Nighttime Covers

Updated on January 02, 2011
M.S. asks from Napa, CA
16 answers

We have an almost 2 year old that has been having difficulty keeping covered at night. He is a very active sleeper so there is a lot of movement going on while he is asleep. In the winter he would wear a sleep sack and we had a radiator heater in his room to keep it warmer than the rest of the house. But with the summer weather, when he is going to sleep it is still warm so he doesn't want to wear the sleep sack and we don't want to run the heater. Then in the middle of the night as it cools off, he wakes because he has kicked off the light blankets we cover him with when we go to bed. Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas that worked with their children.

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So What Happened?

Thanks for all the ideas! It sounds like we have tried a lot of the suggestions already so we will just continue to go in and cover him at about 3:30am when he wakes up cold.

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C.B.

answers from San Francisco on

I would either put the sleep sack on him and then just open his window until you go to bed, then shut it. Or, you could put him in bed with his light covers and then put the sleep sak on him while he's sleeping before you go to bed. I know I can dress/undress my grandchildren while they're sleeping without them waking up as long as they've been asleep for a little while.

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D.M.

answers from Denver on

Are you sure that is why he's waking? Not sure if he can tell you that or not. My daughter is 3.5 and since birth hates to be warm... she sleeps many nights w/ no covers (despite the a/c in her room).

If that is it, I would stick to cotton, maybe get some PJs w/ his favorite cartoon character??? and just have him wear the bottoms for a while then intro the top. The other thing that works for us is a cool mist humidifier - keeps the room cooler and he might want to wear some PJs...

Good luck!

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R.D.

answers from San Francisco on

We have the same issue with our 3 year old and just do what you did in winter, put lightweight but long sleeved, long pants and socks on our boy to keep him cozy in the night. The socks you can add later at your bed time as it cools off.

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D.S.

answers from San Francisco on

We have a grandchild that is doing the same thing. It is more of a problem for the parents than for our little one! They use the Tshirt, knit sheets. These are great in winter to keep her extra warm but are also nice in the summer becasue it gets really hot in the day but cools off greatly at night. We find that this little one likes to snuggle in the sheets and its not as hard anymore to keep her covered. Good Luck. By the way this is the child has over heats naturally and we will find her stripping off her nightgown at night becasueshe gets to hot.

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W.H.

answers from Phoenix on

I have the fan going in my son's room (here in AZ) when he goes to bed, then when we go to bed, we turn it off and sometimes I cover him with a light sheet. I know it is a losing battle because he has always moved constantly and kicks off his covers. Now that he is old enough to dress himself, he wears shorts and t-shirt to bed, and that is about all I can do. I do check on him before I go to bed and cover him up, or at least make the covers by him, ready to be pulled over if he gets cold during the night. I have occasionally woken up cold (or just woken up) and will go check on him and cover him lightly, but in this house thankfully it is my room that is the coldest at night.

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J.B.

answers from Denver on

my daughter is the same age- and an active sleeper. I just put her in a long sleeve t shirt and some sweat pants. The blanket rarely stays on. If his feet get cold get him some booties or put socks on him.

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P.K.

answers from New York on

Just put him in pajamas and relax. He will be fine. Leave a blanket in
his crib. If he is cold, I am sure he will find it. Give little ones a little
credit. They are smarter than you think.

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H.P.

answers from Sacramento on

I have a heater with a thermostat. Since my daughter's room is usually the coldest in our house, I tend to power up the heater with the thermostat set so that it will come on if her room gets under 70 degrees. That way we can leave the a/c on so we're comfortable until we go to bed, and then if the night is cool she'll still be warm. I am pretty sure it rarely comes on, but it gives me peace of mind that she won't get too cold.

I like the suggestion a PP had of letting him pick out his own PJs - if they are a character he loves he's more likely to wear them. If you have decent sewing skills (or find a good iron on!) you could perhaps even add a favourite character to his sleep sack. Buy a second iron on and a scrap of similar fabric so you can practice before you put the final one on though - I found there was a bit of a learning curve when I tried to make some custom onesies for a friend's LO last year!

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J.M.

answers from Fresno on

When my daughter was that age I would put long PJ top on her in the middle of the night. she slept even when I dressed her. If it was reall chilly I would add bottoms too.

A.G.

answers from Pocatello on

When my daughter was younger we would just dress her in cotton p.j.s (so she wouldn't get too warm) then once we went to bed and it had cooled down we would go in her room and over her up. That seemed to work fine. Or when you go to bed go in his room and over him up and turn the heater on so then it will warm the room now that it is cooler. We now have 2 kids so what we did is put air conditioners in each of their rooms. And keep them in warm p.j.s cause we just keep their rooms cool all night. It has worked out great for our 18 month old.

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S.H.

answers from Honolulu on

Just have him go to bed with a long pants pajamas. And a long sleeve pajama top.
Lots of kids at this age do not like blankets on them.
My kids included.
Only since about 3 years old, my son will sometimes, "like" a blanket on him.
I don't force it.

Or, if it does get cold at night, what I do is, I put the long pants pajamas on my son then. If he initially went to bed without it. It doesn't wake him.

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J.S.

answers from Dallas on

Short sleeve shirt and pants?

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A.N.

answers from Los Angeles on

This sounds exactly like my 18 month old. He actually sweats when we put him down to sleep so we keep the ceiling fan on and the window open. Then when we go to bed we either turn the ceiling fan down or close the window and cover him up. I still wake up once or twice a night and check on him because of this and end up covering him up again. It's an ongoing thing and I have just made it a habit to check on him during the night. We also put him either in loose cotton jammies or sometimes just a diaper and shirt, depending on the weather.

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A.L.

answers from San Francisco on

We have been using Dri Nights Washable Bedwetter training pants. I ordered them online from One Step Ahead. I have been happy with them. My 5 year old son went about 8 months without ever having an accident at night so we had stopped with the pull ups a while ago. He wouldn't wear pulls up when the accidents started because he associates them with being a little kid. The Dri Nights have been good for me because it's easier to wash them than the sheets, mattress pad, blankets, etc. The ones I bought were about $15 but it looks like One Step Ahead has some on sale now for $7. Good luck.

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M.D.

answers from San Francisco on

Hi, M.! Mitchell is exactly like that.We put him to bed with covers and check before we go to bed and he is almost always uncovered, so we cover him back up. He used to wake up cold, but now he doesn't wake up for that anymore. Now it's nightmares (which, thank God, are rare). One of the hazards of our weather patterns, I guess.

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S.E.

answers from Asheville on

I designed a sleep sack which is adjustable to fit from infancy into the toddler years called a Snuggle Down. It is filled with cozy white goose down, which I think is comfortable year-round. And if your little one does not like having their legs confined, this product is equipped with a two way zipper extending down the side and across the bottom, so it can be unzipped from the bottom...little legs are free to kick, but the blanket stays securely in place. My website is www.snuggledownbaby.com. The design is currently only available with goose down fill, but I will be offering unfilled versions soon. Hope this helps!

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