How did you keep babies warm years ago?

[GarlicCrackers]

Posting here for traffic and visibility.

Also maybe a slight AIBU for being totally ignorant and naive!!

I am due my second child in Feb, due to recent events with my dearest wanker of a half - I am now single and my first thought was, well I better reduce the energy bill if I want to financially survive.

I am 33 so have never lived without central heating and modern amenities.

Sat down, looked at electrics, you know vampire devices, plugs that get left on. Moved on to heating. I like being cool, I dislike the heat so I think well hot water bottle at night and wear my oodie during the day. Heating off at night and we will all be fine. Will have the dogs upstairs and we can all share heat.

and then I remember….I’m pregnant, I’m due a baby in cold cold February. Babies can’t regulate heat they are tiny.

How did we keep babies warm before CH? I have grobags and blankets. Can they have hot water bottles? I can’t afford heating on all night but dear god will I get into energy debt if that’s my only choice

I know this sounds stupid, I just realised I have no idea. I see people talk about how no heating = constant chest infections etc

Exactly. Guidelines were 18 at night when ds was tiny so clearly millions of babies survived. 18 is warm to have your bedroom when you're in bed!

Knitting - people knitted blankets, cardigans, jumpers gloves, bootees . Layers basically that can be added / removed as necessary

I lived in a fairly extreme climate when my oldest was a baby (not really extreme, but hot in summer and cold in winter.

Her room reached as low as 5 degrees in winter (when she was 3-6 months old). She slept wearing tights, long-sleeved vest/babygro, warm sleepsuit, thick baby sleeping bag. I added another blanket on top of this. She was absolutely fine. We also slept in warm clothes and had excessive blankets on the bed.

I wouldn't put a baby in a hat for sleeping in case it covered their face during the night.

OP - you can absolutely cope without heating at night, even when the weather is cold. The difficulties will be more the unpleasantness of getting showered/changing clothes. For the baby, it will be horrid getting naked for a bath. So maybe think about that (could you heat the bathroom separately before bathtime? Or bath in the living room if that is warmer than elsewhere?) The other ballache is changing the nappy of a baby wearing multiple layers or, worse, dealing with a poonami and having to strip them entirely when it's cold!

I wouldn't worry about bedroom temp as long as you dress the baby appropriately. We coped with 5 degrees inside the house in winter and close to 30 in summer (no a/c and heating crippling expensive, we never used it after we got our first bill!)

I like it cool during the summer and toastie warm in the winter. It really depends on your house our's is usually quite warm. My daughter has siezures though that can be triggered with her getting too hot.

Putting socks on under baby grows and mittens help keep they're hands and feet warm. First few months better off dressing them for comfort because they sleep so much. They really don't need that many outfits. You can easily add another layer of you don't think they're warm enough. It's better to warm them up than have them get too hot and distressed. Also when they have they're bottle's will warm them up. Just like we feel warmer after eating a meal.

It is a real issue. Co-sleeping with tiny babies is really only safe with the heating on. With the heating off you need a warm duvets and/or blankets and it is easy for a baby to overheat.

You're about the 100th person who has asked about this. CLEARLY, I meant, WITHOUT ADEQUATE CLOTHING AND BEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus! My point was, that if the room is cold i.e. 16 degrees, a baby needs ADEQUATE CLOTHING AND BEDDING AND YES, A LITTLE HAT!!!!!!!

I always thought you kept duvets down low and wore fleecy tops to keep yourself warm and baby wore sleeping bag just like they would in a cot and so don't come into contact with blankets/ duvets.

Yes you should sleep without a duvet and just have warm clothes. But it will be hard to keep yourself warm enough using this approach.

Well clearly it wasn't clear at all was it? Also, you asked me what I weighed, which isn't about adequate clothing.

How did we keep babies warm before CH?

We wrapped them up. Mine was born with snow on the ground and no CH. He wore at least three layers at all times and slept in a big, thick Arran sleeping bag.

They absolutely don’t need a hat to sleep in a room at 18/19 degrees or 16 as you’ve now changed it to.

Skinny people tend to feel the cold more than people with more padding. Babies are tiny little bodies so do need adequate clothing and bedding.

My ex was like a furnace. I'd almost consider taking him back for the winter 😂

I wear a hat in bed!

I can happily

www.babycenter.com/baby/bathing-body-care/when-can-my-baby-stop-wearing-those-infant-hats_1368473

Just putting this here as it is not safe for a baby to wear a hat at night.

Real sheepskin fur is amazing for holding heat. I put a hotwater bottle under my sheepskin rug and it’s still hot the next day. Perhaps you can make her a hotwater bottle with a sheepskin fur cover and a sheepskin fur blanket.

You have them in bed with you.

@Oldcottoneye If '100 people' all misunderstood the point you 'clearly' made, I would suggest it wasn't clear at all.

By all means warm the cot up with a hot water bottle before bed but it is absolutely not safe to have a bottle in with the baby under a sheepskin. Forgive me if this isn't what you meant.

I’m a Feb baby born in the middle of the snowy 1972 rolling power cuts, so don’t worry we survive! My Mum said she used blankets, mittens and a knitted woollen hat on me. I guess these days you could use those high tog sleeping bags instead of blankets?. Also keep the baby in the same room as you so your body temperature raises the temperature of the room. I really hope everything goes well for you.

Or they deliberately misunderstood for the sake of arguing.

What sort of idiot would think that I meant that babies die at 19 degrees. The human race would be extinct.

In any case, you can not say, this is the precise amount of clothing to be worn as people will have different sleeping arrangements and different homes.
If I had to sleep with pjs and two cellular blankets over me when temperatures overnight drop, I'd freeze to death, and as I said, for the first 5 days home from hospital my dd was actually cold as I had my room thermometer out and rigidly stuck to the guidelines at the time. We had 6 nights in hospital when she was born and the temperature on the ward was like the Bahamas.

It requires a bit of common sense and a bit of caution (I'd err on the side of caution), but with a bit of tweaking, you'll find what is safe but works.

Premature babies tend to wear little woolly hats in hospital so I'm surprised it's not recommended, but if that is the recommendation, then please follow those guidelines, not me, talking through me hat!

Co-sleeping is not recommended but it has been mentioned on this thread numerous times. People will do what they want to do at the end of the day.

It's not recommended as they're constantly monitored when in hospital.

There's a strange phenomenon that I've witnessed many times over here which struck fear into my heart when I first saw it and it's people with blankets over the pram, so not a blanket on the baby, the hood of the pram is up and a blanket draped from the hood over the baby if you get me? I'd have an awful fear of the baby struggling to breathe but it seems to be a done thing. I don't know why it's done as it's not necessarily limited to cold weather. I've concluded that it's maybe the equivalent of putting a towel over a budgie's cage or something.