Help with bringing temperature down in the house

Reggie_Rebel

If the baby is the right weight for his age then ditch the sleepsuit, he'll let you know if he's cold

onlyroz

My health visitor said to dress your baby in one more layer than you'd dress yourself.

Ms_Chocaholic

For you, can you go to bed with a hot water bottle (filled with cold water); that is quite soothing on a hot night.

notanewuser

onlyroz wrote: »

My health visitor said to dress your baby in one more layer than you'd dress yourself.

DD would have melted if I'd done that!

Mr_Toad

Regarding the fan.

The thing to do is to have the fan by the window facing into the room rather than trying blow the warm air out.

As for portable A/C units, they tend to be very noisy and hanging the exhaust hose out of an open window defeats the object. I've had several over the years for my home office and to be anything like effective they really need to be exhausted properly so you can leave the windows closed.

I can sleep with mine on if I move it to the bedroom but I can sleep through anything.

splishsplash

I would imagine the advice from your health visitors is based on the current guidelines - to keep bedroom temperature at 16-20 degrees and if the room is at that temp, use vest and sleepsuit.

As your room is considerably hotter than the recommended temps, your baby doesn't need to wear as much. If your room hits 25 degrees, I would think a vest and sleepsuit could cause your baby to be too hot. A vest and sheet sounds more suitable, or just nappy and sheet. You could also sponge baby a couple of times to wet his exposed skin if he seems hot. The evaporating water should help cool him quickly.

I also think you will need to check baby's temp with a thermometer as you may be too hot to judge what you're feeling with your hand. A digital armpit one is best, ear thermometers are not accurate for newborns.

With regard to cooling the room earlier in the day, you will need to keep the cats locked in a room while you open every door and window in the house to get the air flowing. Wet sheets or towels hanging in open windows and doorways are good if there's a bit of a breeze, useless if there isn't.

I don't have an AC unit but have always used fans. In the summer, I usually have a big fan downstairs and another in the landing upstairs, rotating to hit all the rooms. I think they work well but only for as long as they're on, so can be quite expensive.

An AC unit sounds like a very good idea, I'm interested to hear how efficient they are.

And congratulations on your new little man:j

suejb2

How about a ceiling fan?

missbiggles1

CDaniels1987 wrote: »

Anyway back on subject, has anyone ever used any of these portable AC systems? according to google they can lower the room temp by several degrees, which would be fantastic with the heatwave apparently coming up.

We have "proper" air conditioning now but we did have a mobile one a few years ago. We found it to be rather noisy and you used to have to run an outlet tube out of the window for the condensation but this may not be true these days. Having said all that, it was certainly effective in lowering the temperature to a manageable level and far more effective than just a fan.

In your situation I think I'd get one.

ashtray_heart

We are having similar problems with a 4 week old baby and a house that is always 23/24 degrees according to our groegg. We also can't get temperature down using a fan so LO has been sleeping in grobag (1.0 tog) with vest with sleeves. She doesn't seem to be too hot or cold and this is what grobag suggested that she wears. I think air flow through the house with several fans might work if you can't find an A/C unit. Will be interested to see what other posters suggest.

CDaniels1987

Thank you for the replies, I think for tonight we will just leave him in a vest and use a blanket if his legs get cold.

I am going to go for one of the portable AC units from what a few of you have said and the reviews I have read online, it seems these days you can get ones where you just fill with water rather than having a a tube going out the window.

Yeah its difficult to tell sometimes if hes hot to touch as my hands are hot and clammy, and sometimes in the night they are cold (even though the room is hot itself)