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Sleep

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Original poster

Is 14 degrees too cold for DS (19 months) room?

53 replies

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 09:59

I'm not sure that this si the right place to post this, but not sure where else to put it!

DS is currently in the coldest room in the house. Its around 17/ 18 when he goes to bed, but is dropping to around 14 by the morning, and not really heating up much during the day! He seems warm enough when he wakes up in the morning, and does sleep in most days but i'm a little worried that we should keep his room at a more consistent temperature.

He sleeps in a l/s vest, sleepsuit (fleece when we know it will drop below 16); socks and a 2.5 sleeveless sleeping bag.

he soemtimes wakes int he night, but goes back to sleep quite quickly.

Hands and feet are cold int eh morning, but body temp is fine. He sucks his thumb so cant put anything on his hands, and he'd pull them off anyway.

Am i worrying (propbably) unecessarily?

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suzikettles · 05/12/2011 10:45

Personally, I hate sleeping in a room with heating on. I always wake up with a stuffy nose.

Which I guess goes to show that people have different heating requirements. Given that your ds probably can't tell you whether he's cold or not I think you have to go with his behaviour - if he's waking frequently then maybe it needs to be warmer, or he needs another blanket. If he's sleeping happily then I would hazard that he doesn't mind that the air is chilly, as he's perfectly cosy.

Francagoestohollywood · 05/12/2011 11:11

There is a world of difference between an over heated room and 14 degrees though.

SooticaTheWitchesCat · 05/12/2011 11:19

It isn't too cold but if you feel your ds is not warm enough give him another blanket.

We never heat the house during the night anyway. When i was a child we never had heating and it was sometimes so cold in the bedrooms that you could scrape frost off the inside of the windows! I never felt cold in bed though.

I think people get too used to having wamr houses. It wont hurt him if the room is cold as long as he is wrapped up snug enough.

If you have cold feet then he probably takes after you. I'm sure if he did feel cold at night he would cry anyway. Don't worry too much.

Woodlands · 05/12/2011 11:20

My DS (16 months) woke at 4.30ish this morning and I think he was cold - it was really chilly in his room when I went in there, I'm not sure how cold but probably no more than 14-15 degrees. We had forgotten to pull down his blackout blind which does make a difference - could you maybe put up a blind to keep the heat in? My DS was wearing a short-sleeved vest (all the long-sleeved ones were in the wash!), a cotton sleepsuit and a 2.5 tog bag. I added a fleece blanket when he woke up but he still took a while to settle. In the end we put the heating on and he went back off to sleep. Last winter when it was really really cold I put a cardigan on him on top of his sleeping bag - I might start doing that again. I'm a bit reluctant to put him in fleece babygros as I thought they were designed for instead of a sleeping bag, not as well as?

I honestly think it's fine for children to sleep in rooms of that temperature as long as they are dressed warmly enough.

lollystix · 05/12/2011 11:23

Our house is freezing. I put them all to bed in sleepsuits or jammies with a thick granny knit over and we have no issues

bigkidsdidit · 05/12/2011 12:10

My DS's room gets quite cold so now I put long thermal socks from M&S over his pyjamas up to his knees, it keeps him very warm! Any colder and I'll put a cardy on too.

miaowmix · 05/12/2011 12:18

14 degrees is bloody freezing, I wouldn't sleep in that myself so wouldn't expect my child to! Can't you just have the heating on until he goes to bed then turn off his radiator later? How can it get so cold?!

Graciescotland · 05/12/2011 12:19

I sometimes worry about DS getting a bit chilly at night too. We can't really have the heating on at night. Boiler is right above his room and it's noisy. Besides it does seem like a waste. I was looking at something like this to keep his room just that little bit warmer that way I can burrow under my many duvets in my icy cold room guilt free.

Original poster

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 12:26

Thanks all for your suggestions!

My query was originally becasue i was worried that it was colder than the 'suggested minimum temp',but i wasn't sure if that was that important if i could keep him warm enough! Afterall, the scandinavians (and Scots?) put their kids outside for naps becasue its good for them! And its a whole lot warmer inside our house!

I guess my worry was also about keeping a consistent temperature. i think its more important that the temp doesn't fluctuate (19 when he goes to bed [6.30] and until about midnight - and 14 when he wakes up in the morning) as it is impossible to dress him approrpaitely for that. And yes, he does get hot wearing a sleepsuit if its 18 degrees!

He has black out blinds in his room, but his roman blinds aren't very thick - maybe we should put blankets up?! It doesn't help that he also has 2 windows in there.

He did wake up at 3.30 this morning, but after a quick cuddle (2 minutes in his rooms) he went straight back to sleep until 8.30 this morning! So i dont think he's freezing.

And always check his temp by putting 2 fingers down his neck to see that he's warm, and he mainly is. Was a little cold yesterday (room 16) when he woke up, so thats why we put him in a fleece sleepsuit instead of a cotton one last night.

