cold hands

[Naomi]

Hugo is addicted to being wrapped to go to sleep (as in, he will not fall asleep if he is not wrapped). We have just managed to start leaving one arm out - it has taken a long time to progress this far, and I'm so happy that we've managed it - but now I find that the hand on his free arm gets really cold overnight. I do tuck it under the blankets, but he pulls it out. How do I keep his hands warm? Is it safe to leave one of those oil column heaters on low in his room? (It's quite a cold room at the best of times). I don't want to put mittens on him as he doesn't have a dummy anymore and I know he sucks his fingers to self settle.

[Leigh]

It is such a pain to keep babies covered when it is cold. It makes you wonder how they can still sleep when their little bits are so frosty :(

I think if you don't want to cover his hands, with mittens or enclosed clothes then a heater would be the way to go. Just on low to take the chill out of the air.

We had trouble keeping Katelyn covered. She would wiggle around and get the blankets completely off, I would set the alarm for 4am so I could get up and cover her again, but it didn't help. She would wake up so frosty :(. Pam made her some wonderful little fleecy sleeping bags. So even if she got all her blankets off, she was still warm :)
She has a single bed quilt in her toddler bed now, so there is plenty of blanket, and she has a lot more trouble wiggling out of it.


BTW, how did you and Hugo go last week? I wasn't sure you were still going as you hadn't mentioned it. But then you went missing for the week LOL

[mel35]

My son was born in late April so I used to use an oil heater on low in his bedroom overnight. I used to have it on in the middle of his room with nothing close to it and it took the chill out of his room during the night.

I sometimes leave it on in our bedroom on really cold nights and have never had a problem with it .

If you keep it on low and make sure nothing is close to it and especially that nothing is covering the air vent you should be safe.

[Naomi]

Thanks Mel, that's kind of what I intended to do - just keep it on low with nothing near it. We have smoke detectors outside the door and I think an oil heater would be the safest for this kind of thing, so I'll probably give it a go.

Leigh, we did go. I didn't mention it much because it's one of those things ... I didn't want to offend anyone whose parenting philosophy is different to what tresillian advocates, but I also didn't want to have to explain myself (again) to people who disagreed with it. I've just been feeling a bit funny about it after having an IRL 'discussion' with someone that made me feel like the worst mum in the world for subjecting my child to that (I haven't come across this opinion on this forum, just feeling a little bit sensitive about the whole thing). That probably doesn't make sense, sorry. Anyway, it went really well. Hugo is sleeping much better and I'm getting more sleep, so it helped us. If I ever manage to get Hugo out of the wrap entirely, I'm going to try a sleeping bag. I'm just paranoid about too much bedding with the whole SIDS thing (which is why I'm trying to wean him off the wrap in the first place).

[MissieK]

Both my boys sleep uncovered, no matter how hard I try to keep them covered, or how cold it is. Nat, at 3.5, still kicks his blankets off.

When he was tiny I put a heater in his room, but not any more as the room gets too stuffy. Now they're moving around, I find if they get cold, they roll around under the blankets again!!

Melissa

[Michelle]

Hi Naomi,

Isabella hated being wrapped from 2months onwards and would kick her blankets off too so i was forever trying to keep her warm! She also slept with her arms streched out above her head so her hands would get cold all the time! I also have one of those oil heaters and i put it in the doorway of her room on medium so it just takes the chill off her room and still circulates in the hallway too and it doesn't get too warm!! I done that because i was worried that she may get too hot if it just in her room and in case something happens to it (God forbid)! Good Luck with his cold hands..... :)

[Leigh]

Oh, Naomi :hug: ... tell them to bugger of and stick their advice where it fits! What business is it of anyone else's what you do with YOUR son.

How is a mother suppose to care for her child is she is constantly exhausted and unhappy? Sure it maybe hard, but it was only a few days, and now you have him sleeping a bit better everyone will be better off. Now you guys can get back to enjoying life and your little man without all the stress, how can that be a bad thing?

You did what you felt was best for you and your son, and that's all that matters. And for what it's worth I think you did the right thing :)

The sleeping bags were great, also very handy for the cold days before she was walking to crawl around the tiles.