CubworthyMonth 3 to year 3. Cubworthy. The details are in the verdicts.The verdicts
The short version
Bengaluru nights in December are 15 or 16 degrees, which is a sleep sack over a cotton pajama and the AC off. Delhi nights are 7, which is the same sleep sack over a thermal-weight pajama, a room heater on a timer, and a bowl of water on the floor. No blanket until he was old enough to move it himself, no cap, no hot-water bottle.
your instinct on the first cold night is a blanket folded double and your mother's is two.
your child is over two and a half and already pulls a quilt up and down on their own.
The story
The "AC and swaddles" story on this site is about summer. This is its other half. The first December he was in the cot, and my instinct was a blanket, folded double. My mother's instinct was two blankets. The pediatrician's line at the vaccination visit was the one that stuck: a baby cannot kick off what is too hot, so dress him in what he can't escape and keep the room right.
Bengaluru. A full-sleeve cotton pajama set, the same interlock as the day base layer, and a 1-tog sleep sack. AC off from November to February; the window ajar if the room goes stuffy. Room between 18 and 22, measured on a cheap thermometer by the cot. That is it. The cold hours are 3am to 7am, and the sack covers them without me getting up.
Delhi, at eighteen months. The room at my parents' house was 11 degrees at bedtime. Same sack, the pajama set under it swapped for the thicker cotton-modal one, and socks. An oil-filled radiator, not the blower kind, because the blower dried the air and his nose bled on the second night. Radiator on a timer: off at midnight, on at 5. A steel bowl of water in front of it, which my mother thought was superstition and which the humidity meter said was not. Nothing over his face; the cot at least a meter from the heater.
What we dropped. The cap (he overheated and it slipped over his eyes). The hot-water bottle my aunt brought (burn risk; it stays with the adults). The quilt, until he was two and a half and could pull it up or push it off himself. The electric blanket; never.
The check. Hand on the chest or the back of the neck at my own bedtime. Warm and dry, done. Damp or hot, one layer off. Cold hands and feet are normal and I stopped reacting to them.
The verdict. Cubworthy, for a sleep sack over a cotton pajama in both cities, and the room doing the rest. Your home, your child and your day may be different.
The AAP's safe-sleep guidance and the NHS Lullaby Trust both prefer a sleep sack or wearable blanket to loose bedding under twelve months, advise against hats for sleep and against overheating, and give a room-temperature band of about 16 to 20°C. The IAP's winter advice for infants echoes layered clothing and keeping heaters away from the cot. Loose blankets and quilts are a suffocation risk in the first year and a judgment call after.
Fever, fast breathing or a baby who feels hot and will not settle are not a clothing question. Ask your pediatrician.
The verdicts
A 1-tog sleep sack over a full-sleeve cotton pajama
Both cities. It covers the 3am-to-7am cold hours without me getting up, and he cannot kick it off.
A cheap room thermometer by the cot
18 to 22 in Bengaluru with the AC off. The number, not my hands, decides.
An oil-filled radiator on a timer, a meter from the cot (Delhi)
Off at midnight, on at five, with a steel bowl of water in front of it. Not the blower kind: it dried the air and his nose bled on night two.
Loose blankets and quilts under two and a half
A baby cannot kick off what is too hot. The quilt came back when he could pull it up and push it off himself.
A cap for sleep, a hot-water bottle, an electric blanket
Overheated and slipped over his eyes; burn risk; never. The hot-water bottle stays with the adults.
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With a catch
