30 degrees in our flat

[Probablytired]

We live in a top floor, VERY well insulated flat. This place gets absolutely boiling which is actually great for most of the year when we can let cold air in with the windows, not so great in a heatwave.

we have huge windows either side which catch the morning, afternoon and evening sun, we’ve tried every trick in the book to cool
this place down in the day and sleep with bedroom windows wide open despite it inviting a family of moths into our room every night, but right now we just cannot get the temperature below 30 degrees. It drops to around 28 at night at the moment but that’s it.

We have DD (4 months old) sleeping in our room in a next to me crib, there’s no cooler room in the flat and she’s just in a nappy. I’m so stressed out about her overheating especially as she’s just had her jabs today and has a fever of 38 earlier right now. She is calpol-d up and in the least amount of clothing possible but I can’t stop checking on her breathing every second.

Anyone else getting super anxious about their little ones in this heat? I’m a first time mum so probably a bit OTT with it but it’s stressing me out so much I can’t sleep

Earlier and right now **

Buy an air con unit?

Freeze everything including bedding, it really makes a difference. Prob too late for tonight though. Cold water bottle with ice???

Yes, we do have an air con unit. It is amazing!

My LO was more like 9 months in similar weather last year but our flat situation sounds very similar to yours (29 in the bedroom right now). Less worrying for us as she was a bit older but I have always understood that it's being too warm due to too much heating/clothing etc that is a risk, rather than summer heat. Otherwise rates of SIDS in hot countries would be sky high. Sorry that's not a practical tip but hopefully a helpful thing to focus on when you inevitably can't sleep later anyway due to the blasted heat!

I've heard pointing a fan out of a window (when the air cools outside) will suck in the cooler air from outside.

May be a quick fix to cool the room a few degrees.

Can you afford an air conditioner? We have a 6 month old and it was 28 degrees in his room last night, I was so worried, so I totally get where you are coming from. Not just a fan, but an actual air conditioner that will chill the air and reduce the temperature rather than just blow air around. You can get them for around £250 I think which I appreciate is a ton of money for someone on maternity leave.

I don't think they recommend young babies sleeping with fans directly on them, but 30 degrees is horrendous so to me its the lesser if 2 evils.

What I do is keep curtains drawn everywhere and only use less powerfull lights probably a bit to late now but I swap my lightbulbs over during the summer to one's that produce less heat hope this helps??

I spent many many hot nights worrying about this with my three and I really wish I hadn’t now as they all spent the odd night in extreme heat stripped down to a nappy with windows open etc and they were always absolutely fine. Like pp have said children live / sleep in much much hotter conditions than this for their whole childhoods !

Does the poster need permission for this?

You could buy fly nets for your window or make some. Just stick velcro around your window frame, get a net curtain type bit of material and stick it too the velcro, then you can open the window and it will stop all the bugs flying in. We have them in living room.