freezing house - how to dress newborn?

[PeshwariNaan]

Hi everyone. I'm 16 weeks and due in January, and already quite worried about baby's warmth.

Our flat is part of a very old terraced house and it's absolutely freezing in the winter. Last winter, to save money, we turned the boiler on from 5-11 pm daily and during the day the temperature got down to 9 C in our bedroom! (That was the lowest I saw, but it never gets above 12 C in the winter even with the radiators on.) This is the room the baby will be in.

Obviously we will be keeping the radiators on full time when baby arrives (and baby will not be next to the radiator). However, how am I supposed to dress baby for this? I'm usually in thermals, wool jumper, fleece and three pairs of socks myself!

I was planning on swaddling baby in a merino wool swaddle, and I've already knit merino wool hat, socks and mitts for him/ her. However, given that we can't put blankets on babies due to cot death, how else should I keep him/ her warm? Can I put him/ her swaddled inside a sleep sack, or should I just got for the sleep sack?

We are short on money, so can't afford to fully insulate our home but will be doing fake double glazing and sealing all cracks, etc.

Thanks for any ideas!

You can put blankets on babies - use cellular blankets and have the baby feet to foot in the cot so it can't wriggle down under the covers.

Generally dress the baby in one extra layer to you.

Hi Rubirosa - what is feet to foot? I am using a Moses basket at first...

Baby's feet are at the foot of the bed - right at the bottom so it can't wriggle down.

OK, thanks!!

Ouch, that does not sound like fun. Had a similar issue when visiting parents with a 6 mo - man it was cold when the heating went off. DC ended up with some v chapped cheeks. This stuff was great - Weleda Baby Calendula Face Cream. Ended up co-sleeping so I would investigate that, chances are you will anyway if you are bfing so maybe work on that basis? You will need to make sure that your DC does not get too hot so if you usually sleep under a huge duvet, you might need to invest in some thermal pjs.
Fake double glazing is a good start (assume by that it is your own home and not a rental)
Thick interlined curtains - keep an eye out on ebay and you can buy linings to hang in addition to your curtain.
Heating on low constantly - best and most economical way to heat an old house apparently. Don't let the bricks get cold seems to be the mantra.
Draught excluders around doors and bottom of doors - cheap and easy to fit the rubber stuff and v easy to stuff a sausage style thingy.
Baby bumper things for the cot - you are not supposed to use them because of overheating/SIDS but sounds like this case might be an exception
Warm clothes generally. Lots of woolly babygros though might be tricky to dry if the house is chilly.
Get the boiler serviced - it will be more efficient and you should make sure it won't conk out on you unexpectedly anyway.
Some friends had this issue and cash flow issues too and just spent what money they had on the baby's room to make sure that was ok. Since you should be sharing a room for 6 months (and by then it will be summer) then you could focus on making your bedroom toastier? That way everyone wins :)
There's tons of stuff on DIY forums about this sort of stuff which might be helpful but watch out for the crack stuffing. You need to make sure that there is adequate ventilation left or you will get mould/risk carbon monoxide poisoning so don't go blocking up all the air bricks.

The midwives at the hospital you're booked into for delivery will give you advice on keeping baby warm whether you're a first time mum or not cos safety guidelines tend to change from time to time. It's fine to use blankets in the baby's cot but you can't use baby duvets (and cot bumpers and pillows) until baby is at least 12 months old and you will be advised that folded blankets act as two....but as I said your midwife will be able to tell you all you need to know. Good luck. Jen xx

Thanks oscarwilde and jen6jen, that's very good advice.

We've got a very damp house as well and have had problems with mould - not sure really how to fix that one but not sealing all the cracks is something I'll be careful of. We do have a carbon monoxide alarm we recently set up.

Our boiler only has one setting anyway and it's not very powerful, so we'll see how it does.

Thanks very much, everyone!!

For the damp, get a dehumidifier. We have one and it's improved our quality of life so much! It takes the bite out of the cold. Got it used on gumtree, been working for years.

