what do your children wear in bed?

[silverfrog]

dd1 has just turned 4, been in a bed coming up for a year. she loves her bed, all great there. the problem she has is that she just doesn't "get" blankets/duvets.

She has a blanket on her bed, and is happy with that. we tuck her up as she goes to bed (under blamket, nice and warm, etc, etc) which she can parrot back. She does have understanding of hot/cold (can label correctly).

Howevwer, she gores up to bed awake, and jumps around/looks out of the window/reads books/sings for a while (an hour or so) before she goes to sleep.

when she falls asleep, it is on top of any covers, she doesn't understand/isn't able to get back underneath, and so she is cold.

I check her as I go to bed, and put covers back, but inevitably during the night she wriggles about and is freezing again by morning. she seems to be lacking that instinctive "snuggle under covers" reflex, and just huddles up in a ball.

she currently wears a fleecy sleepsuit, but they are only rated to about 1-1.5 togs.

ideally I'm looking for something along the lines of a quilted sleepsuit (like a grobag, but with legs iyswim) but open to suggestions.

her room is freezing (crappy window fit, so not much to be done about it).

someone else must have similar issues, so what do you all use?

DD1 just has a grobag, and will do till she is too big for them (they go up to age 12 now, don't they?) at which point I'll be making my own. She has learned to shuffle about in it to an extent, as does DD2 (NT and also still in a grobag). I don't know about a "divided" one though.

the problem with grobags is that dd wouldn't be able to get inot her bed, I don't think. She sued to walk around really well in them when younger, and had no issures with them as such.

i have thought about going back to them, but I do think she would have an issue climbibg up. maybe wortha go though as at least i'll know she is warm enough.

her current method of bed "entry" is to stand facing the side of the bed, and then get one leg up sideways (sort of how you get out of swimming pool if there are no steps) then heave herself up (its only a normal single bed, but quite high - dd is tall for her age!). I can't see there being enough width in a grobag to allow this kind of maneouvre, and given that dd likes to bounce around a bit before she goes to sleep, i wonder if it will hinder her... hmm, something to ponder.

Tclanger - I've wondered about weighted balnkets (they'd prob be good for her in a sensory way anyway) but again, i wonder whether she'd just get out to look out of window, and then not connect getting back under... I had wondered about the new duvets that grobag do - zipped onto the sheets - but same issue applies.

It's the keeping her warm when asleep issue that is the problem, as she does move around a lot, and her room is so cold (weird anomaly where the wind whistles up our stairway and seems to only go to dd's room) in the night. we are thinking of underfloor heating for her room so that we can control her rrom temp independently of the rest of the house, but can't do that overnight, sadly

Oh I considered making a duvet suit for ds too!
Well ds (8) is just getting the hang of pulling the duvet over himself (at last) when he wakes up uncovered. I did buy a duvet clip (elastic strap to hold the duvet on the bed from Blooming marvelous I think) but ds could not tolerate the restriction and broke it quite quickly. I used to cover him and put the clip on low down (near his feet) when he was asleep, in the hope he would sleep till morning. We tried the all in one fleecy suits but the covered feet caused trips/slips especially on the stairs (ds rushes everywhere), and the footless ones rode up. Now ds wears socks (+pjs) to bed as he tends to pull the duvet onto his middle and get cold feet otherwise. In winter he wears several layers to bed. i still coverhim up every night!
Tclanger - perhaps a duvet clip would work - cheaper than a weighted blanket. Ds didn't like the restriction - although he is partial to squashing and pressure by day!

I've found the duvet clip good too. My daughter isn't good at picking up the duvet when it lands on the floor. We are on our second one, but the first did last about 3 years.
Silver frog have you tried an electric underblanket?

ooh, electric blanket is genius! will investigate.

i am glad to hear there is hope for her learning to pull duvet over herself, but will continue with the multiple layers for now.

thanks everyone

Would one of these be any good?

Ds always pushes the duvet off, and if I cover him up he always wakes up hot and bothered then screams for hours!

so I just make sure he has a thick & fluffy pair of socks .... usually silly xmas ones, and in the winter I did put two layers on him sometimes.

DS2 used to do this all the time, but now if it's cold he'll pull the duvet on top of himself. We have some fleecy all-in-one sleepsuits from Vertbaudet - I think they may have stopped making them but it's probably worth checking.

Your DD's going to bed ritual sounds just like DS2's - no surprises there . Except we say 'night night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, love you, love you too' - which he can now parrot after a fashion (ni ni leep ti bugs bite, la u too )

Thanks everyone, lots to think about.

nutterly - those are great! almost exactly what she needs, but sadly too big (the smaller one is 1.8m - dd1 is tall, but has a way to go there!)

she has gone to bed tonight with a pair of socks and a vest under her fleecy sleepsuit, and this seems to work fr now, but need to get something sorted by the time winter (hollow laugh) comes around.

Will try using a duvet again (she has an ikea furry blanket at the moment) as even sleeping on top of a duvet will give some warmth back. and will look into electric blankets too.

sphil what a shock that they are similar again . dd has taken to saying "last hugs" as we leave - her cheeky way of gaining another couple of minutes, but it always makes me a bit (daft i know) so I'm working on her saying "last hugs until tomorrow". She always wants us to repeat what she says and I just can't bear saying something as final as "last hugs" (soppy emoticon)

Would something like one of these be any good? I am probably not being at all helpful as I don't have a child with special needs, but I was thinking the novelty of them may help? Am a bit bummed they don't make kids Selk-bags!

Cor Silverfrog - 'last hugs'? That's really clever!

NutterlyUts - I love those sleeping bags!

Hi silverfrogs.DD has a fleecy sleepsuit as she doesn't realise re covers either.I have also tried making her duvet cover into a sleeping bag but she wriggles out of this,too.DD is coming up 3 but still in her 2-3 fleecy sleepsuits,I did buy a 3-4 when I got the last lot as did not know how much she would grow for this winter.Would this be any use to you??In winter I put dd in a thermal vest,tights (!) cotton pyjamas,then a fleecy sleepsuit over it all as she inevitably wriggles out her covers.She resembles the Michelin man but I comfort myself it is better that than freezing in the wee small hours!!

I think that mothercare do some bigger sized fleecy sleepsuits IIRC.

I think we should all go into business designing a special duvet with legs for our DCs

NutterlyUts, thanks again - those are really lovely, and I may well be investing for dd2 - she'd love it! dd1 would melt with excitement over the dinosaur one, but sadly I don't think she'd understand staying inside it to keep warm (although she might still end up with it anyway )

FanjolinaJolly, thank you for your offer. we are ok size-wise for fleecy sleepsuits (I get the mothercare ones, although think they are prob meant as dressing gowns ) but I really appreciate the offer. I will be going for the michelin man look - as you say, at least youknow they'll be warm!

Might have to give a thought to duvet suits - it would seem that there could be a market for them...

sphil - dd is the master of cheeky "one more/last time" requests, and normally gets indulged as it is nice to see her behaving vaguely age-appropriately in some way. the sheer delight and fit of giggles as she realises we are coming back in means that she quite often gets more than one "last" hug (although I suppose we ought to stop that from a language point of view )

I suppose you could use it for language extension - 'really the last time', 'the very last time' etc! I just think it's brilliant she understands the concept.