Hot Climate Mums- Baby bedding Advice please!

[TheBride]

I live in Hong Kong and am expecting DS1 in September, when it will still be summer here and we will have to have the air con on.

I've read a lot about how it's very important that your baby doesnt get too hot in bed, and I've been trying to choose some bedding but it's hard because a lot of the advice in my books is very UK centric.

I wondered if anyone could offer advice on the following

1. What temp do you set the air con to and how critical is this? At the moment we usually set it to 24 but when i look in books it seems to say that anything above 20 is too hot for a baby.

1. What bedding do you use? I'm worried that if I have to get the temp below 20, then the "blast" from the air con will make his limbs chilly even if overall he's warm enough. I was thinking a light tog sleeping bag (0.5 or 1) over a long sleeved sleeper suit.

1. Any other tips (or pls feel free to tell me I am overthinking this and being "PFB" about it)

dsis keeps the aircon at whatever is comfortable for the rest of the family. babies get one layer more.
as tiny newborns, they were sort of swaddled, until they went into their growbags about two monthsish. at the moment she puts them in a vest and long sleeved babygro to sleep, with the youngest aged 11 months now.
hth

Hi TheBride - I too was really worried about it but there is no way we could get the temp down to 20 even with the air con on 16 (am in Singapore). DS was swaddled in a sleepsuit in his moses basket to start with then went into a 0.5 tog grobag once he managed to houdini himself out of his swaddling.

He was fine and the temp was always around 24. Don't worry too much. I think what bothers them more is sudden extremes of heat and cold so try to make sure he's not in the direct blast of the air con if possible.

There was a thread on here a while back for a lady in Vietnam (I think) that you might be able to track down it also had some good advice.

Last summer DD was 4-8 months and we didn't have air con in that house (Sydney). On hot nights we just put her in a nappy, singlet(vest) and then swaddled her with a muslin wrap, and on slightly cooler nights she had a long sleeve light cotton sleeps suit on, and swaddled. As it coled down in late Feb we started putting a cotton cellular blanket over the top of the swaddle, and then she went into a light tog gro bag with long sleeve cotton sleep suit in March.

Does that help? My DD is number 3 and I still worry a bit - adding and taking off layers and then worrying she is now too hot or too cold. DH pointed out that there is not just one temperature at which we are comfortable though. If I am sleeping in a t-shirt and a blanket, and then someone added another cotton blanket while I slept, I would still be fine and comfortable...so there is a range, not one perfect blanket/clothing/temperature combo.

I think the rule of thumb is baby gets whatever you get in terms of clothing/blankets, plus a vest/singlet if they are less than 2 mmonths ish.

That's great advice- thanks everyone.

It just makes you panic when you read room temperature guides and there is a large red triangle with a big black exclamation mark in it saying "TOO HOT" next to anything over 20 degrees.

Of course, when we get to Jan, we'll have the opposite issue. Ten degrees and no central heating!

From the gro bag website - if you scroll down the page there is a guide to what to wear in the nursery depending on the temperature.

DD's were swaddled until about 3mo. We have no air con and are in Sydney. When it was hot I would dress them in nappy and vest only then swaddle in either a muslin or cotton wrap. Once they changed to sleeping bags I used a .5tog sleeping bag and a onesie.

Plenty of babies born in hot countries and are fine. I would think blasting them with air conditioning is probably worse than dressing according to the climate.

You're not being pfb btw!

DS was born in July in decidedly non-tropical France but it was well over 20 degrees most nights for his first month or so. We had a baby monitor we had to throw out because it beeped when the room got too hot, so basically it never shut up!
He wore light onesie with thin blanket (one of those cellular ones with small holes in) then 0.5 tog grobag when he was big enough.
He was also decent enough to scream bloody murder when he got too hot, so we tended to be react accordingly!!

TheBride, we did aircon at around 21, baby grobag at either 0.5 or 1 tog and long sleeved sleeping suit. Worked fabulously with all of mine. We were in Tanzania at the time.

Also I swear the sound of the a/c helps them to sleep better.

