Introduction
The market offers a wide variety of clothes to put on your baby. A blanket statement about which product is the best or that more expensive is always better cannot be made. Instead, every mother or family must decide for themselves which products are suitable for them.
Of course, the experience and advice of the older generation has an influence on young mothers that should not be underestimated, but in the end, every mother should dress her child as she thinks it is right and as it is tolerated by the baby. To give a brief overview of potential products: Parents today can choose between baby bodysuits, pyjamas, rompers, pantyhose, sleeping bags and many other products. A short but very important hint at the end: You should mainly orientate yourself on the room temperature and make sure that it does not get too warm in the room.
Studies have shown that so-called sudden infant death is significantly less frequent in cooler rooms. What exactly this is due to is not yet known. However, every paediatrician should also advise not to bed the baby at night in rooms that are too hot and stuffy and not lying on its stomach.
The wintertime tempts many parents to dress their baby especially thick, if not too thick, to prevent the baby from freezing at night. In principle, this basic idea is not reprehensible and rather testifies to the parents’ duty of care. However, even in winter, the room temperature should be the measure by which one orients oneself.
If it is possible to keep the room temperature constant throughout the night and the room temperatures are similar to those in autumn or spring, babies can sleep very well and comfortably even with a maximum of one extra layer of clothing. As an indicator of whether the baby has become too cold or whether an extra layer of clothing can produce more warmth, a clinical thermometer can be taken in the morning immediately after waking up and the body temperature determined. The fact that the body temperature is lower in the morning than during the day is completely physiological and therefore not a cause for concern.
However, if the temperature has dropped significantly, it is advisable to pack the baby a little thicker for the next night. Cleverly combined, separate clothes do not have to be purchased for each new season. As described above, the first thing to do is to keep the room temperature relatively constant at about 18 degrees Celsius.
A combination of long-sleeved pyjamas or body and a thin sleeping bag is ideal. If the pyjamas themselves do not have sewn on “feet”, you should also put on a pair of thin cotton socks. Also for the summer there are a lot of possibilities to dress your baby in order to provide him with an optimal sleep.
While in autumn, winter and spring it was quite possible to keep the room temperature low, this is much more difficult in summer. However, cooling the room with a fan while the baby sleeps is strongly discouraged as this increases the risk of hypothermia and colds. Depending on whether the baby tolerates a sleeping bag – a sufficient legroom of about 15 cm should be ensured at this point – a thin sleeping bag in combination with a short-sleeved body or pyjamas is recommended.
Thin cotton socks can be put on for this purpose as well. Another option would be to use a light summer blanket instead of the sleeping bag. This should then be fixed to the lower end of the crib to prevent the blanket from trampling over the face at night and thereby reducing the air supply.
Cold hands or feet in the morning should not lead to the assumption that the baby is too cold at night. These “measuring points” only give a very inaccurate picture of the body core temperature. As already mentioned above, the best way to estimate the core body temperature is to use a clinical thermometer or to check the temperature in the baby’s neck.
In autumn it is recommended to behave similar to spring. As this is also a transitional period, the sleeping clothes should also slowly adapt to the changed conditions. However, as already mentioned several times, the room temperature should be the main indicator for the choice of clothes. As long as this temperature is still above 20 degrees Celsius, the babies can still be put to bed with their summer clothes.If the room temperature falls below this temperature, it is recommended to go to the “winter wardrobe”. But you can start here by exchanging the short sleeved pyjamas or body for a long sleeved one and only in the second step you exchange the summer sleeping bag or summer blanket for a warmer winter model.
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