Hi SimplySoo, we've got one. It works OK, but humidity in our room is still 60-70%. I'll try to keep it on all the time - and good to help baby sleep too! (sound machine-like)

Fleece sleepsuits are really warm and no danger of suffocation obviously. And cellular blankets are fine but you have to layer them up quite a lot to keep any real warmth in.

I would go for short sleeve vest, fleece sleepsuit, and then two or three cellulars folded over. No hat - I've read it's important babies can lose heat from their head.

Or if you're using a merino swaddle, skip the fleece because that could get really hot!

Co - sleeping could be the answer, although at that temperature I suspect that would mean using a duvet. I would do that, providing I was bf'ing and not drinking AT ALL. But I understand not everyone would want to.

Instead of putting your heating on between 5-9pm, and it taking at least an hour, if not more, of that time to warm the house up, put the heating on permanently but on low. It costs a lot to heat a house from cold, and you will essentially be doing that every day at 5pm. Plus, you will be in the house, rather than out at work, most of the day so will need a little warmth.

We have a very old 1800's terrace and our boiler was utterly crap and one clunk away from complete failure, so we bit the bullet and installed a new boiler. We actually all huddled in the bedroom with an electric heater (inc 5 day old DD) as the boiler man fitted the new one.

I'd be far more worried about the mould than the cold to be honest. The spores can be very nasty, especially for a tiny baby - so keep any mouldy rooms very well ventilated.

Hello I'm 16 weeks too and due in January
The flat that I used to live in didn't have heating, but I bought some storage heaters, I bought them off eBay, I got mine for £50 you could just put one in the bedroom, they are really good, they store heat during the day and release during the night, or whenever you set the timer for, they are much cheaper to run than plug in heaters ect. Do you rent? You could ask your landlord to install them for you ( I now rent out the flat i used to live in and my tennent asked me to do this)
Other than that I would suggest swaddling and baby sleeping bag? Xxx

hello! congratulations on your pregnancy! i hope it's all going well.
we have a little girl who has just turned one, our house was also freezing, we just bought a good room thermometer and adjusted her layers accordingly, so if it got to 14 degrees at night we could put her in 3 babygros, then her 2.5 tog gro bag, then her snuggle blanket which is my giant cashmere cardigan.
2-5 am is the coldest time of night so my husband would add another blanket-a thin wool baby one-on top of her when he came to bed around 11pm and readjust the cardigan so it fit.
none of the cot death leaflets covered what to do in a cold house but as long as you put their feet at the bottom of the bed and dont cover their heads then if they overheat they have somewhere for it to go-so i wouldn't put a hat on your baby. i know someone whose house was so cold in the end they put their 6 month old in a snowsuit at night, did the job too. i think my way is a bit safer as they are able to wiggle the blankets off if, by pure fluke, they get too warm! when it was about 18degrees we went down to one babygro then grobag and two blankets, at 24 degrees she has one babygro, no blankets just my cardie.
hope it helps and all the best! exciting times! i was worried before but you will find something that works for you

also, for mould try dettol anti mould spray, it comes in bright green spray bottles. do it before baby comes along tho as it is strong enough to take paint off walls. i did our whole mouldy house 3x and scrubbed walls before baby was born and now a year on the mould still isnt back- it was a very well ventilated whilst i did it!

My dd always slept better when the room was cooler. Though it never got down to 9 degrees! Sometimes it would be around 14 degrees though, and she'd be fine in long sleeve vest, sleepsuit and a 2.5 tog bag. If I thought she was cold I'd add a cellular blanket.

I recommend Nexts fleece sleepsuits too even if just for the daytime

Having the heating on low continuously (sp) will help with the mould problem too as the mould is caused when the warm humid air hits the cold wall. We have a problem with mould in our flat in the winter (hopefully not this winter) and this is one of the things the ha advised. They said to turn the thermostat up to 19 or 20 it rarely went above 18 as thats too hot for me but it really improved.