You are definitely not being pfb about it, I remember angsting for weeks over the same thing.

Ok so I did worry about this a bit, and used/use air con every night at 24 degrees. But there are plenty plenty people who have babies here who don't have air conditioning and they all seem to survive ok. Perhaps babies are a bit more hardy than we are led to believe? Or do we (collectively) think it depends on your genetic make up, eg Afro Caribbean babies do better in the heat and worse in the cold?

Thanks again for all your advice.

Themaster- the sound of the air con helps ME sleep better, so hopefully it will be a genetic trait

Right- now must call the air con people and get the whole system conditioned- it is spluttering a bit!

Not at all pfb - hard to follow advice when it is geared towards cooler climates where air con is not the norm and doesn't take into account the humidity or lack of.

I concur with the majority of the advice here - keep the air con however makes you comfortable - usually 24? Keep his cot away from the direct blast of air (usually on the same wall as the vent itself). Bedding here is simply a long sleeved cotton sleepsuit and a large cellular blanket doubled over - allows a little air to pass through, and is lightweight but warm. Btw, my DD slept in just her nappy in 25 degrees in France and survived.

hi, I had my second in greece, it was about 40 degrees in May that year.

I think the whole temperature guidance is -allow me to say- a bit silly. Babies have been born and brought up for many generations in hot countries, long before aircon was available. I know survival rates have improved dramatically etcetcetc, but please don't be too paranoid. Just do what you would do for yourself.

When DS was new, I had in mind that he can't sweat so he was only in nappy and a vest. I think he spent that summer like that, but sometimes out in the garden and it was almost 30, but I figured fresh air had to be better than aircon air. I'd put the aircon on in the afternoon, when it would hit 42, but would keep it in "normal" for the season levels, not below 25.

bottom line is, I was glad not to be pregnant any more :-)

Good luck with the rest of the pregnancy, and birth, keep in mind that your baby will "let you know" if he's hot or cold

Had all the DCs in summer in the hot and sticky Midwestern US, where the temps were between 22 and 32ish and humidity was often high too. They slept in little vests with a light cotton cellular blanket. I hate AC and found a fan and open windows kept the air circulating better without altering the temperature.

Babies in hot climates where there's no AC seem to survive -- something overlooked by the UK-centric books?

Have you bought any local baby magazines? They might give some hints. My dd was born in Kenya and the local magazines made fascinating reading.

Marcopront- thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately there aren't any (well, there are but they're written in Chinese). The English language ones are all imports from the US/UK.

That's a shame, the magazines being in Chinese. My advice is still to try and get local advice, are there any expat groups? Do you have a cleaner you could ask?

had two babies born here in Aus and our summer temp is regularly over 24. We had no air con. So the dds were dressed in short sleeved baby gros and a very light cotton sleep suit. My three hated being swaddled so the baby gro was fab.

You maybe able to get a subscription to an aussie baby magazine. I found practical parenting so helpful.

website here You may be able to get a subscription.

subscription info

My dd was born in Riyadh, temp gets up into the 50's so AC is a must.
We fitted a split AC unit in the bedroom, I directed the vent's towards the ceiling, and put it on the lowest 'blow' setting, that way there was less of a draft, this way the room stayed cool but without that cold, ac feeling. I set the unit to a low temp, between 19 and 21 degrees, and this kept the room temp to about 21 - 23 degrees. I used 1 tog grobags, and either put her in a long sleeve vest or a short sleeve vest and sleepsuit (usually both - which is more than grobag recommend, but she was cold otherwise) and she was fine. She needed the sleeves or she woke up.
For the first weeks she was swaddled in a light cotton sheet (found the shaped swaddles too thick, and she didnt like them), again wearing a babygrow and vest.
For quick naps I used a cellular blanket.
The best rule is to touch the skin on baby's chest...if their temp is similar to yours they are fine (but don't forget that your hands may be colder than the rest of you...feel your chest and compare!)
You are not being PFB at all, DD was my second, I worried for what felt like the whole pregnancy! In the end she helped me work it out and I am sure that yours will too...Good Luck!