Humidifiers are game-changing devices that can radically improve your health if used properly. Practicing proper humidifier safety will ensure your device operates at maximum capacity and creates a healthy, flourishing environment for you and your family. 

Are Humidifiers Safe?

Humidifiers are perfectly safe for use in your home if you follow your device’s maintenance requirements.  

Ultrasonic Humidifiers

Ultrasonic humidifiers operate by vibrating a metal disk at sonic speed, which pulverizes the water in the water tank into a fine mist, which is then dispersed into the room. 

The downside of ultrasonic humidifiers is that any bacteria, mold, microorganisms, or chemical cleaning supplies present in the device water tank will also be dispersed into the room. 

If your ultrasonic humidifier is not properly maintained, it can lead to adverse health effects. Ultrasonic humidifiers perform best if you use distilled water in your water tank and follow your device’s maintenance guide. 

Warm Mist Humidifiers

Similarly, vaporizers or warm mist humidifiers boil the water from the water tank to create a warm vapor, which is released into the surrounding environment. When you boil water, it kills any minerals, bacteria or microorganisms that thrive in moist environments. As a result, you can use any type of water in your vaporizer: tap, bottled, or distilled.  If using a warm mist humidifier, you must proceed with caution. The water tank can be extremely hot to the touch as a result of boiling water in the tank. Warm mist humidifiers are not recommended for children’s rooms or nurseries. 

Evaporative Humidifiers

Evaporative humidifiers do not run the same risks as ultrasonic or warm mist humidifiers. 

Evaporative humidifiers like Canopy operate by drawing in air from the room, pushing it through a moistened filter and releasing newly hydrated air back into the room. The filter componentry in evaporative humidifiers prevents any unwanted contamination from being released into the room. 

Canopy’s evaporative no-mist technology produces invisible clean moisture. Forget the weekly trip to the store and added expense of distilled water, Canopy’s anti-microbial filter catches bacteria and metals in the water while it’s SPA (Smart Persistent Airflow) technology stops mold from growing. Canopy is safe for children’s bedrooms and nurseries. 

Tips to Properly Use a Humidifier

Humidifiers are perfectly safe home appliances. In fact, a humidifier can augment your overall health and wellness if used properly! 

Below are a few helpful tips for proper humidifier use: 

1. Regularly monitor home humidity levels
2. Clean your humidifier regularly
3. Use distilled water (if required)
4. Avoid sitting water

Tip #1: Regularly Monitor Home Humidity Levels

Do you know the relative humidity (RH) level in your home right now? You can check your smart thermostat or grab an inexpensive hygrometer from Amazon to assess the humidity levels in your home. 

Lower temperatures, persistent wind, and regular use of the furnace are common causes of dry, indoor air. Chances are, the RH in your home is lower than the optimal range, which can lead to a slew of health conditions and uncomfortability. The recommended range of RH in your home is between 40% and 60%; the higher the RH in your home, the more moisture content in the air and vice versa. 

While dry, indoor air can wreak havoc on your sinuses, skin, hair, throat, and increase your chances of illness, home humidity levels that are too high can create a harmful living environment. High humidity levels can lead to the development of mold and bacteria and make your home space unbearable. 

Tip #2: Clean your Humidifier Regularly

In order to ensure safe use of your home humidifier, regular cleaning and maintenance is an imperative step. 

You should always check your device manual for maintenance schedules and recommendations before cleaning your device. It is generally recommended to clean your humidifier once per week with a white vinegar solution and wipe down your device daily after use. 

For most humidifiers, this can be a very tedious process. If you’re a regular humidifier, you’re probably familiar with this. Well, we’re here to change that. Drum roll please...Canopy is dishwasher safe! Just toss your Canopy in the dishwasher, and you’re good to go! (We really mean it when we say hassle-free hydration).   

Regularly cleaning your humidifier device after use prevents the build-up of mold, bacteria, grime, and other potentially dangerous residents of your water tank. 

Tip #3: Avoid Sitting Water

Sitting water is a breeding ground for bacteria, microorganisms, and more. Never use your humidifier if the water has been sitting in the tank for longer than 24 hours. 

Rinse out your humidifier water tank and wipe down with a clean cloth after each use. Replace the water tank daily with fresh water (distilled or tap based on your humidifier’s requirements). 

With Canopy, you’ll never need to worry about water sitting in the basin. Canopy runs until the filter is completely dry to avoid sitting water, build-up, and potential mold growth.

What is the Safest Humidifier for a Baby?

