Is he warm enough at night?

[PeanutButter99]

This may seem like a silly question but I don't know is DS is warm enough at night.

He's 3 months old and goes to sleep in a vest, baby gro and a 2.5 tog sleeping bag.

How can he be warm enough in his 2.5 tog cover when my duvet is 10.5 tog and I sleep next to a radiator (DH)!! Also, I'm buried underneath my duvet with only my head sticking out. :) DS has his hands uncovered all night and they are freezing when he wakes in the morning.

The temperature guage on the monitor always reads between 19 and 22, although it's getting really cold now so no doubt it'll drop a few more degrees in the middle of the night.

I don't understand why a 2.5 grobag is fine, but this is what the instructions/guidelines say and my dds always seemed warm enough. (possibly their hands slightly cold and noses also!)

I think that if the temperature in the room is above 15 or so, then that tog of grobag is fine. Not much you can do re his hands, possibly mittens? Even if he was under more traditional bedding he would get his hands free (and probably end up in a real tangle/uncovered)

He 'should' be warm enough in that, that's what DD wears to bed aswell, but if you're concerned how about making the vest a long sleeved vest? I did this last winter as I hated to think of those arms hanging out of the Grobag with no covers on! If he has a long sleeved vest and babygro he should be warm enough with his 2.5tog bag.
Apparantly children keep warmer than we do, not sure if this is scientific, just something I heard.
With regards to the cold hands, HV told me that hands/face will feel cold at night but doesn't mean rest of baby is cold.

when he's asleep have a feel of his back under his clothes.

You will be able to tell if he's warm enough by touch... if he's cold he'll feel... well... erm... cold

Also, if he were uncomfortable he would not be settling as well so you would have an idea that something is wrong

Your house sounds quite warm anyway if temp is sometimes 22 at night. Do you have heating on overnight (we don't, but that is personal choice obviously). If you keep the heating on over the winter then unless you turn the thermostat down then the room will be maintained at the temperature through the winter anyway.

Agree re long sleeved vest and long sleeved pjs/babygrow.

lovely name :)

sounds about right to me....all of mine slept in the same conditions as your house.

It sounds about right to me.

From memory, the place to check his temp is on his torso. If that's warm then he's probably ok.

As it got colder I used to put a long sleeve vest on, then when it got arctic I put a fleece sleepsuit on with a cotton babygro underneath.

Thanks everyone. I guess it's just that his cover is 2.5 tog and mine is 10.5 tog. It doesn't seem fair :)

And OPOL, our heating is definately not on overnight. Both me and DH would die if that was the case!! At the moment it's on for an hour in the morning, afternoon and evening. Our house just has this amazing ability to hold the heat in. Great in winter, not so good in summer!

He seems fine when he sleeps. Goes down at 10 and sleeps through to 6 or 7. I guess it's just recently that his hands are cold so I wondered.

Will change to a long sleeve vest soon and I like the idea of a fleece sleep suit.

Sounds fine to me. DS is a little radiator at night (he's 4 in Dec) and has his pjs and a 6 tog duvet that ends up strewn at the bottom of the bed within seconds of sleep! He just lays in his pjs all night, when his room is about 22.

DD (16 months), on the other hand, is an ice cube, like me! She likes to have a vest, baby gro and 2.5 tog when her room is 22. When it goes down to 18, she has a fleece sleep suit too. I feel her chest under the clothes when she's asleep and she's fine.

I think the recommended temp on the Gro-bag chart is a guide. All babies are different. Better for baby to be slightly on the cool side than over-heated.

I think babies and young children are unable to regulate their body temp the way adults can, for that reason even when you have 5-10 year olds they should only have a 4.5tog duvet. It certainly seems true for my DS1 (5) who always kicks off his covers at night and never feels cold.

I always think, if she doesn't wake up, she must be warm enough.

The togs on baby sleeping bags and duvets are actually different scales, IIRC.

And if anyone wants to tell me what their 9 month old (ish) is wearing in a 12-14 degrees C bedroom, I'd appreciate it. :)

DS is currently in a long-sleeved vest, baby grow and 2.5 tog sleeping bag. Last night I put legwarmers on his arms. He's a frequent waker so I wouldn't know whether he was waking with cold. He feels warm - as warm as I was when I was shivering and wishing it were warmer in the room!

Wow AngelDog that sounds cold! I would say that's not enough to be wearing in those temperatures. I put my DD in a cardi over the top of her sleepsuit with sleeping bag on top of that to add a bit of warmth to the core body. She has worn a hoody sometimes too (on top of the sleeping bag). She does sleep better when she's not cold! TBH if it was me at 12-14 degrees I'd be using one of those plug in heaters overnight - we used one a bit in our old house, it takes a few nights to work out what the best setting is to get the room to a warmer temp without being too warm, but they have a thermostat so you set the dial low-ish for nighttime and it clicks on and off as required through the night - just to add a little extra warmth - they have a little dish to add some water so the air doesn't get too dry. Just a thought!

Yes, we have a plug-in heater, but I've not got the hang of how much to have it on yet! We try to avoid having heating on if at all possible as our heating bill was astronomical last winter when DS was born, and frankly we can't afford it. :(

The bedroom is a loft room so it loses heat pretty fast. I sleep in there with him too so at least I provide a bit of heat. We sort-of co-sleep from when I go to bed, but he prefers to roll away from me to the other side of the bed, so I'm not sure quite how much I warm him up.

It's warmer tonight. :)

babies are smaller so need less togs otherwise overheat.

angel the temp really drops around 2am so you could aim to have the heating come on at about 1am until say 6/7am? We have a loft bedroom which is freezing like yours and ended up moving DS downstairs! (It gets baking hot in the summer )

Ah, I knew there'd be a good reason, Iggly.

Yes, it's a problem both summer and winter! His room downstairs is freezing too, mind. But he's staying in with me until nights improve - we're right in the middle of the 9 month regression (hence going back to co-sleeping) and a good night is 4 wakings.

I managed to persuade him to sleep on my side of the bed last night, and put a long sleeved t-shirt on him as well as arm warmers.

We did have the heater on and it felt really warm when I woke up - 14.5 degrees according to the thermometer.

This heating thing is a constant worry! I freeze at night, in about 16 heat, with pyjamas, bedsocks, dh and a heavy duvet plus bedspread. I wake up frequently from the cold.

DD also has cold hands, cold nose etc, so how can she possibly be warm with her arms out?

I understand that babies need cooler temps, but I constantly worry when we get to either end of the scale!

The other thing that bothers me is when I get her up in the morning and it's 16 in her bedroom, surely she will catch cold if I dress/undress her in that temp (I die getting dressed in that temp)

angel I feel your pain! We've had a regression but seems to early to be the 13 month one. Has now passed as DS has been sleeping til 4/5am then wants to wake - all made worse by his cold and returning to work.

flying can you get a cheap fan heater? We do that for really cold mornings. They're about £20 - mine has lasted for 6 years!

Ugh, Iggly, that is really not much fun at all. Fortunately for me we've not had the early morning wakings for a while, which is nice.

I like the fan heater suggestion too - may use it as DS was actually shivering when I dressed him the other day, and the little radiator doesn't direct heat at where I'm dressing him.

It's hot up there tonight - 15.5! :)

Angel that's tropical! I've had a heart attack as the nanny has had the heating on all day. So lord knows how much that will cost. Like you, we had a massive bill last winter. Given I was cosleeping, probably didnt need to put heating on. Fan heater is a godsend for us - our drafty Victorian flat just leaks heat everywhere. There's even a draft under our bath!