How on earth can I cool my baby’s room down in this heat?!?!

[Biosblbay]

My 11 month old will not settle at all. I even went out to buy a new fan this evening, she has 2 in her room, not even making a difference at all, the camera is saying it is 28 degrees, window is open, I’ve taken her vest off, taken her out of her love to dream swaddle and it’s still so hot. I never thought I would get so angry about the nice sunny weather but I’m just so paranoid my baby is going to overheat. What else can I do?!?!!

We don’t leave the air con unit in our kids rooms overnight but we do use it to cool them down before bed. In a small room even 10-15 mins makes a big difference. Then turn it off when you put the kid in there if you’re worried it will be too cold. Ours has a temp control and 3 levels of fan though so you avoid this.

Fans don’t cool the air so they won’t make the number on the thermometer go down but they do make it feel cooler.

This. We all sleep downstairs in a heatwave and still do! Its 29 degrees upstairs and 23 in lounge at night.

If it helps at all all around the fear of overheating, I live on the Mediterranean coast where 40 degrees is not exceptional in summer. We live in the 6th floor in a flat with no air con. We were super strict with opening all the windows when it was cooler overnight and then closing windows and shutters/blinds/curtains as soon as it started to warm up (by 8am some days!). Baby slept in a nappy when it was warmest. We never had a fan while she was sleeping.

Could you use the air con unit but adjust the temperature so it’s not at like 16 and really cold (as air con should be), set it a bit higher to a room temperature so it’s comfortable to sleep in for baby

Oh no - no issue with her being in another room. I had mine in their own bedroom from 8mths also.

But you said bring her upstairs?

UK heat is different and our houses are designed to hold heat - carpets, insultation, curtains etc

In addition someone living in the mediterranean will have developed a certain tolerance. There's no adjustment period in the UK. It goes from being a totally normal temperature to roasting within 24hrs.

That's hard for adults let alone babies.

Don't attempt to cool the room once it is warm, start in the morning.

First thing open the window(s) and set the fans to blow out of the room, I know that sounds crazy but it works, you get out the hot air out of the room.

Once there is some cool air in the room you need to keep it in, so close the windows, door, curtains and keep the room like that.

What works really well is to keep some large bottles of frozen water in the fridge. Put one in front of the fan. The breeze from the fan is cooled by the frozen water. It's basically the same principle as aircon. Swap the bottles out as needed. You'll need to stand the bottle on a tray or something as they get quite wet.

And yes, don't train the fan directly on a baby, face it away so air is moving and being cooled but not heading directly at the baby.

Also, spraying curtains and blinds with a mister so the water in the fabric cools the air as it comes in works as well.

My now 4 year old was a tiny baby back in the 40 degree heatwave of 2022, it was sooo hot. She was fine! Mostly just in a short sleeve vest and nappy. Please don’t worry, as long as they are feeding regularly and weeing, they’ll be fine. We just bought an air con, it’ll cool the room so she won’t freeze, we use it in our smallest room.

A Mediterranean 9 or 10 month old hasn’t had a period of adjustment. Summer just arrived, they are learning to cope just like anyone else experiencing such temps for the first time.

(I’m with you on the houses though)