Thanks again

OP posts:

QuietNinjaMincepie · 05/12/2011 12:27

Surely if he was cold he'd wake up? If the temp drops in ds room we put a small blanket over him when we go to bed. Could you do that? Ds room gets quite chilly and I'm not leaving the heating on all night. At the mo he is in vest, pj,s and 2.5 tog grobag and his room prob drops to about 16 on a cold night. Also hands and feet do tend to be cooler, if his body is warm then he's ok.

Original poster

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 12:28

And beleive me, we have the heating on in the evening! It turns off at about 10 when we start to think about heading to bed (i need my sleep!) and his room is warm util midnight or so, but then it gets cold outside and the heat leaches out overnight!

I just dont want to have it on all night!

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emmaj1045 · 05/12/2011 12:29

If he isn't waking up in the night due to the cold then I am sure your little one is fine. Our house is too expensive to heat and we just use a wood burner in the lounge. When it got really cold in the winter last year we put a small electric oil heater in the bedroom on a low setting just to take the worst of the chill off.

Slobberedupon · 05/12/2011 12:29

I realise that different people have very different expectations of what cold is but just to state my experience. I grew up in NZ where most house didn't (and still don't) have central heating. It gets very cold in winter in my city and my bedroom would have been a lot colder than 14 degrees and we were fine as babies and children. When my Nanna first came over to England she couldnt' believe how warm people kept their houses.

Basically, I think that as long as your LO is dressed warmly enough then it's fine. There are huge swathes of the world who don't have central heating with cold winters and their children all grow up okay.

leftmymistletoeatthedoor · 05/12/2011 12:31

I'm scottish - I live in scotland - I've never heard of anyone putting their kids outside for their nap (unless walking somewhere in buggy or something).

StrictlySazz · 05/12/2011 12:33

I think 14 is slightly on the cold side, but was the temp DD1 slept in before we had our double glazing. I think the clothes you have on him are fine for the temp. Someone mentioned sleeves for sleeping bags the other day - jo Jo Maman?

I actually reduced the heating in DD's room so that the difference between the temp at going to bed and in the middle of the night was reduced and the clothes she was wearing were appropriate throughout the night.

Personally i would never keep the heating on through the night and would consider it wasteful if the room was still at 14 degrees. Below 12 and yes, i would think about some extra heating.

marge2 · 05/12/2011 12:35

Poor baby!

Original poster

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 14:06

leftmymistletoeatthedoor - must have just been when my parents and my bil parents were first bringin up babies...

OP posts:

Original poster

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 14:14

marge2 - why?

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ronx · 05/12/2011 14:16

My DD (15 months) is sleeping in our study as her room is being decorated. The study is on the cool side so i dress her in l/s body suit, sleepsuit, cardigan, socks, 2.5 tog sleeping bag and at least one extra blanket on top.

loveisagirlnameddaisy · 05/12/2011 16:38

Use a duvet as well as a sleeping bag? My LO is no longer in a grobag and loves her duvet!

Original poster

LotusPalm · 05/12/2011 18:51

loveisagirlnameddaisy - I'm a bit cautious of using a duvet with him at the moment. He moves around a lot in his sleep and I'd be concerned he'd get caught up in it or end up completely underneath it. Blankets don't stay on him for very long either, and if you try and pit one on whilst he's still awake he has a bit of a paddy and then balls it up underneath him!

I've moved him up a sleeping bag size tonight so there's more room for warm air to get trapped in, and tucked his sleepsuit into his socks, so hope his feet can stay warm.

Will put the thermostatic radiator in there so it doesn't get much colder than last night again.

Thanks for reassurance from those like me who don't keep a hot house. All pointers noted and we've lots to play with should he get mornIng chills, but thinking as long as he's happy enough in there I should probably stop worrying and leave him to it!

OP posts:

Caz10 · 05/12/2011 19:03

What a lot of bizarre posts!
OP this is only my experience/ opinion but we struggled to get the temp to 16-18 degrees in Dds room when she was little; she was fine in warm layers etc as you describe. I've no idea of the temp in the middle of the night in our current house but I don't think it's up at 18, maybe 15? We are all fine!
Having the heating on all night is massively wasteful both energy and money wise. Although I suppose you could try what some people do, leaving it on very very low all of the time?
It is core temp you need to be concerned with not extremities.
And both my Dds had/have their naps outside all the time!!

Caz10 · 05/12/2011 19:04

Ps I am not a central heating fan can you tell?! Dries out the air so much yuck!

Seona1973 · 06/12/2011 11:47

we dont have the heating on overnight either (heating goes off about 10pm and back on at 6am). During the winter it regularly gets down to 14 degrees overnight but it never bothered the kids when they were babies and doesnt bother them now. They also wore 2.5 tog sleeping bags until they moved to big beds at which point they got a duvet.

HandMini · 06/12/2011 14:22

My baby's room is 14 degrees, same as ours. She wears 2 sleepsuits, 2.5 tog sleeping bag, and 2/3 layers of fine wool blanket, tucked in firmly to keep them snug over her. I think that's fine.

I have been told to check temp in babies at the back of the neck/upper back, and not hands and feet as they often have cold extremities.

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