My son is almost 4 months old and we've noticed since he was born that he hates the cold. I know newborns especially get cold easier than adults, and I myself don't do cold weather well either, but it affects his sleep to the extreme. He has been known to sleep 7 to 10 hours at a time overnight but only in very warm temperatures. By that I mean a sleeper, a quilted baby blanket up to his stomach, and a space heater in his room set to 80 degrees. If it gets colder, like when I was setting his heater to 75, he wakes up 2-4 times a night. During the day it doesn't seem to bother him to be in normal temps though, and he tends to be a very happy baby. Is this normal?
That sounds too warm to me.
I've seen some sites say 65 to 70 is a good temp for a babys room - too warm a temp can be a factor in SIDs and SIDs is a risk up until about his 1st birthday.
Use a sleep sack for him - no blankets that could be pulled over his face and be a suffocation risk.
http://www.halosleep.com/sleep-safety/
Babies - even toddlers - often wake up at night.
well, no, it doesn't seem normal for a baby to need to be bundled up to that extent. and keeping a house at 80 degrees isn't good for anybody.
that being said, a 3 month old waking up several times a night IS normal. are you sure it's because he's cold? maybe he just needs a feeding or to be changed.
i think i'd stop making his room so warm and resign myself to a few nighttime wakings and see how that goes.
khairete
S.
80 degrees does not sound normal, but a 4 month old waking 2 to 4 times to eat is very normal. Are you sure you haven't just found a way for him to ignore his stomach because he's so warm and cozy? Before calling the ped, I think I'd try lowering the heat and feeding him every time he wakes. It's not easy waking so often to feed baby, but it is what they need and it does only last a few months.
Wow - that is an amazing amount of heat for a child. I can't imagine a baby that bundled up and also needing a space heater to make the room feel like a summer day. I'd get him checked out. It's normal for a 4 month old to NOT sleep through the night, of course - although by 4 months I wouldn't think he'd need to be up 4 times to feed. So is he unable to self-soothe? Are you going in with the first peep he makes or are you letting him settle down first? How are you planning to keep a quilted baby blanket on him once he learns to roll over? You might need another strategy anyway.
I'd really discuss this with the pediatrician. I can't imagine that much heat and dryness would be a good idea, and you can't use a space heater forever anyway. They aren't safe especially when a child can get out of bed, and even if you he's not mobile but no one is nearby.
I have never heard of this. Have you talked to your pediatrician? You should. If you don't get an answer you feel comfortable with, look for the closest children's hospital in your area, and get an appointment with a development pediatrician. I think it might help if your baby had some tests done, but a children's hospital would be the best route to go, in my opinion.
That is way too warm. Closer to 65 is recommended and he should NEVER have a blanket in the crib. If you use a sleep sac and onesie he should be plenty warm enough. It is normal for them to wake several times a night. If he settles down again I wouldn't worry a bit about it.
Well, I will be sleepier in warm environments. Think of when you're next to a wood stove. I automatically fall asleep as does my husband. Same if kids are overdressed in the car. They will nod off.
That's not necessarily what you want.
But I get it - I had one baby (born in winter) who didn't sleep. Kept waking. My doctor told me to turn the heat up and buy a sleep sack. So he wore a warm fuzzy long sleeve zip up onesie pajama, then a fleece sleep sack - no blanket. But I had to have the room warmer of course than ours, because no blanket.
We have space heaters - they tend to heat the floor. So if he's up in a crib, he may still feel kind of drafty.
Just be sure to check with your doctor. Good luck :)
It is perfectly normal for a 4 month old baby to wake up 2-4 times at night for eating, diaper changing, and/or soothing.
With a sleeper, a quilt, and a space heater running on 80 he is probably passed out from overheating than sleeping naturally. Sometimes 4 mo babies do sleep 7+ hours, but they will do that at normal temps when it is a natural sleep.
It is not advised to use space heaters in a baby's room in general, but particularly not with the door closed and absolutely never at night when everyone is sleeping. You should also not use quilts for several more months until he is old enough to be able to move it off his body/face himself.
If his room is colder than the rest of the house in general, you may consider moving his crib into your room or another space.
