Toddler sleeping in 10-13 degrees - what to wear?

[AngelDog]

I think DS has been waking lots partly due to cold. Our Grobag thermometer says it's 10-13 degrees in the bedroom. We co-sleep but he has a mattress all of his own and likes his own space.

At the moment he's wearing:

long sleeve vest
cotton sleep suit
another cotton sleep suit
long sleeve cotton t-shirt
scratchsleeves (eczema gloves - basically silk scratch mitts with cotton sleeves, with a pair of socks over his hands to stop them irritating).
2.5 tog sleeping bag

Does that sound reasonable? He usually feels warm but not too hot.

He was only wearing 1 sleep suit, but when I added the second we had a couple of sleep-throughs - after a few weeks of frequent waking and at least one patch when he'd only settle draped across my chest. But the waking has resumed, and I'm not sure whether it's temperature related or not.

I've bought a fleece sleepsuit to try - should I just swap that for the 2 cotton ones?

In the same room, I'm sleeping in:

vest
2 long-sleeve cotton t-shirts
PJ top
cotton cardigan
wrist warmers (with my sleeves tucked in)
long johns
PJ trousers
leg warmers
socks
a 10 tog winter duvet - and I'm just about right.

He's nearly 2.

Brrrrrrrrrrr, I am cold just reading this post! Silly qu, but is there ANY way of making the room warmer. That really is flipping cold.

And I don't think they're recommended for children, but what about a hot blanket thingy. Some come with timers, so even if it just came on intermittently?

Fleecey sleepsuit defo! And I'd consider putting some warm socks on him too.

Brrr indeed. Why so cold? Yes fleece sleepsuit for sure.

It's a loft bedroom so loses heat very quickly, and we don't put usually put the heating on anywhere in the house. (We technically could afford it but we're on a tight budget so it'd mean not being able to spend on something else, and heating is one of the things we choose to economise on.)

We have put extra insulation in the side storage cupboard, and the mattresses are on cardboard boxes on the floor for a bit better insulation. I have a fleece blanket underneath my bottom sheet too.

I can tell if DS gets really cold as I wake up with him snuggled up next to me (unusual) but it's harder to tell if he's a bit cold.

I'll have a go with the fleece sleepsuit tomorrow night. Warm socks are a good idea too. I should have thought of that - I always sleep better with bedsocks on. :)

I think 6 degrees was the lowest it ever reached - but that was a few years ago now.

If he's 2 why not get him his own duvet? And if possible get the mattresses off the floor. Air flowing under them will help keep you warmer.

YY to fleece sleepsuit! For my DS i'd also put a cotton one underneath. And poss also a vest... And probably double bag the sleeping bag... Mind you, I think he likes it warm, and anything to keep him actually asleep!

Generally gets to 17 deg in DS's room, though will go to 16. DS (2.1) sleeps in a cot in a fleece sleepsuit under a 4tog duvet and a woolley blanket. He woke the other night saying he was cold (16deg night, was stingy with the heating that evening) so the blanket was added.

Yes, it's not ideal having the mattresses on the floor. We keep them there because I bf him whenever he wakes (which can be often, although it goes in phases) and it's easy when I can just pull him over to me without having to get out of bed myself.

Our beds are on frames (not divan bases) so if we push the two singles together there's a big gap between them.

He's not overly keen on having covers over him. He moves quite a lot so he starts off in the middle of the bed and moves further and further up towards the head of it, so I suspect he'd escape from the duvet fairly quickly.

10 degrees? No heating in the house even though you could afford it? Fine if it's just you, not ok with small children, fgs.

Get your heating on. Unless it is food or heat, there is no excuse for letting a child sleep in such a cold room.

And find out about insulation for the room. There may be grants or somethign that oyu can get.

I grew up in a farmhouse and frequently woke with ice on the inside of the windows. It's fine OP, don't let this bunch of wussie's get you down.

More clothes, he'll be fine.

You can turn all the other radiators off and just have the bedroom one on - then shouldn't cost too much

We stayed with barking friends of in laws living in an icehouse old and beautiful period home when it was a snowy winter period. Our bed had electric blanket. DC1 had a portable electric radiator placed just beyond arms' reach from travel cot and left on all night. DC2 was sleeping in our room, but not our bed, and wore vest, 2 sleep suits, socks, cotton sweater and snowsuit. I kid you not. And the snowsuit had sleeves longer than hands as I never could keep mitts on either of them.

No thermometer but there was steam rising from the cold tap . But they slept! Hurray....

My elderly parents still don't have heating in the bedroom.

Lots of bedding is all you need. What d'you think people did before central heating?

No. I don't get it.

I cannot sleep when it is cold. My PILs didn't heat the bedrooms and I swear I can feel the cold coming off the walls.

