Nightlight or not?

[BekahMomToOliver]

NAK

I'm reading (and hearing alot from my midwife and others) about the long-term negative effects of even dim light at night, especially on young kids. Up until now I'd been using a nightlight in our room to help with ds's frequent night wakings, dd's nursing and diaper changes, etc.
Well, I was a bit worried, so yesterday I ditched the light and got a touch lamp instead. Well, to my surprise, both kids only woke once each! Which is an incredible improvement. I know, it's one night, it was probably a fluke, but I wanted to put it out there. Out of curiosity, anyone else use a nightlight? Do you find they help or hinder sleep, and do you worry about the light exposure?

[cristeen]

I use a nightlight - but we live in the city so even if I turned off all the lights, it still wouldn't be dark.

If I turn on even a small lamp during night wakings, he will wake up fully, but with the night light it's just enough for me to change his dipe in the night, but not so much as to fully wake him.

[JordanKX]

We don't, just because we've gotten in the habit with my DSS who's 3, that a nightlite keeps him awake. So it seemed rational to not put one in our bedroom.

I turn on the tv when I have to change his diaper at night. it's just a little bit of light, not enough to wake him up, and plus I can check out the time to see how we're doing.

I know with DSS, if he's got Any light in his room, he'll just stay in there are stare at the ceiling. We thought the laser lights and the moon light were super cool. And they are. Enough to keep you from going to sleep :-)

[BekahMomToOliver]

I think my ds was having tha same problem, the light was keeping him up. He woke once last night, only because his diaper leaked. This is a massive improvement, since he's 2 and (until now) has always woken up 3-8 times a night. I feel like a doof for not figuring it out sooner!
Oh, and dd slept through last night, 10-8! bliss!

[pjs]

We use a nightlight because I like to be able to see the little guy during the night- I like to see where he is in the bed, that the blankets aren't covering him, where his mouth is so I can nurse him, etc. It is dark where we live and we have room darkening shades. My older kids (2,5,7) don't have nightlights in their rooms, it just makes nighttime parenting easier for me.

[mkksmom]

We keep an LED flashlight in our bed with us, and I turn that on when I want to check on her, feed her, etc.. I can't sleep soundly with a nightlight, and both the LO and my 5yo have their beds in my room. DH and I figure that the baby is there, so might as well let our older dd in there too if we are all sleeping OK. My older dd does have a nightlight in her room. She gets scared without it.

When I did fall asleep nursing the LO, I left the light on because I wanted to be able to see where she was, but we don't cosleep any more.

[darcytrue]

I use one but we have a cover over the window near the nightlight and the cover kind of goes down over the nightlight so the light is barely there anyway. I think it depends on the child. My older two always needed some kind of light in their room and they did fine. But I co-slept with each of them until they were 5/6 years old so they were older once they were finally in a room alone.