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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder whether people are so paranoid about their babies overheating...

30 replies

madamearcati · 31/12/2009 11:24

..that they are going too far the other way.Not recognising that there are at least as many dangers to a baby from being too cold and that babies being so small lose heat far more rapidly than an adult or older child.

OP posts:

BertieBotts · 31/12/2009 11:27

Actually overheating is more of a danger in small babies as they are likely to just go to sleep - a cold baby will wake up and cry.

Imbacille · 31/12/2009 11:28

Ivykaty44 · 31/12/2009 11:29

Was it not one of the five thought causes of cot death?

Morloth · 31/12/2009 11:31

DS passed out once from being too hot. This was here in the Science Museum. It was hot (I was uncomfortable) and he wasn't heavily dressed.

When we are in Australia I have to watch him constantly, he doesn't however appear to notice/feel the cold.

I would rather he had cold feet than be unconscious.

bogie · 31/12/2009 11:33

I hate seeing babies that are way way to hot wrapped up like they are living in the Antartic (when really they are just being pushed around sainsburys) It is so dangerous

Original poster

madamearcati · 31/12/2009 12:08

(sighs) No I am not saying babies should be overheated Nobody is saying that.
It is the fact that people don't often realise the risks of hypothermia and this thread illustrates that.
A baby suffering from hypothermis will not cry ,it will be quiet and listless.

OP posts:

Morloth · 31/12/2009 12:12

Yes, but each parent knows their kid better than you do. So you can look at a baby and think, they look too cold and I can look at them and think, god what are you trying to do roast him? We can be looking at the same kid and still both be wrong.

Do you have stats on how many babies were affected by hypothermia as opposed to overheating in say 2008?

OrmIrian · 31/12/2009 12:14

But presumably there are quite a few stages before hypothermia? During each of which the baby will be increasingly unhappy and voice that!

Frostythesurfmum · 31/12/2009 12:29

Is this to do with the sock thread?

cookielove · 31/12/2009 12:34

i thought sock thread to?

lowrib · 31/12/2009 12:41

But overheating is really dangerous!

Sorry to link to the Daily Evil, but it came up on a quick search on Google ...

Here's an article of the dangers of overheating at night.

It is a SIDs risk.

It's also particularly dangerous at this time of year when people go from outside to an inside warm environment and don't take their baby's outdoor clothes off but leave them to roast instead - like going into warm shops. I think there is a risk of fits - can anyone confirm this?

I remember someone on a thread recently saying that a baby was put next to a radiator in a buggy, at a school do, and by the time someone noticed, the baby needed madical attention from overheating.

lowrib · 31/12/2009 12:55

Sorry but the talk of hypothermia is ridiculous surely?

Whose house exactly is so cold that a baby would easily get hypothermia?

Any house with heating and too many blankets on the other hand is potentially hot enough to be dangerous.

Sorry, I'm really hope that doesn't come across as scaremongering, that's not my intention at all! Just put things n perspective a but.

Original poster

madamearcati · 31/12/2009 12:56

Pleas can you note I am no way saying that overheating is NOT dangerous.Of course it is Very very dangerous.
I just think people are not aware of the possibility of hypothermia and frostbite.I see some babies with no hats , no gloves out in sub zero temeperature.
A friend told me that she dresses her 9 m old in as many layers she has when she takes her out , and if she isn't cold then she doesn't think the baby will be.
Well for one thing the baby will lose heat faster because she is smaller and secondly she is being kept warm walking and pushing the pram !

OP posts:

Morloth · 31/12/2009 13:01

How many babies do you know have had hypothermia/frostbite? I know of exactly none but I can think of 5 who I know have been found sweaty and drowsy in the winter months.

I do the same amount of clothes as me but then I use a sling and my coat goes over the top.

SleighGirl · 31/12/2009 13:04

madamearcati I think I know the sort of thing you mean, baby outside in temperatures below 5 dressed for spring rather than winter - no hat or hood.

