How to Keep Kids Warm at Night
The leaves have changed and fallen and the cooler air is settling in for the season. No matter how you feel about this seasonal change, it’s upon us. While we adults disappear at night under a mountain of cozy blankets or layer up in warmer pajamas, kids are notorious for kicking off all those toasty warm layers at night or tangling themselves up in their pj’s until the cooler air wakes them. If they’re smaller they’ll either begin crying for you or you’ll be woken up by their cold feet as they crawl into bed with you.
Here are a few ways to keep the kiddos warm at night and give everyone in the house more sleep. (Be sure to always consider the age of your child and practice safe sleeping.)
Nightwear & Warm Pajamas
For tinier kids, sleeping sacks, those bag looking nighttime wear, are a gift to all parents with small children. Practical to a fault, these sleep sacks are impossible to kick off, make middle of the night diaper changes easy, and keep children warm.
When kids are a bit bigger, onesies can be ideal for keeping kids warm. Whether you want to invest in onesies that are footed or ones that are cuffed so they don’t ride up as easily depends on whether they’re still wearing a diaper or are toilet training due to the trickiness of getting the footies off in time to use the toilet before an accident happens. (But even if it does, with our kids waterproof mattress, that’s an easy accident to pick up!)
Adding a Heating Unit
The most obvious way to keep your child’s room at a warm or comfortable temperature is to efficiently heat it. While this is the most obvious and simplest route, it isn’t always the most practical as investing in a heating unit for the whole home can be a steep investment. Other options to help keep certain rooms warmer is to incorporate a smaller heating unit like an electric heater, panel heaters, or oil heaters.
Be sure to always practice and follow all safety precautions with whatever heater you may choose. Investing in a programmable heating unit or one with a timer to help control the temperature as well as help reduce unneeded heating costs is not only financially worthwhile, but a great safety feature.
It’s recommended by the World Health Organization that homes be at a minimum temperature of 64ºF or 68ºF when the household has young children, ill, or elderly people.
Keeping the Cold Out
When investing in a heating element isn’t an option or the budget doesn’t have the wiggle room needed to keep rooms warmer, investing in thermal curtains for the windows and external doors can help keep the cold out.
Another way to keep the cold out is to weather-strip any gaps in windows or doors to stop the draughts. Essentially adding any type of insulation to a room can make a big difference to a room’s overall temperature.
Pile on the Layers
As the nights get colder adding additional layers to your bed can make an impactful difference to how warm you feel at night. When adding an extra blanket to your child’s bed you can either lay it on top of the bed or make the bed with the additional layer in it.
If you decide to put it on top of their beds, lay it at their feet and then, for easier middle of night application, fold it like you would a paper fan so it can be an easy grab and go.
Another addition to add to the bed to keep you or your kids warm at night would be to invest in polar fleece sheets. These sheets keep the warmth in and the cold out.
Look for a Mattress with Temperature Regulating Technology
With so many choices of mattresses on the market, it can be hard to know which one will keep your little one warm and cozy during the winter months. Some memory foam mattresses on the market now offer temperature regulating technology that responds to a person’s body temperature and keeps them warm or cool, depending on the season. 5 Little Monkeys offers the only kids mattress on the market that offers this technology, working to keep your little one comfortable year-round.
Children have unique needs when it comes to temperature regulation, and our children’s sleep system mattress features an open-cell structure to enhance airflow, along with Dual Phase Change Gel technology that will adapt according to your child’s temperature regulation needs That means little bodies stay comfortably balanced from head to toe – so your child sleeps soundly through the night whether it's summer, winter, spring, or fall.
Invest in a Mattress Made for Kids
We hope that some of these recommendations to keep you and your family warmer have helped. Another great way to ensure great sleep for everyone in the household is to be sure your child has a bed that’s made for them. Our waterproof kids mattress is designed to handle any spills or nighttime accidents. Let us help your family achieve a great night of sleep every night by providing the perfect childrens mattress.