Keeping her hands warm at night?

[Shanti]

Hi,

My DD is 4mths old and isn't wrapped anymore. She sleeps in her sleeping bag every night. When she wakes in the night for a feed she has freezing hands!! I'm too scared to put mittens on her hands.... incase she chokes on them or chews on them and chokes on some thread or something!! What can I do to keep her hands warm??? Her room is about 16-20 degrees but in the night it can sometimes get down to 8 degrees here.
What does everyone else do to keep their babies hands warm? Besides wrapping! She doesn't like being wrapped!

[bubno.3]

Wrap the child .... she is only 4 mths old and will no doubt sleep through and wont have freezing hands (as thats probably waking her anyway not because she is hungry) .... you need a huge sheet to wrap a 4 mth old so they cant escape.... I still wrap my 11 mth old and he loves it!

[bubno.3]

sorry i didnt mean to sound *****y then

[Nai]

My DD2 is nearly 4 months and won't be wrapped either - she needs her hands free to suck and won't sleep if she can't access them so not only are they cold, they are also wet! DD2 sleeps in our room and the temp is always above 17 degrees overnight.

I read somewhere with DD1 that babies hands are always cold and it doesn't bother them and it doesn't seem to wake her or anything so I have just left them as is. Mittens aren't recommended so there isn't really much else you can do.

[Lolli]

Hmmm Ren I alway sused the little Bonds socks on ds's hands. Can you invest in some jumpsuits that have the fold over hand mittens, so they are attached to the suit?

[Jakabella]

Ren,

We have Bella in our room and we have our aircon on warm all night so even if she gets her hands out they stay warm - and it was zero here last night!!
I still wrap Bella and she is in PJ and in a fellcy sleeping bag..
Do you have a small oil heater you can put in her room to take the chill off the room??

HTH
Kate

[tenar]

DD is 7 weeks old and not wrapped any more, as she doesn't like it. She sleeps in a grobag. We run a small water heater in the bedroom, and also we sleep in there too, so it doesn't get really icy. That said, it's definitely getting colder here as winter progresses.

We dress her warmly, and make sure she's wearing something with long sleeves and ideally with those fold-over flaps, so her hands are warmer in the night.

I reckon that she's better off in the grobag than she was under a blanket, because the grobag at least covers her shoulders well, which the blanket did not. She was always getting out of the swaddling anyway, so that just didn't work well for us.

[Willow]

The Bonds wondersuits have little fold over cuffs on the sleeves - so just fold them over her hands like little mittens and they should stay a lot warmer.

[butterfly_warrior]

We've always found that the fold over bits on the bonds suits just don't fold over far enough. Sam's fingers always escape.

I have found at a best and less store some 2-piece PJs that have much longer fold over cuffs on the tops and feet in the bottoms... They're great - I just wish I'd got more of them at $10/pair!

I find it interesting to see how different babies are with regards to wrapping. Sam loves it and it's VERY hard to get him to sleep without it, even at almost 6 months old, while there seems to be so many of them that dispense with it very early on.

BW

[Shanti]

Wrap the child .... she is only 4 mths old and will no doubt sleep through and wont have freezing hands (as thats probably waking her anyway not because she is hungry) .... you need a huge sheet to wrap a 4 mth old so they cant escape.... I still wrap my 11 mth old and he loves it!

As I said, I can't wrap her she doesn't like it and gets really upset. And she does wake in the night because she's hungry and she's a breastfed baby too so that's pretty common.

Thanks for the responses ladies. We do use the Bonds Wondersuits and only recently did I realise they had those little fold over bits to act as mittens!! DH pointed that out to me! haha! Just wondered if there was anything else out there but doesn't seem to be.
We do have ducted airconditioning/heating that we could put on in her room but we are trying to save electricity
Maybe one day I'll try wrapping her again.... thing is, she gets out of ANY wrap!!! She was getting out of the miracle blanket wraps at just 11 weeks of age!!!! LOL and I'd find her in the cot with the wrap tangled around her body... um NOT safe! Wasn't worth the risk.

[Beautitude]

I honestly dont know that there is anything that you can do about cold hands. DS is wrapped at the moment although i should really stop but im a bit scared that it will mess around with his sleep so i keep putting it off lol. He always gets out of his wraps and wakes up with really cold hands. Is the trunk of her body warm? I think that is what they say is most important that the trunk of bubs body stays warm and not to worry too much about the extremities. On cold nights i usually put a long sleeved body suit ( the one without the legs) under his pjs and his chest is toasty warm even though his poor little hands are freezing. I looked at the bonds body suits but i thought the hand bit would be too small.

[tiggerlinda]

Hun I can never get Charlotte hands covered mittens wondersuits wrap maybe for 5 mins she is a hodini bub and wants her hands free Gp told me not to worry if it is too cold she will put them back he says

[tenar]

Our Purebaby nighties and a couple of other bodysuits (not Bonds ones, other ones that were all cotton, not sure of the brand) have those little fold-over bits. At the moment DD is sleeping in the nighties, as they are easier to handle for nighttime nappy changes, and good for keeping her hands warm at night.

[Nadine216]

Ren, I have always put little socks over both my baby's hands to try and keep them warm. But as you know even if you wear mittens your hands still get cold underneath, because your body restricts blood flow to the extremities when it's cold, to keep your organs warm yada-yada-yada. Cold hands don't really bother them, it bother the mother If you want to know if she is cold or not, try her feet. If her feet is warm, she's comfortable and warm.

I know it's bad, especially when breastfeeding and those freezing little hands grab your warm skin but honestly, it does not bother them. I like the idea of putting a heater in her room and warming that up a bit .... OR put her in your room with you and only heat your room, that way you safe electricity AND have her nice and toasty

[aussienic]

I was going to suggest socks to.. My kids would never tolerate wrapping even as newborns. Mittens never stayed on..

I have a good sleeping bag (if I can find it lol) It is made out flannel and was given to me by a friend. It has slightly longer bits on one side of the sleeve and used to cover Dd's hands. I would suggest if you know how to sew or if you know someone who does to make you one of these.

[Indadhanu]

I'll second (or third, or fourteenth LOL) the bonds wondersuit idea, its pretty much all you can do really, fold the cuffs up and hope her hands don't get out. Other than that its pretty much impossible. Jazz is in her cot until her first wake-up here, and then she co-sleeps and even when she's co-sleeping she finds a way to get her hands free and freezing!

Know what you mean about wrapping too, Jazz hasn't even ben wrapped, woudn't have a bar of it. I wouldn't bother putting her through it if she doesn't like it, and like you said its dangerous if she gets free and has a wrap floating around her cot.

[squidipa]

The Bonds wondersuits have little fold over cuffs on the sleeves - so just fold them over her hands like little mittens and they should stay a lot warmer.

thats what we did or socks/mittens now with a 10 month old we use kids gloves

[Shanti]

I know it's bad, especially when breastfeeding and those freezing little hands grab your warm skin but honestly, it does not bother them.

Oh sooo true!!! It's like ice against your skin!!! brrrr!

Thanks girls.