Keeping baby warm now nights are cold?

[cupcake78]

Can't afford heating on too often. Baby's roomies on the corner of out house and gets cold fast. Can't afford a heater on every night either.

She's been waking up at 4am and she is cold. Her room is cold (10oc ish). I have to wear long sleeve pj's and a fleecy dressing gown and I'm freezing by the time I'm in back in bed. Once she warms up again she goes back to sleep till the morning.

I put her in a long sleeve vest, baby grow, 2.5tog sleep bag. She stays like this till we go to bed at 10pm. The heating goes off at 8pm. Before I go to bed I add a folded over sheet (2 layers) and a fleece blanket. She was still cold so added a cellular blanket and yet she's still waking up cold. It's not just her hands or face. Her arms, feet and trunk aren't comfortably warm!

So how many layers does she need? She's 4 months.

Wouldn't it be best to have her in your room, then you could close the doors and keep more heat in or just heat one room more. Duvet is definitely not a good plan.

Mine sleeps on a sheepskin which I thinks helps to keep her warm.

A cotton cardigan might be an option. Natural breathable fabrics are best.

There was a good article on the Simon Mayo show tonight about keeping warm without putting the hearing on for longer. Among the things they recommended were window film which you can apply yourself, putting a deflector behind radiators which you can buy or make out of cardboard and tinfoil, hanging thick curtains and drawing them when it goes dark and having curtains that only cover the window, not the radiator. Fitting a radiator shelf was mentioned too. Perhaps some of these might help?

Also, could you switch off the heating half an hour earlier and then put it on again for half an hour a bit later? Might help to keep her room warmer for longer

Agree with Dilly with such a young baby I'd be looking at natural fibres too.

Purflo do baby sleeping bags(2.5tog) with zip-on/ zip-off sleeves. Appreciate the SIDS guidelines but 10C is very cold for indoors.

Just checked via Grobag link earlier in the thread - the guidelines don't recommend sleeping bags with sleevs as increased SIDS risk, but may be worth looking at their grosuits?

I'd maybe try socks, leggings under the babygro and a cardigan on top and see if that helps. Also a fleece blanket under the cot sheet to keep the chill off underneath.

DDs room doesn't usually get below 18 at this time of year with no heating and she is wearing the same as your DD and seems comfortable, but if it was colder I'd try adding more clothing layers rather than blankets first.

Ooh, or tights instead of leggings.

Always better cooler than hot.

You need to measure the temperature where the core of the baby's body is - ie deep under the covers, not by the door

hands are the key

if the baby has their hands tucked down near their body or armpits, they are cold
if their fingers are spread out, especially away from their head, they are trying to lose heat

very very few children have ever died of cold in their beds, many have died due to causes linked to overheating (the whole point of sleep on back is so they can kick covers off)

10 is very cold.She needs to be warmer and the normal warnings about babies overheating from more clothes seem irrelevant.

I'd go for more clothes before extra bedding,and try a fleecy sleepsuit.

10 is NOT THAT COLD.
Sorry but rooms I lived in as a kid and a student had ice on the inside of the windows in the winter.
I set our heating so all the rooms drop to 15/16 overnight as cooler is healthier for sleeping.

overheating kills babies

check the temperature under the covers
and if needs be pop her in an old style babygro with hands and a hood, but then reduce the load of covers

Money is tight so trying not to spend. Plan for tomorrow is add a few blankets for her to sleep on (never thought of that). Add a cardigan and see how we go from there.

Don't like co-sleeping, I worry to much about the duvet, dh rolling over and squashing her, our pillows etc. I get no sleep when she comes in with us.

She was such a hot baby when she was born in June but then the weather was hot. We had the opposite problem.

Thank you talkinpeace! I don't think its that unusual for Nightime over the winter months.

I also had ice on inside windows and had to sleep in jumpers, get dressed under the sheets etc.

I don't understand how a room can be kept at 18oc without running the heating all night. It seems a bit unrealistic.

cupcake
18 is cloud cuckoo land thought up by the energy suppliers

the Industries act says that offices (where you sit all day trying to work) must be kept above 16 ......

and I'll be a hereitc here but -
if they sleep on their fronts they lose less heat ....
just make sure thay are at the foot of the bet and cannot burrow too deep
mine both did and have turned out irritating fine

and then you can really see where their hands are relative to their bodies

• splayed out = losing heat
• tucked under body = saving it

Agree Talkinpeace, and no way did we have our babies bedrooms at 18 degrees or even near.

Recent stats actually recommend 21 degrees in home in day and 18 in bedrooms. So fairly high. People in colder places like Norway/ Sweden are amazed how cold many places keep their homes in the uk. It's not healthy to have to try and maintain your body temp whilst sleeping, and that's why many stay ill for longer as cant devote all energy to getting better as half is just to keep warm

Your body is 37 degrees. Keeping it at 10 degrees is madness as you need to stop your body getting hyperthermia, especially in young people

I understand you want to save, but I would really try and get all three of you in one room and put a small heater in that room.

Especially if your having trouble keeping baby warm now as its not even that cold outside yet, and winter isn't here yet. By January it will be much colder

Our DDs bedroom is cool and I always put a blanket under her sheet in the winter. Putting it flat and then putting the sheet on to to anchor it should reduce the risk of suffocation.

Is the thermometer in her bedroom reliable? Only we live in an old house and our heating goes off at 8pm and we are still all sleeping under our summer duvets.

And putting baby to sleep on their front is another SIDS risk.

I think DDs room doesn't get below 18 because its so small and we have the door shut (DD is older than the op's).

We also have wooden blinds that are always closed, and a fleece pinned between the blind and the curtains, and the curtains are tucked into the radiator to keep the window draughts out.

It was 19 in there when she woke up at 08:30, don't know what it will be like when it gets really cold though.

Dd2 is nearly 5 months ans she has also been waking up cold (as has dd1 who canat least tell us). Think her room is about 16-17 overnight. I sleep in a bed next to her cot and she sleeps much longer when near me on my mattress on top of a fleece sheet.

We use a 2.0tog sleeping bag for now. When she wakes about 11pm her hands, arms, head and chest are so cold - I feed her and put her on my mattress with no additional coverings and she sleeps until 5-7am, and her hands stay warm.

we use the all in one fleece sleepsuits from 12m and a duvet from about 2y.

Dilly that link is really good,not seen that one before.

cupcake you can get 3.5 tog sleeping bags on ebay

MIT got down to 15-16C in DD's room last winter, I layered up cotton long sleeved vests. So on the coldest nights she wore 2 vests, a baby grow and 2.5tog bag and I put a fleece blanket under her fitted sheet. 10C is very cold OP, I agree with others, if you can fit her cot in bring her in with you as the more bodies, the warmer it is.

DS was prem, a winter baby and we were living in an old house with terrible insulation. He used to sleep with

Long sleeved vest
Long sleeved baby gro
Knitted cardigan
Brushed cotton sheet
Cotton cellular blanket x 2
Woollen cellular blanket
Wool blanket
Knitted hat

And right next to the radiator!!

We talked to our midwife about what was sensible and safe, and she was clear that in our particular circumstances it was better to break the guidelines on safer sleeping in order to stop him being poorly through being so cold.

OP, is your HV sensible to have this conversation with her?

Dilly, mothercare sell padded sleep suits which are brilliant. They're 15 quid but I've seen them on eBay for less. On really cold nights last year I was using those and a gro bag. DD1 was about 6 months and it worked well.