Baby's room temperature - from co-sleeping to cot

[Fourleaf]

Hi all,

I am struggling to get my DS (11 months) to sleep well at night in his cot in his own room, after months of co-sleeping. The only time he has slept well recently the heating was left on all night. He wears a vest, cotton sleepsuit, and gro bag (2.5 togs). I have started put a thick blanket on top on cold nights, against the advice I know.
Is it too risky to keep his room pretty warm at night (like 19/20 degrees) when he is wearing all this? I know the official guidelines but was wondering what others do, particularly with older babies/toddlers, and espcially when they are used to sleeping with a big warm body!

I am really at the end of my tether - last night he screamed from 12-2 and came in with us at 5 - and the nights are getting very cold, so I will do (almost) anything to help him sleep! His room is v. cold as there's no carpet.

TIA!

We have pretty much never had our house at the "recommended" temperature - usually it's closer to 19/20 overnight. The temperature thing is all about cot death, and once they get over a certain age the risk is much reduced.

It's the change in temperature that is the problem, you can dress your DS for the current temperature but if it drops 2 or 3 degrees overnight they are too young to adjust (and don't have the body mass for heat reserves).

Our DS is 18mo, but he is currently in a 2.5tog gro bag plus pyjamas. Last winter he wore a body suit as well.

Once the cold weather comes in, we do leave the heating on 24/7 (it's a small house, so not too bad). If you don't want to heat your whole house you could always try a portable storage heater.

You might want to try putting a warm hot-water bottle in his bed to pre-warm it a bit.

Hi. We're already using a long sleeved vest, sleepsuit and 2.5 tog bag for 7mo DS which I'm sure is too much per the guidelines. His room is usually quite warm in the evening (he goes to bed at 7 and heating is on til 8) so it can get to 20/21 in there but then drops to 17/18 in the night. I'm not keen to have the heating on all night so I'm going to stick with this at the mo. If it starts to get much colder in there I'm thinking about a portable heater although I feel a little unsure about something electrical being plugged in there all night.

Thanks for the replies - last night we left the heating on all night (with our radiator turned off) so it was about 19 degrees in his room. He was wearing vest, sleepsuit, long sleeved T shirt, grobag, thick blanket! Was not too hot though as I checked. He slept much, much better. I think he is just used to being warm at night as he was sleeping with me.
Was also thinking of a portable heater as this is going to get v expensive - but also worried about leaving it on all night. Anyone else done this?

My parents use 'portable' Oil-filled electric heaters. They are using them to warm there breakfast room/conservatory in the mornings (as the heaters have timers on them).

We tend to steal it when we visit as the guest bedroom drops to 14 deg overnight (Brrr even for me).

Oil filled ones, other than being a bit heavy are fairly efficent since the oil stores some of the heat (rather than having an electric element and fan on all night).

If you have one with a thermostat too, the heater won't actually be on all night.

Not sure what we are doing this year when we visit as DS has outgrown the travel cot and I don't really want a hot heater in the room for him to touch.

we too use long sleeved vest, long sleeved bodysuit, 2.5 grobag and have the heating on so her room is around 20...

she is sooo used to being held/snuggled up, this is the only way she will sleep in cot...