Babies are not able to regulate their own temperature. They need to have airflow around their head and face to ensure they don’t overheat.
Knowing the right amount of bedding is key to the safety and well-being and protect your child from overheating and bed covers covering their face during the night.
Getting the mix right can be a tricky thing. Too much bedding can result in your baby overheating (which is a risk factor of SIDS) and too little bedding can affect their sleep because they are not warm enough.
A good suggestion is to use a sleeping bag as this can alleviate the worry of overheating and suffocation while ensuring they don’t get cold in the night.
Often parents will use the traditional sheet and blanket for the first few weeks/months. This is generally considered easier to layer and monitor your baby’s temperature. It is easier to just take off or put on a blanket as needed with out disturbing your baby.
The amount of bedding you use depends on the overall room/air temperature, however, a general idea is to dress the child more rather than add more bedding. It is advised for the colder months to be careful not to overheat. Dress them something like: a vest, a bodysuit, plus one sheet and up to three thin blankets.
24°C/75°F = 1 sheet only
21°C/70°F = 1 sheet plus 1 layer of blanket
18°C/65°F = 1 sheet plus 2 layers of blanket
15°C/60°F = 1 sheet plus 3 layers of blanket
Of course this is a personal decision.
Parents tend to either swaddle or use a sleeping bag. This is a particular common during the newborn to 8 month age.
The great things about a sleeping bag is that a child can’t kick them off like a sheet or a blanket and therefore they stay covered all night.
This means that your baby may wake less often due to being cold.
When using a sleeping bag the bottom sheet usually is all that is needed unless it is really cold and a blanket can be added. It’s advised to never use a doona (duvet or quilt) when using a sleeping bag as the child is at a greater risk of overheating.
It is recommended to use a sleeping bag without a hood to reduce the risk of suffocation.
You can purchase sleeping bags applicable for the season. There are lightweight ones for summer and heavier ones for winter.
Red and sweaty looking is obviously too hot just as cold to touch or with a tinged of blue is too cold, but we all would have established this.
So how do we determine if our baby is too hot or cold otherwise?
Once you remove the tell tale signs it still possible to establish your baby’s temperature.
Ways to tell a baby’s body temperature:
All that a heater is needed for is to take the chill out of the air.
Be mindful that it is highly recommended that a baby should not sleep in a hot room. Ideally, you would have the appropriate bedding and clothing on to not require a heater in the long term. If the heating is via air conditioner then setting it to a constant temperature is easier than a alternative type of heater such as a blow heater.
The recommended ideal temperature for a baby’s room should be 18 degrees but the ideal temperature range can be from 16- 20 degrees.
You can purchase a room temperature monitor which will display the room temperature at all times to help you gauge.