Temperature regulation while sleeping at night?

[laughingeyes2013]

Can I just double check what people think about this?

There is so much written about babies getting too hot, but very little about them get too cold.

My first baby was a hot boy, but my second really feels the cold. He was born premature so I'm not sure if that had any bearings on it.

But I am currently in a room that feels chilled (but it is night time and I am aware that our body temperature naturally lowers at night so the air temperature may be as warm as it is in the day, just that my body is feeling it differently.

So - going back to baby. The room is 20 degrees. The wind is howling outside and there is no heating on.

His skin on his head, back, chest and legs are cold to touch. Sometimes almost mildly clammy as well as cold. But definitely no warmth anywhere. He's currently got a green snotty cold.

He's wearing a long sleeved vest and baby grow, and is in a 2.5 tog sleeping bag. I also had a crochet blanket over him as he started the night cold.

I've just fed him and noticed how cold he is, and I've been trying for the past hour to get him warmed up. In the end the only way I could warm him was to cuddle him against my body underneath my duvet with me.

This feels so completely wrong! It goes against all advice which makes me doubt myself.

I would have expected a baby to feel cold and DRY, but the clammy/sweaty feeling is a bit alien to me.

What does everyone think?

Have you taken his temperature? He has a bit too much on for that tog Grobag in that temperature room although my dd always needed more than the guidance. As he's prem I'd take his temp and if it's too low get some medical advice
Also if he's prem is he actually big enough to use the Grobag? If memory serves they need to be 8lb+.
It doesn't matter if his hands, feet, arms etc are cold but his back and chest should be at least warm to touch with the back of your hand

It's probably his cold. Ds was the same earlier today, dh and I have both got stinking colds and ds was a bit snotty at bedtime so I put it down to that. I would keep an eye on his temperature.

He was 4lb 7oz but now 6 months old!

His body temp is ok now (he's having another feed as I speak).

I hadn't used the back of my hand to feel him, but had felt him all over and the only sniff of warmth - which was hard to detect as it was so mild - was on his stomach. But it took a lot of concentrating to pick that up, it was almost neutral.

That should be enough to sleep in, laighingeyes, and 20 is at the top end of room temps for babies. I do sympathise though, DS was 4.12lb at birth and prem and as a newborn a lot is done to regulate their body temps, often keeping them really wrapped up. DS often feels frozen at night but I am very wary of overheating, that's a far greater risk.

How was he in himself? Guess it's difficult to gauge if he has a cold. What are you worried about with it, that it will wake him up?

There's some interesting stuff on thermoregulation and room temps online. From what I've read babies and adults naturally sleep better in cooler temps. As adults, lower body temps at night help us conserve energy (not sure if this is true of babies?)