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

21 degrees is not going to be achievable for anyone this winter (unless you work in government with all expenses paid).
I would try to keep the room a little bit warm and keep the baby well wrapped up in a sleeping tog thing (they didn't exist 18 years ago). It's like a duvet for a baby but it's fitted so that the baby can't smother.

I am lucky enough to have had time with both of my grandmothers. In their early days, of extreme poverty (both of my lovely grandmothers), everyone slept in one room which would have been heated during the day but with all of them in there at night, it would never have grown too cold I suppose. Babies were put into a drawer (I kid you not).

electric oil radiators have a thermostat so you get one for where babies sleeping and it could heat just that room to 19degrees. It should come on and off automatically as needed

The drawer was not closed on the baby I should emphasise! That was just a thing to put the baby in lol. I'm still not convinced my grandmothers were not winding me up!

Merino tops and leggings, merino sleeping bag -heat-regulating wool. They are dirt cheap here in NZ.

Babies get cold very quickly in a cold room when you're changing their nappies. I'd try to keep one room warm for changing the nappies because I only know that my baby cried so much from cold (at the perfect by-the-book temperature) and when I'm old, I too would feel the cold. I'd cry too lol.

You'll figure it out as every single one of us has done and your baby will be grand! Don't panic yet!

You know very well that your baby will announce its discontent lol.

The lullaby trust have recommendations on ideal room temperature for babies designed to reduce the risk of SIDS. It’s much cooler than I imagined, and when I queried it with my HV and midwife they both said to me “cold babies cry, hot babies die” which is very horrid but on googling seems to be true, sadly. The general thought was it’s better that they are colder and awake than too hot in case there is an issue.

I had 2 November babies so I bought the house thermostat up to our bedroom and the CH was dictated by that to regulate the bedroom, we mostly camped out in there for the first few weeks anyway between feeding and sleeping etc so might be ok. You could turn off the other radiators etc

Please have a look at their guidance if you haven’t already. They have lots of info on use of layers and blankets, no loose covers, sleep positions in a cot and co-sleeping.

Congratulations on your pregnancy, best of luck.

The ideal temperature for a baby sleeping is actually a lot cooler then you think! It's 16-17 degrees ideally.
Dress them appropriately and get decent sleeping bags (2.5 tog), you can get newborn ones which are gro snugs.
We also used a baby lambs wool skin in the bassinet which helps regulate body temp.
I'm mid 30s but had both babies in Winter in a cold house.
Nappy changes only get their legs out and use a piece of fleece blanket or towel underneath to keep them warm.

Yeah, until they die from hypothermia

The first time my baby cried was when she was used as the demonstration baby for all other mothers when we were hauled out to a room for a demonstration on the correct temperature to bathe your baby. That nurse came as close as she ever will to being knocked out. She stripped my baby and put her into a sink of cold water whereupon my daughter objected in the strongest possible terms!!! My baby had a similar reaction to a PHN deciding that I would benefit from baby massage. My baby aired her lungs through that episode too. Babies need to be warm, safe and fed. Don't smother them and they'll survive.

I'm genuinely paranoid about SIDS. I've known people who lost babies that way. I think cold is as dangerous as heat and you need to be able to trust that if your baby is sweating or freezing, then maybe adjust the blankets or the heating.
I am a firm believer in little hats on them too as when I'm cold, I need a hat and socks. Little socks and a little hat (but not a hat that might smother them - can you tell that I'm paranoid about smothering?)

I would dress your bub in a long sleeved wool sleepsuit, then put in a 3.5 tog sleeping bag. They will only have their head and hands out and will be nice and toasty!

They won't die from hyperthermia this is the ideal room temperature for babies and safe sleeping even recommended by the lullaby trust!

Definitely shouldn't wear a hat at night in bed it can make them too warm. For someone who is paranoid about SIDS your not following the guidelines!

Why is pp saying babies will get hypothermia at 18/19 degrees? That's just not true. It's a very standard night time temperature . Just add an extra layer on the baby to whatever you have on OP.

Because the OP is not talking about 18 degrees. She's asking about winter.

The guidelines are for set temperatures. If your little baby is in a freezing cold bedroom in January, a little hat, will keep it warm.

Temperatures will start dropping to 10 degrees overnight shortly. Over winter they're usually around 4-8 degrees. A body temperature is 36.5. If a baby is not kept warm enough, it will freeze to death.

Jesus, is this going to cost us babies? FFS.

If anyone is reading this in Winter - swaddle your baby and a little hat if your room is freezing.

My first baby was born in November, and we lived in a house with no central heating. We used a hot water bottle only to warm his cot or pram before he was put into it. Don't use one in with the baby, you could burn him. We had clothes horses round the fire to make a sort of wall when we bathed him, and so all his clothes and towels were warmed. We dressed him in vest, babygro, and matinee coat, or vest, nightgown, matinee coat and booties and mittens, with two blankets over him, and hats only outdoors. No heating at night.

There is really no need to heat the house at night, assuming all the inhabitants are fit and healthy. I am around your age, with two small children. Our house (at my insistence) doesn’t even have radiators in the bedrooms; the house I and my 4 siblings grew up in was cold enough upstairs that we could see our breath in winter and when I looked after a schoolfriend’s mice during a Christmas holiday they tried to hibernate 😁(I put them somewhere warmer when I realised; they were fine). It’s actually bad for you to sleep in temperatures above 17°C - and sleeping in temperatures below that needn’t do you any harm at all, even if you’re a baby.

Merino grow bags are eye-wateringly expensive, but keep an eye out for them on ebay, local Facebook groups etc. And they’re still cheaper than heating. Light woollen baby blankets are your friend too (follow safe sleep rules obviously). Hot water bottle in the baby’s cot sounds like a very bad idea to me, but I suppose you could use one to warm the cot up a little before putting the baby to bed as long as you make sure the baby’s never left with the bottle in its cot. Woollen thermals for babies and children are unfortunately almost impossible to get second hand and again, quite expensive - but cheaper than running the heating above 19°C during the day too.

It’s no wonder we’re struggling so much to cut down on humanity’s carbon footprint…

No you specifically said 18 /19 degrees. That no one can survive or sleep in this. It's just incorrect.

P.S. my oldest had all his naps outside as he wouldn’t sleep indoors during the day - some of those naps were taken in Norway in February. Absolutely standard in Scandinavia for babies to nap outside in temperatures down to -10° and below - and yet miraculously they don’t seem to have an epidemic of hypothermia baby deaths 🤷‍♀️

FGS we're not going to have babies 'freezing to death' if people start turning the heating off at night in the UK in winter.

Our heating is set to come on if the temperature drops below 16 C in the house at night as part of the Hive programme and it almost never does, maybe once or twice in a cold winter. No-one, whether they are a week old or 102 will die from cold at that temperature.

You don’t say anything about what kind of house you live in. If it’s got insulation and not drafts I wouldn’t be worrying about hypothermia if you have baby in cot with blanket/sleep bag.

People are so unnecessarily paranoid about babies being cold when over heating is much more dangerous.