Overheating is risk factor for SIDS. The nursery should be kept at no higher than 68. The sleeper with a onesie under it should be all he needs. Keeping a quilted blanket in his crib is not a good idea. Nothing should be in the crib, but the baby. No bedding, no blankets, stuffed animals or bumpers.
He's supposed to wake that often too eat. Babies have teeny, tiny stomachs and need to eat often, even at 4 months. Sure, there are some babies who sleep 6 hours or more at that age, but they are in the minority.
He's waking because he's hungry.
I would talk to a doctor about it. I have a friend who is actually allergic to extreme cold. She'll break out in hives and sometimes have difficulty breathing. This has happened to her in a cold ocean as well as at a ski resort. She has to take a lot of precautions if she knows she's going to be somewhere with extremely cold temperatures.
I'm not saying your baby has the same condition. I'm not a doctor and have no firsthand experience. I'm simply bringing it up to mention that the condition really does exist and is worth exploring with a professional.
Wow, that seems really extreme. The babies I know are little heaters and kick off their blanket and are all hot and sweaty at night...even if the house is set at 67. We used to live in Alaska and that is where we had our kids. The kids/babies there are so tough and cold does not seem to bother them. I really think that a baby/kid/person gets used to colder temperatures the more they are in them. I agree with the others....talk to your pediatrician because no one I know keeps their house at 80! We keep our house at 67 during the nights. If this is normal for your little guy perhaps he was meant to live in a very hot climate!
the heater may be set to 80 but whats the actual temp in the crib? our old house was a bit drafty and i would have a heater set at 80 in a room and 5 ft away from the 80 degree heater it would be 70 on a winter day with highs in the 20's
i would put my baby in a footed sleeper and a sleepsack (often with a onesie on first) and then (with my son) i had to put mittens on his hands or they were always cold.
so i would start with knowing the temp in the crib. and do whatever is necessary to keep baby sleeping. if baby has slept 7 hour stretches without needing food i wouldn't worry about it as they are probably getting enough to eat during the day
He is 4 months and only wakes up twice? Wow! Most of them wake up every few hours to eat and get a diaper change. Sounds like he's doing well. I wouldn't have his room that hot but I also wouldn't ever, ever, put a space heater in a room I wasn't personally sleeping in. The hotter room can effect his breathing.
Why? I had one explode during the night one time. It literally went ZAP and bits of it flew all over on the carpet. I was laying on the couch asleep and hear the noise and instantly jumped up screaming fire. My husband grabbed the fire extinguisher as he came through the kitchen. We got it all out and I got new carpet as a result but still, it was the scariest thing!
So turn your thermostat up for the whole house. Close the vents in the rooms you don't want so warm.
Don't do electric blankets or anything like that either. My friend had an electric blanket for a while, it worked very well, one night her husband was kicking around in his sleep, woke her up, she sat up because it looked weird in the room and her feet were super hot. The electric blanket was on fire. They got out but lost their house.
Turn the heat up to 70 something at night and turn it down a bit, a degree or two is all that is needed, during the day. It will equal the bill out.
You are getting some mixed responses here. I agree that 80 seems too warm, 65 at night seems more reasonable. But, it is not at all unreasonable for him to be sleeping through the night as some claim. I know many babies do wake several times a night still at that age, but not all. My Ped told me from the start that many babies who still wake several times a night after the first couple of months do so because they have been trained to do so because at the first sound the parents run in with food. I always made sure it was actually hunger that woke him before shoving food at him (once he was over 2 months old) and found that most of the time he was not hungry and if I left him for simply 2-3 minutes on his own he would fall back to sleep without intervention. So don't let people tell you that you are starving him or that something is wrong if he is sleeping through the night, I think they just don't want to feel like they are somehow getting the short end by having a waker (all babies are different and some do simply take longer to sleep all night), or that they may have contributed in any way to the fact that their child still does not sleep through the night.
For warmth (we lived in an old farm house in England, so very cold at night) we used to put him in both warm PJs and a sleep sack and the combination of the two seemed to keep him warm enough even when he managed to get out from under the regular blanket.
Best of luck moving forward!
