room temp wrecking my head!

[LongJohnGlitter]

Hi mamas,.

I need a kick up the behind or some good advice.

Guidelines say keep room temp between 16 - 20 (sometimes 22?) But I can never get the room to cool below 20/21 during the day and often at night too. If I leave the window open it gets a bit too cold and draughty. My bubs wears a vest, babygro and is swaddled in a light cellular blanket when sleeping. Does this sound ok? He will only go into his crib when swaddled and I am running around all the time trying to keep the temp just right. Needless to say my mum thinks I'm mad, we were all well swaddled and the place was kept warm...

Just to clarify night time is usually ok, although when it gets down to 18 I am frozen...find it hard to understand how a newborn (my little boy is 5 weeks) doesn't find it chilly even with the layers

@LongJohnGlitter hi there, have you ever thought about trying GroBags? They are sleeping bags with different togs and tell you exactly what to dress your baby in and what tog to use dependant on the temp of the room. We can never seem to get our room below 21/22 so my DD wears a vest and 1.0 tog grobag at the minute.

@LongJohnGlitter hi there, have you ever thought about trying GroBags? They are sleeping bags with different togs and tell you exactly what to dress your baby in and what tog to use dependant on the temp of the room. We can never seem to get our room below 21/22 so my DD wears a vest and 1.0 tog grobag at the minute.

@Blak sounds amazing! What brand do u recommend and I'll get one asap

I’ve been the same - our gro egg has never been yellow since we first turned it on. Im that paranoid about overheating her that now it’s getting a bit cooler Im still scared of adding layers, although I can’t get the bedroom below 21 anyway. I think once in the middle of the night it was 20 and I was cold!

I presume you’ve seen the various infographics on what to dress baby in by temp - attaching the one I tend to go by but it refers to sleeping bags. I think a muslin is 0.5 tog then multiplied by how many times you wrap it round? But I’m not totally sure on that.

I’m trying to just chill out (no pun intended) a bit and go by how she feels. I feel the back of her neck or her chest and if it feels warm but not clammy then she’s fine.

I’ve also read that if they’re too cold they’ll wake up/ let you know. If they’re too hot they won’t so better to be too cold than too hot.

Oh yes agree with Blak gro bags are great - we used the newborn easy swaddle they did but dd hates having her arms in so we went on to the actual grobags which have the option to have arms in or out.

Our room was 22 when we went to bed last night so DD had a long sleeve vest and 1 tog grobag.

They’re tommy teepee but you can get them in Asda and Argos often for cheaper than direct from the tt website www.tommeetippee.com/en-gb/shop/grobag

They turn up on Facebook market place a lot too.

I use the same pic already posted as a guide but I don’t buy specific gro bags as they’re much more expensive than Sainsbury’s/marks/John Lewis

Also, it really is just a guide as often when I put DS down for the night it’s 4-5 degrees warmer than it is in the early hours. It’s impossible to know exactly what temp the room will reach and implausible to re dress them at 1am!

Just try and be reasonable. Tonight for example DS’s nursery is reading 19 degrees. BBC says it’ll get down to about 9 outside so I imagine nursery will hit a minimum of about 16. DS is in a vest, thick (ish) baby grow and a 2.5 tog sleeping bag.

I think he’ll be fine in this.

We're still using a grobag and groegg for our 2 year old, the temperature fluctuates and I just change your what to use every night depending on what the gro egg says, I regularly google the temperature guide. We've had temperatures ranging from 14' to 31' over the past two years and I never stress now and follow what the chart says.

One tip is I now never try and artificially heat or cool her bedroom before bedtime as once she's down for the night the room will naturally get hotter or colder through the night depending on the time of year.

So I wouldn't put the heating on in her room before bedtime in the winter, if during the night when the heating goes off the room would get much colder, if you see what I mean. So don't heat the room to 21' so baby would be in a thin bag if it's going to go down to 15' and she's going to need a thicker one. I hope I'm making sense!

Just like in summer, if it's 31' at bedtime and it's not going to be much cooler by morning I wouldn't try and make the room too cool.

And the temp charts only go up to 27' - if it's over 27' baby is fine in just a nappy! Or nappy and thin vest if you're worried but my baby runs hot 🥵

My baby is going to sleep in a short sleeve vest, baby grow and knitted cardigan. With a cotton cellular blanket and either a wool cellular blanket or a fleec blanket doubled. I think the room temp is about 15 or 16 as there’s no heating on yet.
Babies do wake up and cry when they are cold. If they are getting a bit too warm they perspire a bit (a hot day in the car on the seat is bad for this and I do worry about it) Feel the baby’s back and chest to gauge how hot or cold they are If their hands are icy they probably need some more clothes on.

This really isn't something to worry about too much. I know it's easy to, but throughout history people haven't been using thermometers, or heating, and couldn't control temperature as much as now and the vast majority were fine (or at least it wasn't the temperature that killed them but lack of healthcare, vaccines and sanitation).

My children are spring and summer babies. As newborns there were times i couldn't get their room below 30 degrees, let alone 20. It wasn't ideal, but they were fine.

And it's an a generalisation anyway. My first needs at least an extra layer than my second, is just the way they are wired.

Things like gro eggs are useful (I have one) but if baby send cold as a later and if sweaty take one off, it's just a string point really

Mine sleep in Marino wool sleeping bags - keeps them cool in summer and warm in winter.

Throw the room thermometer away! It’ll drive you bonkers.

Put your hand on baby’s chest, if it’s cool, put another layer on. Warm? Take a layer off.

Checking the temp and dressing to the degree is all well and good, but it just causes more worries and panic than just going by touch and your common sense. Your baby will be fine if it’s 1 degree hotter than it ‘should’ be, but you’ll be endlessly more calm if it’s not on a thermometer shrieking it at you!

Grobags are excellent

A bit like a tog on a duvet 😊

Grobag & the grobag website where you type in their weight, age and room temp saved my sanity in the first year!