Many of you love to use the sauna. You know it’s good for your body, mind, and just makes you feel good overall. Since you have this enthusiasm to saunas you might be considering whether or not you should let your children use one. This, of course, is a good question as you care for your child’s well-being and don’t want to do anything that could harm them.
So should kids use a sauna? Is the sauna bad for them? Or will they just be fine? We’ll answer these questions in-depth down below.
Should Kids Use A Sauna?
To answer this question in short… yes, kids can use a sauna. The sauna experience can be very beneficial to their mental and physical health. At the same time, you never want to over-push it and let a child who isn’t ready to go in the sauna. For this reason, there are certain guidelines in which you can follow to keep your children safe when using the sauna.
* Age – First and foremost kids under the age of 6 shouldn’t use a sauna. Some studies have shown that children who haven’t hit puberty can’t regulate heat as efficiently as adults. So try to prevent your children from using the sauna until they have reached this age.
* Supervision – When your first letting your children use a sauna you must supervise them. By doing this you’re able to teach them how to use the sauna safely and correctly. You’re also able to see your child’s reaction when using the sauna (to decipher whether or not they are mature enough to use the sauna).
* Time Limit – As most people know it isn’t safe to stay in the sauna for long periods of time (30 minutes max). This is especially so for children. In our opinion, children shouldn’t spend more than 15 minutes in the sauna at a time. Since children can’t regulate heat efficiently this is a perfect amount of time for them to use the sauna effectively.
* Maturity – Another factor to whether or not your child can use the sauna is their maturity. Can they be trusted in a hot room alone? Will they be running and playing in the sauna? If so then it’s not a good idea to let them go in alone. They might get too excited when playing and burn themselves on the heating element.
This is a common issue with children who use saunas. So make sure your child is mature enough to be in the sauna without harming themselves or someone else.
Best Sauna For Children
If you’re adamant about teaching your child to use a sauna then Infrared Saunas might be a future purchase for you. Infrared Saunas are a newer technology that is much safer for child use. The reason for this is because they heat much differently from traditional sauna heaters.
Infrared saunas use infrared light to heat the surface of your skin. By doing this they eliminate the heating element that burns most children in traditional saunas. By taking away this heating element it makes it impossible for a child to burn themselves while sauna bathing.
Another good aspect about infrared saunas is that they run on a much lower temperature (around 120 to 150 degrees F.) Since this is so it makes it much easier for children to use. So the process of first introducing your child to sauna bathing will be much easier as they are more comfortable.
Other comfort features that can help your child are speakers and cd players within these saunas. This allows you to play the music that your child likes while in the sauna (so they are calm through the sauna experience).
With all that being said infrared saunas are a great solution for parents who are looking to introduce their child to sauna bathing. If regular infrared saunas are not the right product for you then you should check out portable infrared saunas.
What Finnish Families Can Teach Us
One culture that we can take great note of when it comes to sauna practices is the Finnish people. In Finland, most families either own their own sauna or sauna regularly at a spa/gym. This practice is so prominent that most health studies and information relating to saunas come from Finland.
With that being said their expertise and practices are something we should learn from and duplicate ourselves.
In Finland, most people use high heat saunas regularly throughout their lives (the saunas they use get hotter than American-made saunas). When regularly bathing they get the whole family involved. In fact, they often take baby infants into the sauna for a very short amount of time.
Once a child has grown a little (around the age of 5), they start to teach them safe sauna practices and have the child bathe with them regularly. Most often Finnish parents never let their child bathe alone until they have shown they’re mature enough and have enough sauna safety knowledge.
From here on the whole family regularly bathes together and enjoys the heat and peace in the sauna. This often can be a very big bonding time for families. It gives them a moment to actually talk to their kids without any distractions whatsoever.
Conclusion
There has never been a more pivotal time to start detoxing with the chemical-ridden world we live in. Teaching your children how to use a sauna safely is smart and morally the right thing to do. Just remember to teach them the proper practices and never let them inside the sauna if they’re too young.
If you’re also looking for an easy way to introduce your children to sauna bathing then infrared saunas are your solution. They are a much safer and easier sauna to use. So check them out and see if they are the right purchase for you.
Other Resources:
This website isn’t the only resource on sauna use. There are many 3rd party resources that we believe can help you. Down below we have placed the top resources related to this topic.
Books:
* The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy
* Sauna Therapy for Detoxification and Healing
* The Sauna: A Complete Guide to the Construction, Use, and Benefits of the Finnish Bath
