Tips on cooling bedroom down please.

[Rosebud29]

Hi

I'm 37+4.

I'm really worried about the heat in the upstairs of our house. I've just plugged in my Gro Egg (night light that shows temperature) and it's 25 degrees! 25!! That's with every window wide open at all times and all doors too. Obviously I'm not sleeping in this heat, I just lie there every night sweating till about 4am, but I'm much more worried about the baby when he/she arrives, it's far too hot for a baby.
So, any ideas please? Will a fan help or will it just move warm air about?
Thank you.

[Lovethebubbles]

Keep the loft hatch open. I was surprised at the difference it makes to our house upstairs.

[GreenPetal94]

Don't be worrying for the baby, it's not actually too hot for a baby, babies are fine in hotter countries.

A fan and open windows and circulating air before bedtime as well should help. Also nude and no sheet on top.

[Lelivre]

A big not Abigail

[Lelivre]

Opened the loft hatch today and it has made Abigail difference but we have those vented tiles in our roof.

[Toomanyhouseguests]

Glad to hear it is working for you too, gingeroots.

TheBuggerlugs, if you just have a ceiling fan, or a fan blowing in the room, it will feel cooler, but it will just be pushing the same 27 degree air around the room. You have to use the fan to suck the hot air out of the house, and thereby draw the cool air from downstairs in.

The best way to do this is to wedge a fan in a window (carefully, so it doesn't fall out the window! ). You want to have the window shut down on the fan. You want as little space around the fan as possible. Because, you want the fan to be pulling air from the hot room behind it, not getting air from outside or above and moving it around.

[gingeroots]

I'm with houseguests and unlucky . Have been doing the fan by window upstairs to create draught - and it's working !
Very grateful for this tip .

[unlucky83]

I'm a bit hmm about the loft hatch...guess it could act as kind of chimney and I know hot air rises ....but ime lofts are boiling on hot days - much hotter than the rest of the house as the roof is a big surface area, usually thin and uninsulated - and it usually has full sun shining directly on it for most of the day from one angle or another...
In fact I've read adequate loft (and floor and wall) insulation is good for not only good for keeping the heat in winter but keeping houses cooler in summer...
(I've always thought there is an argument against wall etc insulation -you must need more internal heating for the majority of the year -as the heat from the sun isn't getting in )

[Toomanyhouseguests]

The loft hatch is good....but British homes aren't built with extractor fans in the loft, or even vents, to allow all that hot air to escape. That's why I think using a fan to push all that hot air out an upstairs window while opening downstairs windows is a better way to go. This works a treat in the evenings went you want to pull the cool outside air into the house, and push out the hot air that has built up in the house during the day. Obviously, this trick is useless at 3pm, when the air outside is at it's hottest.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

I know it's uncomfortably hot, especially when you're pregnant, but honestly you don't need to worry about harming the baby when it's 25 degrees. Millions of people live in hot climates with no air conditioning or fans and their babies are fine. I used to live in a tropical climate, and we had the air conditioning on at night to cool the room down to 25 degrees!

[redexpat]

I just wipe myslef all over with a damp flannel before I go to bed. Repeat as necessary.

[eversley2]

Tip I heard on radio 2. Open the loft hatch. Hot air rises so all hot air will go up into loft. Hubby tried it and reckons it worked.

[Astonway]

I hate the heat and also did not want to expose acres of flesh in hot weather so we planned ours for March and May and then had the best time of year with them as tinies - they were a lovely age for their first Christmas too of course! PPP

[Bingbongbinglybunglyboo]

Open your loft hatch. Read it somewhere a couple of years ago, makes a huge difference. I guess because all the hot air has somewhere else to rise.

[Quangle]

I've been amazed by how much difference a simple fan makes. Invest in a quiet one and have it running all night. I had the impression it would just feel like moving hot air around but actually the breeze is really effective

[KumquatMay]

No babies here but we've been hanging our wet washing out at night (indoors) and leaving the windows open - it definitely feels cooler when we wake up. The wet washing seems to cool the breeze a little.

[Snog]

I hate the heat and have a portable air con unit which cost around £400.
Before this I had a wet towel on me in bed which was ok but not particularly pleasant!
Having one cool room as a sanctuary ftom the heat really helps.

[ArsenicFaceCream]

Freeze some of those blue freezer blocks, wrap them in a pillowcase and use them as a reverse hot water bottle at night

This is genius. It's the only thing that's helping.

[QuiteQuietly]

We use similar to . We have two plastic dustbins, one filled with water and old plastic bottles full of ice, the second as the "outflow". When bin 1 is empty of water, switch the tubes round so it is the new "outflow", and swap the bottles round with the spare set in the freezer to maintain coldness.

DH built it when I was pregnant with DD1 and 10 years later it is still going strong.

Proper blackout blinds drawn during the day are good, especially on the south side of the house. Or economy tinfoil wrapped around cardboard sheets that fit your windows (foil facing out). Even with no fan, bowls of ice water/frozen plastic bottles of water etc. are useful in a room for entropy and are childfriendly if out of reach. If you have a choice, site young children, frail elderly etc in north-facing bedrooms. I grew up in a hot climate, but I think the buildings are designed for heat in a way that they aren't here - so a comparison with babies in other countries is not always helpful. Hope you get some sleep soon.

[cerealqueen]

great ideas on here, and keep the loft hatch open, if you have one.

[mrsnec]

We do cope just about. 25 degrees is what our bedroom aircon is set to but I think it's different in the UK when you're not used to it and most people don't have fans or air con.

This is my second consecutive summer of being pg in 40 degree heat.

Great tips here though.

[Rosebud29]

Loads of fab tips. And good points about babies born in hot countries! Thanks everyone :-)

[Needaninsight]

25 isn't that hot really. How do you think people who live abroad in hot countries manage?

I've got a newborn (and a toddler) - it was 29 in their room last night. Both were wearing vests (apparently, it is better to put a vest on them, than naked, absorbs the heat?) but no covers. Window open in room. Fan on.

I would worry if it was 35+, but really, 25 is no biggy. Get yourself a few fans

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

It will be 25+ degrees in the hospital......

My top tip is to sleep in the same room as the baby in the same degree of comfort. The usual rule is that the baby wears one extra layer of clothing to you, and in the stupidly hot hospital just a vest and a nappy was the order of the day. Don't get into bed in a nightdress with a sheet or a blanket over you, if the temp drops or rises overnight, you want to wake up and feel the change so you can cover your baby