Scout19075 · 31/12/2009 13:34

I often wonder what I should do....

I'm ALWAYS cold this time of year, no matter the outdoor or indoor temperature (not unual to see me with fingertip-less gloves on inside). DH is usually comfortable to bordering on warm.

How do we dress DS? I'm always worried I'll roast him if we follow the "number of layers you have plus one" rule based on my clothes or freeze him if we follow the same rule based on hubby's.

daytoday · 31/12/2009 13:43

My daughter had a febrile convulsion at 1 year old - she got a temperature and within 10 mins she stopped breathing, turned blue, we had to give her mouth to mouth. Ambulance came -

I thought she had died/ had a heart attack. When the ambulance came they stripped her naked - she had a febrile convulsion. Apparently not all fits involve shaking - some fits involve stopping breathing. It happened that quickly.

Needless to say - I got very worried about temperatures until she grew older. Its to do with the internal mechanisms in the body and negative feedback.

Being cold / getting a cold is not the same thing.

This is probably why people worry so much.

Febrile convulsions are horrid

littleducks · 31/12/2009 13:44

I dont know, i always went with my midwives advice that a cold baby would cry but a hot baby would pass out. My sil definately dresses her kids in more layers than me, when we both had babies hers would def wear more. For example my kids dont ever wear coats in the car, just jumpers in this weather and a blanket at night when its colder, nieces and nephews wear coats/hats/gloves in car......which i think means they will be cold when they get out.....however our kids are all fine so i suppose it doesnt matter that much, no overheating or hypothermia.

Missus84 · 31/12/2009 13:51

If I see a baby with no gloves or hat in the winter, I might think "ooh, poor baby - looks a bit chilly".

When I see a baby fully clothed, in a hat and snowsuit, zipped up in a pram, fast asleep in a heated shop - I have to say something to the mum. Not enough people realise how dangerous it is. Adults unzip their coat and take their hat off when they go into a hot shop, but seem to assume their baby is asleep so fine, and they don't want to disturb it by taking clothes off.

OrmIrian · 31/12/2009 13:55

DB had a febrile convulsion when he was a few months old. They lived in an old cottage where the only heating was a huge ingle nook fireplace. Granny was looking after him and she put right up by the fire with loads of layers incl a hat because the house was so cold Well it was cold apart from in front of the fire..... Mum and dad came home just in time.

My gran had lived in Australia quite a bit of her adult life and never got used to the cold again.

Flame · 31/12/2009 13:59

aren't they meant to have 1 extra layer than you?

DD2 is generally swaddled which makes her warmer than just tucked in - no idea where that lies on the scale.

Morloth · 31/12/2009 13:59

It is weird. I find indoor heat a lot harder to deal with than outdoor heat. When it is 42 at home it is obviously uncomfortable but it doesn't feel dangerous and I don't find the tropics unbearable either and usually have all doors and windows open and just sweat away rather than bothering too much with a/c.

But I have felt sick/sleepy/weird at 25 or so here in the winter in people's houses.

No idea what the variable is - maybe our bodies are better at coping with the "natural" temperature of the season and heating/air conditioning disrupts it or something?

It is very strange and doesn't make any sense.

SleighGirl · 31/12/2009 14:00

TBH I think some parents just think at all that their babies/dc may be hotter or colder than them. I know a few different babies that were always dressed in the same amount and type of clothes regardless of time or year, weather or temperature.....

lazyemma · 31/12/2009 14:50

I just do the "checking back of neck" thing - it's never failed me yet.

lobsters · 31/12/2009 14:51

My baby will be one of the ones you see not wearing gloves, we put them on diligently, but they are always off within 5 seconds. We've reached a point where if she is cold she pulls her hands up inside her sleeves, or we tuck her hands under the blanket in her pushchair. She lets you know if she is cold and we try not to stay out too long. But the glove battle is one too far at the moment.

At home I have to say I'm more cautious about overheating, much to the annoyance of both grandparents.

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