how many layers do you put on baby at night?

Bumbleroot

My DD currently wears a long sleeved vest, a long sleeved babygrow,then her sleeping bag she is then tucked under 2 cellular blankets which are folded over(which therefore counts as 4 blankets I think). The room thermometer says the room is 15 degrees which is at the low end of the 'just right' temp. Her face & hands are always cold when she wakes but otherwise her body feels nice & toasty.
I'm just worried as it's supposed to be minus 4 tonight & I don't want the poor thing to freeze. Should I give her an extra blanket tonight or put a fleece babygrow on over her cotton one(don't want her to overheat either!!)
The heating is on in the room for 2 hours before she goes to bed, it comes on for an hour during the night & then at 6am for 2 more hours.
I'm just obsessing as I'm a cold creature myself & they say if you feel cold yourself that babies also do.
Just a note she was low birthweight so she struggled to keep herself warm from day one.
Thanks Guys

junior joo

Wow, dd who's about 9 months has a long sleeve vest, long sleeve babygrow and short sleeved grow bag (2 tog I think). No blankets as she wriggles too much. Room is a similar temp, it's an old and cold house. I would have thought what you have is loads but dd wasn't low birthweight and maybe we are just not giving dd enough layers! To be honest we have been thinking recently that she may be a bit too cold at night (hands feel freezing and feet sometimes a bit cold too) and thinking about long sleeve/higher tog grow bag

metrovelvet

i do this in my own bed and for my ds also. A fleece blanket in between the mattress and the sheet. Keeps in the heat.

could try a sleeping cap also if it gets that cold.

nesf

Young babies' thermoregulation (ability to control heat) isn't as good as an adult's or older child's so often their hands and feet will appear to be very cold but their torso temperature will be fine. Judge the baby's temperature off the torso temperature and ignore the hands and feet and you'll be fine.

It's worse to overheat than underheat a baby so veer on the side of caution temperature wise.

Ludo

Short sleeved vest, pyjamas (previously a baby grow when younger), and a gro-bag. No blankets.

stovelid

When he was a small baby, at this time of year: vest, babygro and gro-bag (the thicker tog, can't remember exactly)

At this time of the year (17 months old): we don't use a blanket or grobag as he is a serious wriggler. He's just been in short-sleeve vest, thin pyjamas and all-in-one sleep suit over that and he sleeps fine.

January

DD gets a short sleeve vest, a babygro/pj's, a 2 tog grobag and a fleece blanket at this time of year. Her torso and the back of her neck are toasty and the room temp is around 15-16 degrees at night. Her hands do be freezing though.

Dades

Keep one one of those plug-in oil radio radiators on low all night which keeps room at the right temp. House gets freezing so it's the only way.

Then just a long-sleeved babygro and a sleeveless grobag.

Moonbeam

vest,babygro/pjs,fleece sleep suit and 2.5 tog gro bag on the really cold nights.A baby gro and pjs on the less cold nights.

bogtotty

Also have a cold old house. DS sleeps in a long-sleeved vest, long-sleeved babygro and a grobag. The past 2 weeks I've been adding a folded over cellular blanket to his top half only so that it covers his arms, neck and shoulders and so he can't kick it off. He's slept through the night ever since (yeay!). I use a sleep positioner thingy too, it keeps him from headbanging against the side of the crib and keeps all the covers etc in place so he stays cosy all night long. I got it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Years-Nature-Sensations-Positioner/dp/B000HK89GA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby&qid=1261134589&sr=1-1

unkel

Depends on the room temperature. In a relatively modern semi, where the bedrooms are never heated, the room temp won't typically drop below 15 degrees unless it is well below zero outside

Long or short sleeved vest, long sleeved babygrow + low tog (2-3) sleeveless grobag plus one single cotton blanket should be enough.

Eoineo

Short sleeved vest, cotton pj's & a fleece jumpsuit. No blankets. The room drops to below 14 degrees during the night as i don't have the heat on but he sleeps right through.

nesf

Right, so with our latest arrival one week ago (a girl!) I've had my mind refreshed on this subject for young babies so here are some tips:

Ideal room temperature for a baby is between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius. You can go 2 degrees above or below this without any real problems, this is an ideal range not an ironclad requirement, it's perfectly possible to have a colder nursery you just need to clothe the baby accordingly.

Get a thermometer, a cheap one will do or a baby monitor with a thermometer built in if you like gadgets. This is mostly for peace of mind. If the room temp is between 16 and 20 then the baby only needs one light blanket on top of normal clothes. Blankets and/or clothes get added or removed according to temperature but here in Ireland you'll almost never see night temps above 22 degrees so it's a bit of a non issue in that direction.

If you can reasonably keep the baby's room within this temperature band (i.e. can do it without needing to leave the heating on nearly constantly or something silly like that) then your problems are sorted. In older homes with poorer insulation in Winter this isn't an option and you need to start thinking about heavier blankets or gro-bags and similar. Again the idea here is that knowing the temperature of the room gives you confirmation on whether you need to think about extra layers. The rough rule of thumb I've heard and it seems reasonable is that for young babies one more layer than you'd wear/use is appropriate.

Whatever you do avoid putting on too many blankets. This is far more dangerous than putting on too few blankets under normal Irish weather conditions. If in doubt, go one blanket fewer is my advice and as always check the baby's torso temperature if you want to know if they're cold. Cold hands and feet are not an indication that the child needs more layers necessarily!


Anyway, this was brought to you by new baby insomnia, I hope it's helpful for some people.

oh well

would never ever have heating on in children's bedrooms - even for an old enough house it would rarely go below 15 degrees. I thought 16-20 is recommended for a daytime temperature, and it should be cooler for nighttimes. Best place to check baby's temperature is back of neck. Mine always had cold hands and toes - blood circulation on babies wouldn't be great so hands/toes are last to heat up. Don't use a hat - definitely not recommended.

AbigailE

My daughters room was 10 deg this morning , Its a fairly new house (7 or 8 years old) and we only ran out of oil yesterday evening.

I put a vest babygro and fleece sleepsuit on. Last night she had them , a 2.5tog gro bag socks on her hands and a cellular blanket

nesf

oh well wrote: »

would never ever have heating on in children's bedrooms - even for an old enough house it would rarely go below 15 degrees. I thought 16-20 is recommended for a daytime temperature, and it should be cooler for nighttimes. Best place to check baby's temperature is back of neck. Mine always had cold hands and toes - blood circulation on babies wouldn't be great so hands/toes are last to heat up. Don't use a hat - definitely not recommended.

I've seen it go well below 15 degrees in my parent's home. 5-6 degrees was the lowest I saw, then this was an 80's house with poor insulation in the cavity walls so not that surprising. In our flat, which is 3 years old, the temp only very rarely drops below 17, even in very cold weather without the need for extra heating bar it going on for one or two hours a day in the worst of winter weather.

16-20 is for night time. Links: http://help.mothercare.com/help/products/nursery_temp http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/sleep/roomtemppoll/