Nursery room temperature

[trufflesandolives]

My DC has been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks, and yesterday was diagnosed with a chest infection. The GP suspects it developed from the lingering cold — and I can’t help but wonder whether the cold nursery environment played a role.

The room is kept at 19–20°C with air conditioning, and when I picked him up the day before the diagnosis, he was wearing just a short-sleeved vest and trousers — no top layer, despite my request that he be dressed more warmly due to his cold. His arms were freezing, and it really unsettled me.

I’ve raised it with the nursery and they’re looking into it, but it’s left me wondering: is this common? How have others managed clothing choices and indoor temperature at nursery — especially when little ones are unwell or in air-conditioned spaces?

Would really appreciate hearing others’ experiences or advice.

Why did you not dress him in a warmer outfit to go to nursery. Surely you have control of the clothing he is wearing and what’s in his bag?

What temperature is your house? The recommended room temperature for babies is 16-20 degrees so that sounds fine, if their trunk feels chilly then extra clothes can be added - but most babies wouldn't be "freezing" in a 20 degree room!

You don't get colds/chest infections from being physically cold, they're spread by bacteria and viruses.

I've honestly never thought about room temp at nursery.

You get colds and chest infections from other people/touching things.

why was his top off? Surely you'd dress him how you want prior to him going in?

I knew I'd get a comment like this... so tiring to have to defend every detail and write the obvious when posting on Mumsnet... I dress him in layers and provide additional layers in his bag and have requested he always wears two layers in the cool room but they had him in one layer when I collected him.

"despite my request that he be dressed more warmly due to his cold" obviously I'd provide the clothing after having posted this

It’s fine dressing in layers but why not a more substantial base layer? Surely that’s ’obvious’ as you say. As a pp has said, being physically cold does not cause a cold or a chest infection. Unless your son was sat in the same place, not moving, the entire time then I honestly can’t see how he will have been cold.

Presumably he’d got too hot and they’d taken a layer off - unless you only sent him in the vest and wanted them to add a layer? Better a bit chilly than too warm when it comes to a child’s health anyway.

I agree with you OP and understand that even though mine didn’t go to a setting with air conditioning. Some people are ridiculous here on MN.

write it to them formally. I had to do it too when my LO was constantly unwell and without his socks in winter.

20 is the top end of warm for a room for a wee one and you're not meant to dress them extra warmly when they're unwell (it doesn't help - they just struggle to cool themselves down so ends up being more effort) so I can see why the nursery didn't do as you asked.

Sometimes colds just develop into more. There are few properly nasty ones going about just now as well.

Try not to overthink it. It's horrid when they're unwell but it's not always possible to stop a nasty cold getting worse

19-20 degrees is a warm room temperature.

If little ones are unwell they need to be at home.

19-20 degrees is on the warm side of recommended temperature for a baby (16-20) is recommended for safe sleep and play by various organisations including the Lullaby Trust. Much more likely just to be nursery bugs.

Thanks for all the replies. Just to clarify — my DC wasn’t obviously unwell when I dropped him off. He seemed a bit off but no fever, no cough, nothing that would have warranted keeping him home at that point. Of course now that he’s clearly ill, he’s at home and being looked after — but hindsight is 20/20.

I’m well aware that cold air doesn’t cause illness, but when a child is fighting something off, being too cold for an extended period can absolutely make it harder on their body. I wasn’t asking for anything extreme — just for him to be dressed a bit more warmly while in an air-conditioned room all day, especially since I’d made the request specifically.

I get that colds go around and nursery bugs are par for the course, but I do think it’s reasonable to expect staff to listen when a parent flags that their child may need a bit of extra care that day — particularly when the ask is simple and sensible.

It’s not about blaming nursery for the illness — it’s about communication and responsiveness. When that’s missing, it makes you second-guess leaving them there in the first place.

Op. You are being massively unreasonable.
20 degrees is a warm room. If you felt your child was that unwell you need to keep him off. And the room temperature is regulated it can't go past 22 degrees in ROI.

