Keeping babies room cool

[Namechangemum100]

I'm looking for some advice from mum's on keeping DD room cool. She's 14 months and our house gets very very hot in the summer, her room is 26 degrees tonight.

We can't leave a window open, as we live in a village that has lots of noisy motorcross bikes which go up and down at all hours and drive us crazy.

She is a very particular sleeper, likes her grobag and to be in darkness, so can't leave door open of strip her down.

I'm thinking about getting a fan for her room and leaving it on all night, do other people do this? I'm worried it would make her too cold being on constantly, and that I also wouldn't really know her true temperature because her room would still say x degrees but she would obviously be cooler than that.

So confused , she was in our room last summer so this is the first time we have had to worry and I'm always soooo paranoid about her over heating.

[absolutelycrackers]

Do you have a 1 tog bag .

My dd is two and tonight is in a long sleeved vest and 1 tog bag .
She also likes quiet room and her sleeping bag

[Namechangemum100]

Hi @absolutelycrackers, yes we do have a 1 tog bag, could I ask what temp your dd room is?

[BackIntoTheSun]

I was wondering the same thing. DD is 7mo and is a bad sleeper so I'm loathe to take away her sleeping bag but don't want her to overheat

[StillMissV]

I found the fan didn't massively cool the room but at least circulated the air. It was better than nothing but still horribly hot (my little boys room routinely went up to 29 degrees last year, but we live in the runway descent for Heathrow - so either stiflingly hot room or a plane landing/taking off right above our heads every45 seconds!)

[madvixen]

A fan will just circulate the warm air so you will need to trick it. Place a frozen bottle of water in front of it when you turn it on and it will circulate lovely cool air around the room. If you don't want to leave it on all night then pop it on an hour before bed and it should be lovely and cool.

[bloomsburyer]

I've got an 8 month old in a one tog Grobag tonight. I've put the fan on for the first time and she went off to sleep really quickly because of the white noise from it.

[SheepyFun]

We have a portable air conditioning unit (seriously) - it was very hot the summer I was pregnant with DD, and DH felt it would help (it did). We do need the window open for it to vent, but it's sufficiently noisy that it blocks out any external noise! You can set the temperature. DD struggles with heat, and we spent several summer afternoons in her room because it was the only place I could get cool enough to stop her crying (as a baby/toddler).

[Chocness]

My toddler’s room is similar in the heat, it’s a nightmare! To help we:

• put him in a 1 tog grobag. Often without anything underneath. Think you can also get a 0.5 tog grobag which might help you. If it’s really hot then we ditch the gro bag all together and he sleeps in a top and shorts
  

• keep curtains closed all day. Only open window when temp outside is lower than inside and when room is in shade
  

-2 fans to circulate air above and below cot

-a/c unit was a must last year. We keep it on all day and turn off for naps and bedtime as my toddler was scared of it when on! I made a template for the window so I could vent out the hot air without letting all the cold air out. This worked well, I then put fans on during sleep time to circulate the cool air.

-keep his door closed all day so hot air from the rest of the house does not get to to the room

My toddler also only sleeps in the dark and with the door closed so I feel your pain! I also remember during last years heatwave going into my sons room at about 11pm and v quietly taking down his blackout blind and opening all his windows to get some fresh and cool air into his room whilst he slept! Took about 30 mins to get it to a reasonable temp then I’d close windows and put blind back up etc... I also made sure he was very hydrated during that time as his room was so warm he was rather sweaty. Needless to say I’m not too enamoured at the thought of further heatwaves!

[gingerbreadbiscuits]

Open your loft hatch if you have one.

[MunsteadWood]

I'm also wondering this today. I only have 2.5 tog sleeping bags and 6mo DS's room thermometer is currently saying 25C... I've got a fan on and windows open but in the last hour the temperature has only gone down 0.5C.

Should I put him in the bag in just a nappy? Going without the bag makes me nervous!

[MunsteadWood]

Oops typo. I mean could I put him in a sleeping bag and just a nappy.

Worried on the one hand about him overheating, but then also about his little arms getting cold if they're bare, as he normally wears long sleeves!

[BertieBotts]

Don't worry about it. Other countries get much hotter than the UK at night and they do not have such stringent guidelines for baby sleep temperature.

If you can block the sun from coming into the room during the day it will help, though. Some bits of old cardboard box wrapped in tinfoil leant up against the window frame will help reflect the sun out. Then remove and open the windows wide as soon as the outside temperature cools down. You can close them when she goes to bed if you're worried about noise but it should keep the room cooler.

Munstead I wouldn't worry about cold arms :)

Fans won't change the room temperature but will obviously cool the baby, plus provide white noise. So don't run it unless they're actually in there.

Another tip would be to let them fall asleep with all the extra bedding, clothing and then if they are deep enough sleepers go in and remove it so they aren't too hot during the night.

[BertieBotts]

Or if you've got a decent blackout blind that might work as well as the makeshift shutters.

[LoveB]

My 6 month DD room is 26 at the mo and going in a 1.0 sleeping bag with a long sleeved vest

Need to work out how to stop the damn baby monitor bleeping at me TOO HOT!

[Pastaagain78]

Would the sound of a fan drown out the motorbikes?