You would do anything for your little one to keep them safe and free from harm. Anything. Choosing a safe and high quality humidifier is no exception!

When choosing the safest humidifier for a baby, you should look for a cool mist humidifier that is easy to clean with a disposable filter. 

Cool Mist

Cool mist humidifiers are recommended for babies and young children as opposed to vaporizers or warm-mist humidifiers. Vaporizers create warm mist by boiling water in the device’s water tank. As mentioned above, vaporizers can get hot… Hot enough to burn! You know who just loves to touch everything? Babies and young children. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends using cool mist humidifiers in your child’s nursery to avoid burns. If you have a secure ledge or shelf that is out of reach from your child and you can effectively hide any device cords, a warm-mist humidifier may be an option. 

Easy to Clean

Let’s be honest: children are a lot of work. While you surge with pride at each new milestone, you also learn that milestones tend to bring new responsibilities and stressors. You have enough to do, there is no need to add yet another responsibility of cleaning a complicated humidifier device. 

In order to safely use a humidifier, you need to follow a regular maintenance schedule: daily wipe downs and weekly deep cleans. This can be a very laborious task if your humidifier has complicated componentry or hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. 

Choosing a humidifier that is easy to clean is crucial to keeping your device in tip-top shape and creating a healthy environment for your smalls. Canopy humidifiers have completely dishwasher safe componentry, which means that your weekly deep clean just got incredibly easy. Load up your dishwasher, press start, and scratch humidifier cleaning off your to do-list. 

Disposable Filter

In the same vein as the maintenance feature discussed in the previous section, choosing a humidifier with a disposable filter makes your device that much safer. 

A filter will trap any dirt, debris, or bacteria that forms in your humidifier water tank. Canopy’s antimicrobial disposable filter is incredibly easy to maintain; just toss your old filter every 45 days and replace with a new filter. Easy, peasy. 

Canopy offers a filter subscription service that automatically sends you a brand new paper filter every 45 days. No thinking necessary! 

Now, we all know that using a humidifier during the winter months is a  necessity.

Of course you need a humidifier in the winter months  when the heat is blasting and the frigid outdoor air dries your skin to the bone. 

But do you really need a humidifier in the warmer months? Before you pack up your humidifier for the season, you’re going to want to read this.

Do you need a humidifier in the summer?

Yes! You can greatly benefit from using a humidifier during the summer months. 

Depending on where you live, as the seasons change you may experience varying levels of heat and humidity.  Although temperature and humidity level outdoors are out of our control, one thing we do have control over is our indoor air quality. The average human spends 93% of their time indoors, so yes, although the temperatures are changing outside, indoor air quality should be a priority. 

So, why would you need a humidifier during the summer months when humidity is high? 

Air conditioning. 

Air conditioning is a beloved weapon against the summer heat. There is nothing quite like returning to a comfortable, air conditioned home after an outdoor excursion in the heat of the summer. While air conditioning makes summer bearable, it also sucks moisture from your home and recycles dry air over and over again, extracting moisture every time the air cycles through your HVAC system. 

If your AC is running, your humidifier should be too.

Chlorine. 

Although extremely refreshing, chlorinated pools can take a serious toll on your skin. Dermatologist Lauren Ploch says chlorine strips your hair and skin of the natural oils in charge of keeping moisture in, leaving your skin dry, itchy, flaky, sensitive, and your hair and nails dry and brittle. Optimizing your indoor humidity with a humidifier can combat dryness and irritation. 

Sun

Summer can be one of the most dehydrating seasons for your skin based on high outdoor temperatures and low indoor temperatures. Even with ample SPF, sun exposure naturally dries out your skin. According to Harvard Health, the sun's heat dries out skin and depletes the skin's supply of natural lubricating oils. Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause burning and long-term changes in the skin's structure. Sunburns can result in peeling, cracking, and extreme discomfort. Having your humidifier on your bedside table will hydrate your damaged skin and work to repair hydrated skin overnight. 

The constant transition from outdoor heat, chlorine, and sun exposure to dehydrated indoor air can wreak havoc on your skin, airways, scalp, and joints. You can also experience what is known as “sick building syndrome,” which is a phenomenon where you feel symptoms of illness in a particular indoor location due to a number of factors including dehydrated air, inadequate ventilation, or volatile temperatures. 

Running your humidifier in the Summer = necessary.

Optimizing your Indoor Humidity

Optimal humidity levels for your home range from 40% to 60% year around. 

