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.

That sounds bloody cold.
when I was a newborn my mum put me in my cot with about 6 blankets on it was that cold. Growing up me and dsis were used to minus temperatures and sleeping under a pile of blankets on top of next days clothes so they would be warm in the morning.

I would definitely buy him a fleecy sleepsuit and some warm socks. If he doesn't kick the duvet off try him with a duvet instead of the gro-bag.

It's not just the cold but the damp though.

We had no heating recently for three weeks and used a small oil-filled electric radiator to heat the bedroom as you can leave them on a setting which means they only come on if the temperature drops too low. It used about £3 electricity a day at 14.52 pkwh.

Plug in oil filled radiator. About 45 quid in B&Q and you can set the thermostat to 18.

It's a false economy to let your house get so cold you risk a burst pipe, frankly.

Oil filled radiators are really expensive to use.

Not as expensive as burst pipes.

My brother and sister never put their heating on. Their children are always ill. DN got croup last winter. Linked? I believe so.

my kid's room never gets warmer than about 16 degrees in the winter and that is with 2 radiators on. DD (22 months) wears a short sleeved vest, pjs, sleeping bag and 2.5 tog duvet, DS (6) wears pjs and has a 10 tog duvet. They seem OK with that. The radiators just seem to make the room feel less damp (it's a basement room). Next on my Christmas list is a dehumidifier.

i am a central heating junky but for various reasons we haven't heated the house yet this winter and we are all surviving! Maybe invest in a really good merino wool base layer or similar? And if you have a few spare duvets use as mattress toppers?

Interestingly we have yet to have an episode of croup from the DCs this winter and we usually have a couple. ARe you still using the central heating to heat water?

Burst pipes?

We're talking 10-13 degrees. It's not that cold.

Yes, it is. It is recommended that when you leave the house in winter you leave the heating on at the minimum of 13 degrees. That's the minimum to prevent frozen pipes, not a comfortable temperature for people.

OP, so your child will be cold for 3 months a year every year just so you don't have to work and he can be HE? Talk about screwed priorities.

I'm with you winnybella.

I'm lying here in Japan right now with a hot water bottle. Houses are cold here. Thin, thin walls. Hot water bottle does the trick for me. This year I am using an old traditional Japanese bottle that I found by a river two months ago. It looks like a giant pottery hip flask. It's probably 50 years old. The new ones are plastic.
But back to the OP, surely you can add hotties to the bed.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just to clarify: I'm toasty & warm in bed. DS definitely isn't seriously cold as on the occasions that has happened, he has snuggled up to me for warmth, which he isn't doing at the moment. I'm just trying to work out the best combination of clothing for his optimal comfort and to reduce any wakings which may be to do with the temperature.

I added an extra t-shirt and 2 pairs of long socks last night and it made absolutely no difference to his waking (and the room was at the higher end of its usual temperature), which mkes me suspect it's not the cold waking him up now. For 90% of his life he's woken more than once an night, including when staying at other people's warmer houses, so it's entirely probable he's waking for some random reason; he's only ever slept 'through' about 10 times in his life (which doesn't bother me in itself).

I tried the duvet both in the night and this morning but he had a mini-tantrum each time.

When I ask him in bed if he's warm or cold he always says 'warm'. I wouldn't rely 100% on what he says as he's only 23 m.o., but he does know the difference between cold, warm & hot and is perfectly capable of telling me when his face or hands are cold if we're out for a walk.

The reason I'm currently a SAHM and want to HE is because we think it's what's best for DS (for a whole variety of reasons which I won't go into). To put him in childcare and me find paid work just so he can wear one or two fewer layers in bed for a few months a year sounds bonkers to me I'm afraid.

We have a frost protection system on our boiler so it comes on automatically if there's a risk of burst pipes caused by cold weather. It's a combi, so we heat water as we need it - we don't have a tank. We do use a dehumidifier to keep the atmospheric moisture down.

I wouldn't worry too much. If he snuggles up to you, he obviously knows what to do if he is cold.