You could do something like vest sleepsuit blanket and a cardigan to keep arms warm. You can also put a pair of tights or leggings underneath pjs. We used a sleeping bag from a few weeks old some. shops do a birth to 3 months but dd was quite a big baby when she was born.

Low heat on all day better than short blasts for keeping the house ambiently warmer and quicker and more energy efficient to heat at night when it's colder.
Also wondered if you'd heard of the grants you can get for insulating your home www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Energyandwatersaving/DG_10018661
Trying to have one warm room in the day - perhaps by using a oil filled electric radiator you plug in. They heat a room really quickly but unlike a fan heater, retain their heat and that of the room.
Layer you and the baby up, go to lots of baby clubs in nice warm venues

Dear everyone - thank you so much for the brilliant advice. I feel much better about it already!

We'll definitely be leaving the heating on all day - I don't think even frugal husband will fight me on this with a newborn in the house. I'll also try the Dettol anti-mould stuff and leave our dehumidifier on.

The fleece sleepsuits look brilliant - I'll try to get one of those as well as a sleep sack. I've got lots of wool and non-wool handknitted blankets, so as long as I check with the midwife/ health visitor, maybe I'll feel more comfortable about using a blanket on the baby.

Thanks also for the recommendations of layers and the advice to not put a hat on. I'll definitely heed that!

We've got a small electric heater if things get really bad - obviously I'd put it far away from the baby.

I'm open to some moderate co-sleeping, but DH and I sleep in a double bed right now, so not much room for baby. I have a feeling he'll be sleeping permanently on the sofa for awhile, I guess - we don't have room for a bigger bed.

Our boiler is so old and cheap it doesn't have a thermostat! The only reason I know how cold our room is is because we've got a thermometer in there. It hardly ever gets over 12 in the winter - 14 is very warm for our house. (Yes, we do own our flat.)

Is there a point when you have to stop using a blanket - i.e., when baby becomes more mobile and could suffocate? The recommendations I'd heard were to have no blankets or toys in the cot until 1 year of age.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for the excellent advice and recommendations! :)

I have been told not to use blanket at all and instead baby gro bag from newborn (providing they are at last 3.5kg at birth for the smallest size of gro bag) until the age of 3, these sleeping bags are available in different TOGs depending on the room temperature. You can adjust with a long/short sleeve vest, a coton/fleece sleeping suit... At least when baby moves, the gro bag stays on and baby won't get cold.
and I agree, try to get the mould thing sorted as soon as you can
good luck

Grobags are great, but lots of babies don't fit them from newborn. My dd couldn't use them until she was about 6 weeks (3110kg at birth).

Just to add - hats should never be worn indoors, over heating is more dangerous to a newborn than being too cold (febrile convulsions).

My DTs were prem and only 4lb when they came home, we were paranoid about keeping them warm enough. They were swaddled, cellular blanket anf then fleece blanket over the top - the fleece ones were from the hospital so we carried on using them.

We lived in a house with no heating when DS was born, had a coal fire in sitting room & that was it.

I wore him in a sling a lot to keep him cosy & co slept so i was always aware of his temp as he slept in my arms.
He did sometimes wear a hat at home, was usually in a long sleeved vest, fleece babygrow, cardigan, mitts & a hat with a wee blanket over him.

We tried to be out & about during the day and would light fire in evening.

Bathing was tricky as bathroom was very cold, used a baby bath in front of fire.

You will be fine and so will baby.

It's winter here in Australia and my twins sleep in merino sleeping bags. I then wrap them in a cotton wrap so they can not wriggle and then swaddle them in a merino blanket. A folded cellular blanket goes over the top and is firmly tucked into the sides of the cot. On a really cold night the HV recommended that I put two sleepsuits on.

Both twins struggled with keeping their body temperatures up while in special care and so I got into the habit of checking their temperatures with an underarm thermometer at each nappy change while they were still in hospital.

Once we got home I continued with this for a week until I was happy with the number of layers they had on. If their temperature was below 36.5 I would add a blanket and if it was above 37.3 I would remove a layer or two.