The moisture levels in the home tend to be quite volatile compared to humidity levels in the environment. A hygrometer is a useful tool to measure the humidity levels of your home air; these devices measure the moisture content of the air and present the humidity level in the form of a percentage. 

Although optimal humidity levels indoor should remain consistent regardless of reason, you may prefer to adjust your humidifier depending on the temperature. In the winter months, you may keep your humidifier on the highest setting. In the summer, you may choose to keep it on a lower setting if it is cool outside or the windows are open. Something to remember: if your AC is on, your humidifier should be too. 

Benefits of a humidifier in the summer

We have established that using a humidifier during the summer months is a great way to combat rising temperatures and dry, air conditioned home air. The benefits of using a humidifier in the summer months are vast, but the most prominent benefits are: reduced allergy symptoms, healthy hydrated skin, and cooler home conditions. 

It can… Calm allergies. 

While the heat of summer is a nice break from the dark, cold winter weather, it also brings with it an increase in pollen and mold, which can trigger allergy flare ups. 

Humidifiers are a helpful tool for allergy sufferers since they can help to relieve congestion, sore throat, watery eyes, sinus pain, and inflammation. Turning on your humidifier during the summer months can prevent you from experiencing common allergy symptoms despite the high pollen and mold count.  

It can… Keep your skin healthy and hydrated.

Dry air can make your skin dry, itchy and uncomfortable. In severe cases, you may experience cracks or bleeding. No, thank you!

Aside from outdoor factors, running your AC all night depletes indoor air quality resulting in sub-optimal humidity levels, which can cause your skin to lose moisture overnight.

Humidifiers increase the moisture levels in your home air, which helps to rehydrate the skin by improving the skin’s moisture barrier. The more hydrated your skin, the better you will feel. 

If you are prone to dry, flaky scalp, a humidifier can help! The added moisture in the air from your humidifier will rehydrate your dry, itchy scalp reducing flakiness and irritation over time. 

It can… Keep your home cooler with less energy.

Humidity helps make the heat more bearable. Think about how delicious it feels to stand under a mister on a scaldingly hot day… 

Increasing the humidity levels in your home may not make your home temperature colder, per say, but it will make it feel colder. While your thermostat reads 73 degrees, it may actually feel like 71 degrees with the added moisture. A one time humidifier purchase such as Canopy will pay for itself over time since you can set your air conditioner at a higher temperature while maintaining optimal indoor humidity, and reducing your electricity bill.

So, the conclusion? Yes, you should think twice about storing your humidifier away for the season. 

Hello summer, hello humidifier. 

Maintaining healthy skin for your bundle of joy can be slightly overwhelming. How do you care for brand new skin? 

Baby skin has never been exposed to city pollution nor been burnt from laying out in the sun too long. It has never suffered PIH from premature pimple popping or been scratched so hard it bled. Baby skin is fresh and perfect. Unadulterated, if you will. 

You can keep your little darling’s skin fresh, vibrant, and clear by adhering to a few healthy skin tips along the way. But first, let’s dive into skin function and the importance of healthy skin. 

Importance of Maintaining Healthy Skin

Before we delve into why healthy skin is so important and crucial to your overall health, let’s define healthy skin. 

Healthy skin is smooth, hydrated, and warm with no visible cracks, bumps or lesions. Healthy skin has abundant collagen and elastin. Think of pinchable baby cheeks… Babies have loads of collagen and elastin in their skin, which contributes to those chubby cheeks we all know and love. 

Why is Healthy Skin Important?

The skin is your body’s largest organ and serves the following functions:

• Protects the internal organs from external threats
• Prevents germs and bacteria from entering the body and impacting internal organs
• Regulates body temperature
• Alerts the body of external threat through your sense of touch (think: pain and extreme temperatures)
• Converts sunlight into Vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium (a crucial mineral for bone development)
• Prevents body dehydration by regulating TEWL (transepidermal water loss)

Have a little more appreciation for skin now? Good! Skin plays a crucial role in keeping the rest of your body healthy and disease free. 

5 Tips for Maintaining a Baby’s Healthy Skin

Aside from being plump, silky smooth, and downright squeezable, baby skin is ultra sensitive. One day your tot has a perfectly healthy tummy and bum, and the next day you’re staring straight into a painful-looking rash. Sometimes you just can’t win. 

Here are a few tips to keeping your baby’s skin healthy and smooth:

Keep Baths Simple

Up until your love bug starts crawling around the house, you really only need three baths a week. While this seems counterintuitive to our adult daily showers, baby skin is very sensitive and prone to dryness and irritating rashes. 

