
- Silent Mode
Activated Carbon Filter
When purchasing an air purifier, an activated carbon filter is important for many reasons. One reason is that a carbon filter can help to take away odors, even ones that you do not realize that are in the home. These unpleasant odors can keep your nursery and home with bad odors that can linger on clothing and on baby blankets.
An activated carbon filter can also help to reduce the allergens more by making the contaminants to have to run through more than one filter and really cleaning that air.
True HEPA Filter
When looking at a HEPA filter, it is important to make sure that it says “True HEPA,” and not just HEPA. A True HEPA filter helps to eliminate more than 99.97% of all allergens that are a size as small as 0.3 microns. The smaller the microns the machine gets rid of, the better.
The 0.3 microns means that allergens as small as the size of a human hair can be locked away and caught through the filter. This filter is great at removing allergens that we cannot see including bacteria and viruses.
Reducing Bacteria and Viruses
Reducing the amount of bacteria and viruses in the air of your home is very important for keeping infant babies safe. Newborn babies do not have strong immune systems. Using an air purifier to remove bacteria or viruses from the air can keep them from getting sick. A baby can easily catch a simple cold. Even worse, if the baby gets the flu then this can be very bad for their health.
Silent Mode
One more thing to look for, even though it isn’t necessary is an air purifier that is quiet or that works on silent mode. This will help to make sure that the room is quiet and inviting for your sleeping newborn.
Things to Avoid When Purchasing an Air Purifier
Make sure that you avoid these things when purchasing an air purifier, especially for your newborn baby’s nursery:
- Ionic or Ionizer
- Ozone Generators
Ionic or Ionizer
An ionic or ionizer air purifier is not safe to even be around adults. These purifiers release byproducts that go into the air and they are not safe for babies to read. These types of air purifiers can increase allergies and are not safe to use.
Ozone Generators
Make sure to avoid any air purifier that says, “ozone generator,” on it. These are very unsafe because they release ozone into the air, and this can cause more damage than not having an air purifier at all. Make sure that you do not use these in your nursery or home because they can increase respiratory problems.
Conclusion
It is important to make sure that you prepare your home for your newborn and having safe air is important. When purchasing an air purifier for your newborn nursery, make sure that you purchase one that will help to reduce allergens and clean the air.
Look for purifiers that have True HEPA filters and Activated Carbon Filters and any extra things that you would like to have like silent mode, noise reducer, night-light and more.
Also, make sure to avoid unsafe air purifiers such as ozone generators and ionic purifiers at all costs. These are unsafe for the home and should be avoided.
Visit Specialty Air Purifiers for more great information about how air purifiers can improve the air quality in your home.