Even with loads of layers, I would not be able to sleep.

Hot water bottles.

Come on everyone, have we turned into a nation of cosseted weaklings?

cadelaide- quite a few times I slept in -30 degrees with no windows and just a sleeping bag and I have survived. And so what.

The optimal temp for sleeping is around 18 or 19 degrees, I think. So say, 16 is cold but still ok.

There is no excuse to make your child sleep in 10 degrees bedroom unless you cannot afford it. The OP can.

cadelaide
you can say that about anything.

What did people do before cars? They walked.

What did people do before washing machines? They washed by hand.

There have been massive advances in home technology in the past 60 years. I don't get why anyone would not use it.

Before central heating people still had fireplaces or stoves that kept a reasonable temperature throughout the night. Of course there were plenty that couldn't afford firewood/coal and therefore were living in freezing houses, but OP can afford it. I would think providing your child with food and warm house should be your priorities as a parent

We have no heating in our bedroom and we sleep with the window open. Thick duvet, hot water bottle and fresh air. Bliss

The DC do have heating, but DD1's room regularly went to 12-14 degrees in the winter before we had the double glazing done

Well I think last winter when DS was almost 1 his room was frequently down to 11C most nights.

He was in 2 sleep suits and a long sleeved grobag from JoJo Maman Bebe. This year we have the bigger version of said grobag but havent needed the sleeves on it yet as the lowest it's been is 16C.

He'll be fine

Get a single duvet in addition to everything he's already got. Even if he doesn't use it initially you haven't lost anything. If it's there he might learn to use it.

Personally though, I would put the heating on or else sleep in a different (better insulated) room

That's true, of course, Mme Lindor. I suppose I was responding to the posts that suggest it's in some way cruel or neglectful to let a child sleep in a cold room.

I don't think it is.

(Also I'm speaking as someone who bled a radiator last week and "broke" our central heating. Still waiting for a plumber).

We don't know what OP chooses to spend money on rather than heating.

Ds also kicks off the duvet and we are in a similar mattress on the floor for bf situation. He has vest, 2 pj tops, pj bottoms, welly socks, fleece pjs and if it gets colder I'm going to put fleece sleepsuit over the top (he won't be able to move then!) What I like about the fleece separates is that we got a size bigger so they drape nicely over his hands and feet.

I also put a hot water bottle in the bed a couple of hours before he goes to bed to heat it up a bit (move it obviously once he goes in). Tomorrow I'm going to do the fleece blanket thing too, thanks for that.

(We didn't have heating in bedrooms growing up either and it gets very very cold here - didn't do us any harm etc.)

Ooh, I like a bit of a discussion. :)

Basically we're trying to eke out our savings which is what we're mainly living off. I'm a SAHM and DH is a student who gets occasional contract work. So it's stuff like food and electricity, nothing fancy, but we wouldn't be forced to starve if we turned the heating on.

We're trying to maintain our savings so I can stay at home with DS for as long as possible (we'd ideally like to educate him at home if we can). DH will almost certainly be in fairly low-paid work once he finishes studying and there will probably come a point when his salary won't be enough to cover our living costs.

We've trained ourselves to be hardy here. My view is that most of the world / most people throughout of history don't have heating in their bedrooms so it's not that big a deal. It's only like giving your child a nap in the pram while you're out for a walk. Incidentally, our house was built in the 1930s with fireplaces - but only downstairs.

Actually, I feel the cold more than most people I know. I used to use hot water bottles a lot but since wearing more thin layers, I find I don't need them any more.

The rest of the house is considerably warmer, especially when we use the oven, which we often do in winter.

We do put the heating on if anyone's ill, or if we have vistors. A previous flat of ours had ice on the inside of the windows even after running the heating, so this doesn't seem too bad by comparison.

Sadly there isn't another room big enough for our co-sleeping arrangement.

Unfortunately we have to heat 2 other rooms if we want to put the loft radiator on, and it's the furthest room from the boiler, so it doesn't get as hot as the other radiators.

The loft conversion is only 4 or 5 years old, so the insulation isn't too bad, and it's double glazed. In the winter the snow stays longer on our roof than on our neighbours without loft conversions, which suggests we lose less heat through the roof then they do.

I'll add a fleece sleepsuit tomorrow and see if it makes a difference. I might dig out one of our spare duvets and see what DS makes of it.

Now I just need a solution to DS's bursts of flatulence waking him up.

Angeldog you sound like a really lovely mum. My house regularly gets freezing at night and we bed share with 20 mo ds who regularly kicks off the covers.

Long sleeve vest, cotton sleep suit, fleece sleepsuit and mitts.

And lots of lovley cuddles from mum