@Newnamesameme I don’t agree that I’m being unreasonable for asking a nursery to follow a sensible request regarding my child’s care — especially when he wasn’t presenting as properly unwell that morning. Of course now that he is, he’s at home.

It’s fine if we see this differently, but I’m sharing my experience as it happened, not asking for approval.

Well you asked if you are bing unreasonable..I believe you are. If you don't agree fine..but probably not much point posting for opinions🤷‍♀️

Had your son been playing and running around at nursery? If he had then he would likely of got to hot to be honest. Expecting the nursery to keep him warmer in that situation isn’t the greatest is it? Would you then have complained that he got too hot and why didn’t they remove layers? Just because his arms felt cold to the touch doesn’t mean that the room was too cold for him nor does it mean the nursery have lacked responsibility.

@Newnamesameme I don’t have an issue with people having different opinions — it’s the tone that often gets used on here that’s the problem. You can disagree with someone without being condescending or rude.

I posted to share a real concern and to see if others had experienced something similar — not to invite a pile-on or be made to feel foolish for caring about my child’s wellbeing. If that’s not the kind of discussion this space allows, then you’re right — it’s probably not the place for me.

@Lillupsy I understand that active kids can warm up quickly, but my concern wasn’t based solely on him feeling cold — it was that I had flagged he wasn’t 100% and asked for an extra layer as a precaution, especially in an air-conditioned room.

I wasn’t expecting the nursery to micromanage his temperature — just to take a simple, sensible request seriously, given the context.

This wasn’t about blame — it’s about communication and feeling heard when you try to advocate for your child.

My baby is cold in 20°. Brits are so weird about that. Most people would be cold sat still in just a tshirt in 20°. AC often feels colder than natural because of the draft and contrast to ambient. Babies can't go for a walk, get a coffee or find their own jumper to get themselves warm. I think you need to raise it more firmly with nursery.

That extra layer could have caused far more harm by causing your lo to get too warm. As many others have said, the temperature was already on the warm side. Being too warm can cause more problems than being a little chilly.

He got ill because he was mixing with other kids at nursery not because of the temperature of the room.

just to take a simple, sensible request seriously, given the context.

Even in the context asking the nursery to put extra layers on a child in a hot room wasn't a simple, sensible request.

Overheating a child is far, far more dangerous than them being cold. So asking them to put an extra layer on him when their room was already at the top end of the recommended temp range for littllies wasn't sensible. You were very well meaning, but it wasn't sensible.

It's really tempting when they're feeling a bit grotty to really wrap them up super warm, but that's actually a really bad thing to do. They can't sweat and regulate their temps as easily as us adults can.

In the nicest way - you can't expect the nursery to follow a request and ignore their experience and ignore the fact they were in the room and feeling the temp.
They have to do what is the best practise for the child at that time.

@ARichtGoodDram I think we’re getting sidetracked from the actual point of my post. I didn’t ask the nursery to “overheat” my child. I asked them to respond to a specific parental concern about how he was doing that morning — in an air-conditioned room — with a simple layer adjustment.

Of course, staff should use their judgment. But that doesn’t mean parental input should be dismissed outright, especially when it’s reasonable and made in context.

This wasn’t about scientific misunderstanding. It was about responsiveness and partnership — something I believe all parents should be able to expect from their childcare provider.

If we disagree on that principle, fair enough. But let’s not twist the issue into one about me wanting to “wrap him up hot” or undermine staff expertise. That’s not what happened.

Bit they did respond by monitoring and taking action by not allowing him to get too warm 🤷🏼‍♀️. Just because you’ve requested an extra layer or more substantial clothing doesn’t mean they should allow your child to get too warm as he would be the one to suffer.

And the staff looked after your child by using their judgement in the room

You are unhappy that he didn't have an extra layer on. The fact he didn't means they felt that layer needed to be removed.

Expecting them to ignore their judgement - and as the ones in the room with your child they felt that layer needed removed - is unreasonable.