After moving to daily baths to remove the dirt, sand, poop, or various other sticky textures from your child’s hands and feet, you may feel tempted to use ample amounts of shampoo to remove the goo. Not so fast! You only need to use sensitive, baby-specific shampoo every other bath (unless there’s a blow-out) and you don’t need very much to get the job done - about a teaspoon-sized amount should suffice. 

Opt for Natural Ingredients

While natural isn’t always better, choosing natural or plant-derived ingredients to use on your bean is the best option. Organic skin care or body care products are more likely to be free from irritants like synthetic fragrances, artificial colors, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and more. 

Say “No” to Powder

Diaper rash is an inevitable reality. Whether you just started solid foods and a particular ingredient did not agree with their tummy, or you tried a new brand of diapers since they were out of your go-to brand, your cutie pie will get a rash. 

You may be inclined to use baby powder after wiping the area clean with a wet wipe, but experts now advise against the use of baby powder. Instead, opt for an organic or natural diaper rash cream and wipe clean every change. 

If you have loads of baby powder sitting in your baby’s nursery, baby powder actually works great as a dry shampoo in a pinch, so save that full bottle of powder (maybe put it in a fancy glass jar) and keep it on your vanity. 

Dress in Layers

Not only are your baby’s brain, appendages, muscles, and countless other things developing in the early stages of life, their sweat glands are also in development! This fun fact makes your tiny more inclined to develop an uncomfortable heat rash. Dressing your little one in layers allows you to control the temperature by removing or adding layers as necessary according to the thermostat. 

Use a Humidifier

The fall and winter months bring colder weather and dry winds. We combat those cold temperatures by cranking the heater to stay warm. The combination of cold weather and higher thermostat temperatures can lead to a serious case of dry air. 

Extended exposure to dry air can cause a bevy of health issues for not only you, but your munchkin as well. Some of these health issues include: dry eyes, dry skin, congestion, sore throat, a proclivity for catching the flu or cold viruses, and more.

Using a humidifier in your baby’s nursery can help raise humidity levels to a comfortable range, which will help your precious baby battle the elements with ease. In order to reap the benefits of humidity, a humidifier must be used for the nursery to reach optimal humidity (40-60%). Always use an evaporative humidifier, to avoid the spread of bacteria and potential mold growth. 

How Can a Humidifier Help a Baby?

A humidifier is one of the most useful tools for your baby’s nursery. Whether you are a first-time parent or a seasoned veteran with multiple children, a humidifier is an important device to have on-hand. 

Regular use of a humidifier in your baby’s nursery can help to ease cold symptoms including congestion and sore throat, improve dry or irritated skin, and a humidifier can serve as a preventative tool to keep your bundle of joy safe and healthy all year long.  

Ease Cold Symptoms

When your little one  catches a cold, which most children do at some point in their early life, it can be heart wrenching to watch them struggle. Congestion interferes with their breathing, a dry and itchy throat leads to excessive coughing, and they wriggle in uncomfortability.

A humidifier can help to ease cold symptoms in both adults and children. The increased moisture content from your humidifier device will help to lubricate the throat and nasal passages resulting in congestion relief and the improvement of a dry, scratchy throat. 

Improve Dry, Irritated Skin

As we discussed in the previous section, baby skin is very sensitive and requires a little extra TLC. For new parents, it can seem like dry skin or rashes appear out of thin air. 

Regular use of a humidifier in your child’s nursery can reduce TEWL resulting in higher levels of moisture on the skin. TEWL is the process of the skin releasing water into the surrounding environment by way of evaporation. Dry and cold weather conditions increase TEWL while warm, humid environments decrease TEWL. 

Optimal humidity can improve the moisture content of the skin, which hydrates the skin and reduces the likelihood of eczema flare ups (atopic dermatitis affects 13% of children under 5-years-old). 

Prevention

You don’t have to wait until your little angel gets sick or has an unpleasant eczema flare up to run your humidifier. Humidifiers can serve as a preventative tool, as well. 

Maintaining optimal levels of humidity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year can ensure a comfortable, safe, and healthy environment for you and your family. Optimal humidity levels can help to:

• Reduce the spread and survival of viruses
• Ensure proper lubrication of throat and nasal passages to prevent infection, congestion, and cough 
• Keep the skin moisture barrier in tact, preventing dry or dehydrated skin

Use your smart thermostat or a handy hygrometer to measure your home humidity levels. Optimal humidity range is 40-60% 

Which humidifier is the best for your baby?