to give my 4mo baby the coldest room in the house?

[BettyButterknife]

There isn't exactly much choice, unless we give him our room and we take the garret attic room. Just after the heating clicked off this morning his gro-bag thermometer said 15 degrees.

That's cold, isn't it?

Your MIL is bonkers.

The temperature in my whole house regularly dips below 16C overnight in the winter and as long as baby DS was warmly dressed for bed and had plenty of covers on, he was fine. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I agree, your MIL is bonkers. Especially if its the nicest room, use it yourselves.

Otherwise, plug-in radiator and extension cable.

We have exactly the same situation, dd2 is in the rather chilly attic room. We warm her bed before she gets in with those microwave cuddly things and have a small oil filled radiator on low all night, it works fine, the room's toasty in the morning.

Ours is a lovely room too and dh and I would love to sleep up there but, as you say, it's quite cut off from the rest of the house and we couldn't hear the kids getting up etc in the morning.

btw, our attic does have a proper radiator in there too but the heating is switched off at night, it's quite noisy and would wake us up and make the other rooms too hot to sleep in.

"We could keep the heating on longer... Wish there was a way to keep just his radiator on rather than the whole house."

You can do just that with thermostatic radiator valves - they switch the radiator on or off based on the temp of the room

your mil would have hated us! We slept in the garrett and gave dd the smaller room downstairs. Not a problem. And once bigger sooo much easier as you don't tend to get up for every little niggle!

tbh, breaking in - I am not sure a burglar would be that interested in your baby but it didn't really bother me too much as we were quite secure and would have heard anything.

Re Fire - this is a risk you take whatever floor you are on - if your dc is upstairs and the fire starts on your floor, of you are downstairs and a fire starts? It is sadly the risk of a fire isn't it? Surely making sure you have good fire alarms on all floors? Also one of us would have gone down to get her regardless.

At the moment we live in a house with a long corridor and we are at one end, dd is at the other, samething could potentially happen couldn't it? I wouldn't over think it too much! ( or you will never sleep!!)

Alternatively we used to put a oil radiator on a thermostat in dd's room, therm was on 18 and this kept the room at a reasonable temp (not 18 as it wasn't a big radiator) but ensured that it didn't get tooo cold!

Why not spend the money that your would on extra heating/radiators/extra grobags on a really good alarm system?

You could get the ATL ones which come out and check you're OK if they're tripped if you're really panicky. Brings your house insurance cost down too sometimes :)

YABU, That is to cold for a small baby. Could he slep in your room with you.

I actually would feel much safer having my baby in a cold room at night than a hot one because of the SIDS risk of overheating. If your baby is too cold at night they will cry and you can add another layer if need be.

my youngest went into the fridge (box room)when 3months to be honest i wanted him in there as was worried about overheating,had room thermometer and was well wrapped up,i assumed he would wake if cold,didnt so seemed to work for him and me

didnt like the thought of an electric heater as was worried that something may fall onto it you know the ones with the heat coming out the top and catch fire,but the ones all enclosed sound a good idea

mousesma ,great minds

Overdressing your baby to compensate for the cool room is the biggest risk.

Have you thought about addressing why the room is cool. Improving the insulation, sealing around the window and hanging heavier lined curtains would make the room much warmer and cut the heating bill.

You can even apply for grants for the insulation

Just pit him in with you. You'll be getting up anyway and it's no fun when it's cold.

I'd be much happier if a baby was in a room that was on the cold side rather than too hot.

We can't afford to have the heating on yet and it's much colder than that in our bedrooms on a night. Decent pyjamas and an extra blanket and we're as warm as toast. If he's cold he'll wake up, besides it's not that much cooler than what the guidelines stipulate.

DD is in the coldest room in the house. It is also the smallest and closest to our bedroom. DS was in it then moved to a larger room down the corridor when DD needed to move out of our room. DD is 18 months. We have an electric heater in there so it keeps to a reasonable temperature and she sleeps well.

My whole house is less than 15 degrees at night!

Sleeping bag and blanket. He'll be fine.

How many of us grew up in houses with no heating at all?

I would rather have a slighty cold room than a hot one for my DS. He is in the coldest room too in our house. There is a centrak heating radiator in the room, but I turn it off at the wall, about a hour before he goes to bed as it gets way too hot. The residual heat seems to linger for a while, as when we go to bed (3/4 hours later)the room is still warmish.

Last night was COLD, his room was hovering 15-16, but when I felt him he was toasty.

Heres what we have done.

Thermal lined the curtian over his window and placed a draft excluder over the sill.

On a very cold night he wears-
He wears a l/s vest, baby grow and down filled sleeping bag. If very cold- big socks too, and then when we go to bed, I check him and if he feels cold, then a thin waffel blanket on top.

So far this has been fine, and he will be 2 in December went into his own room at 7m.

Am loving the idea of arm warmers though!

We've put DS in the coldest room - because the attic bedrooms get too hot in summer (32 at night!). It does get fairly cold but we leave the heating on low which keeps it around 18. On milder winter nights, no heating needed.

We didn't move him to his own room until 6/7 months though. He woke so much there was no point torturing ourselves having to traipse up and down at night!

You can get thermostatic valves for radiators which make them work independently. I actually like colder bedrooms but he is only a little dot. I don't think it matters where in the house your rooms are. If you get a good stair gate and a monitor, they can't go anywhere. I'd have the room yourselves if you want it or are worried.

DD is in the coldest room in the house, as it is also the quietest and she is a RUBBISH sleeper.
If you keep the heating on, turn down all the other radiators except his, it won't monster your heating bills.
And also buy one of these (they're very warm with the arms on) - www.purflo.com/plain_sleepsac.php?PHPSESSID=e7a53cdeadb2ab9f7d40df97f9dcd738

Too cold is better than too warm a room. If it is too cold he will wake up and let you know!

Our house can be freezing (old house in Scotland and really big rooms that are unheatable). My babies have always been in rooms about 15 degrees just in sleeping bags cos terrified of blankets and them getting stuck under them. I just get them kitted out in granny knit jumpers to keep them warm over their vests and jammies - seems to do the trick.

My baby and toddler have cold rooms too. Two outside walls and one is over the garage. I just make sure they are warmly wrapped up in bed on cold nights. As someone else said we had no heating upstairs at all when I was a child (in the 1980s). I can remember not wanting to get out of bed because the room was cold but I was always warm and toasty in bed.

I too think your MIL is being silly about you not having the upstairs room. There is obviously a slight additional risk in respect of fire to being on a different floor to the baby. But, if anything, I would say better to be above the child than below them as if there's a fire you can collect them as you run downstairs rather than running up and away from your escape route.