Blanket in Crib?

1 have 7month old babies & we use normal pj's & a sleep sack since about 3 months. it is warm & snuggly, yet at the top it is like a vest so they cannot wrap it around their face/neck. zips from top to bottom so in the middle of the night if you need to do a diaper change - yo do not need to take the whole thing off... Good Luck

I definitely recommend a sleep sack or the warm blanket sleepers. I read last week that they don't have very good circulation yet, so you shouldn't worry too much about their hands being cold. I don't want to put mittens on Connor because he self soothes with his hands.

We had this problem with our son last winter. Our place - and especially my parents place - gets cold at night and he was freezing. We used a fleece blanket. I would lay the blanket out flat so that when he was on his back it was up to his armpits underneath him and the edge of the blanket was to one side of him. Then wrap the blanket over him and tuck underneath on the other side - leave his arms out (or he can tuck them in himself if it's chilly for him. So basically he was in a "tube" of blanket with the ends tucked underneath him.

This was good for our son because even if he rolled around a bit it stayed wrapped around him but I wasn't worried that he would suffocate because it wasn't hear his face. By the time he moved so much that he could get out of it I wasn't really worried about SIDS anyway.

My son was a November baby so that first year, we didn't use a blanket. We didn't drop the temperature in the house at night like we did before he came along (we didn't turn it up but we weren't turning it down either). Fleece sleeper, fleece sheets, and socks sound like good ideas. I am not sure when it was actually okay to use a blanket but I know by the second Winter season when he was a year old, he was able to crawl/walk and had good gross motor skills. I knew if a blanket was over his head, he would be able to get it off or scream with frustration for not being able to and I would definitely hear him. I am not sure about the tucking of the blanket. It may work just fine but I know I was too fearful that the little guy would somehow scrunch underneath it.

I swaddled my daughter from the day she came home, in September of last year. So she had a light blanket (we started with the one they swaddled her in a the hospital that came home with her) from the very beginning. We moved on to a very light blanket that was like thermal underwear that we got as a gift from my sister-i-lw (who has 4 kids) who recommended them when it got really cold, around January. So I guess my daughter has always had a blanket on her with no problems. She slept in our room with us until she was 6 months old as well.

In the past week or so we occasionally put a very lightweight and fairly small crocheted blanket over our son (just up to his armpits or lower) when he is asleep. It never gets caught over his face, and he rolls around and can pick his head up extremely well. Usually the blanket is at the other end of the crib when he wakes up.

It's up to you. Try laying your son down on the floor, and put a blanket over him, just up to his middle or so. See what he does with it.

Hi,
I'm a lisenced child care provider with some child development courses under my belt. The rule of thumb with blankets is to be as safe as possible. Of course your son will get cold without a blanket, therefore use one. Here's how you do it. Make sure the blanket is the appropriate size for the crib (not too big & not too small), then place your son near the foot of the crib so that his feet are near enough to touch the very bottom, place the blanket over your son making sure you don't cover his face, then tuck the blanket firmly under the mattress from the bottom where his feet are to the side where his arms are sandwiching him in. He should be as snug as a bug in a rug and you don't have to fear your child will be harmed by his blanket. I use this method all of the time. I hope this helps.

D.,

I started giving my son a light receiving blanket in bed when he was about 5 months. I watched him with it and made sure he could pull it off of his head and pick up his head etc. Another idea if it makes you nervous....He was born early and in December - he was really small and had trouble staying warm. I used to wrap a blanket around him under his sleep sack. A little more difficult with a mobile 6 mo. old, but may be useful

I've used a blanket on my son from day 1. If you are worried about getting tangled, I would wait until your baby is old enough to have head control to use a blanket. My son always kicks his blanket off anyway, but I have found that he covers himself if he gets cold enough.

It depends on where your child is developmentally at 6 months. If they are holding their own head up and rolling, then they could get untangled. But better to err on the safer side until your baby is more mobile and use sleepers (with feet). I read an article once that said babies hands tend to be cold (and or hot) and it is not necessarily a sign they are cold (or hot). Remember, SIDS prevention says not to turn the thermostat up too high either.

layer your baby--get long johns/thermal undies or a light one piece sleeper to put under the sleeper blanket and put socks on underneath too. Your baby is still too young for a blanket.

Our pediatrician had told us that at 1-year we could start using a blanket in the crib. Prior to that we used either the fleece sleepers or sleep sacks. If your child seems extra chilly, perhaps you could do both a fleece sleeper and a sleep sack. The sleep sacks work well until they stand up in their crib. Good luck!

We used blankets with all our kids from the get go.

I've used comforters and blankets with all four of my kids from birth! I truely couldn't see a baby get so wrapped up in a blanket to suffocate!! They're smarter and stronger than you think! The only bad thing is that they all got hooked on a blankey! Everyone of them still sleeps with their special blankey! Even my 14 yr old! LOL!
H.
Mom to three girls and a "big boy"! :-)

I layer a lot. Also bought some wonderful fleece sheets from fleecebaby.com.

I think your baby is a little young too. We didn't give my son a blanket until he was almost 9+ months and was already walking, and climbing.

I have an almost 5 month old and I sleep her in footed pajamas and a fleece sleep sack/bag and one of those little cotton hats. If I don't put a hat on her she always has cold hands.

I would suggest a sleeper and a sleep sack instead of a blanket. Even if it's safe, which is may be, he isn't coordinated enough to pull the blanket back on himself if he comes out from under it - and he'll get cold, cry and you'll have to go in and help him. You'll both get more sleep if he's a consistent temperature.

D.,
My son is now 16 months old, so he was 6 months last November just as we went into the winter. As well as using the fleece footed PJ's, I used a small space heater with a thermostat. It sat in the middle of the nursery, on our hard wood floor away from everything else. The thermostat was perfect because we could set the dial to just warm enough and it wouldn't get too hot in his room overnight. Two other mothers on my block used a this idea as well, with all the smart precautions, and it was the perfect solution. At 9 months old, we introduced a comfort blanket, "woobie", and he sleeps with that now, but he still doesn't keep it on him, so the space heater will come in handy again. The only other solution is to keep your whole house heated up overnight, which I think is just environmentally irresponsible and certainly not cost effective.
Hope this idea helps.

I used the Halo Sleepsacks all the way up through size XL with my daughter. They come in cotton for summertime and fleece for wintertime. Lots of them on Ebay-- or check out Babies R Us or babycenter.com.

We've done a blanket from the start and our daughter just rolls out from under it now that she is bigger (1 this month), but we have it there. We are wondering about this winter too since she usually rolls out. I am just going to do really warm footed sleepers and have blankets in there. We also warm up the room with a space heater before she goes to sleep and turn it off before we go to sleep. If he's rolling and moving all around...especially crawling, he's probably safe for a blanket.

Personally, I wouldn't use a blanket with a 6 month old. We put our son in fleece footed pajamas and then in a sleep sack. He is 21 months old now and I still use a sleep sack with him because blankets tend to fall off of him when he moves around anyway. Baby in a Bag has great ones for the winter months that are very thick and warm. Otherwise, you can do a Google search and find many other good brands as well.

Our little guy was swaddled till he was 7 months old-yes that is a long time to be swaddled-anyways when he wasnt we used a loosly crochet blanket so even if it went over his head he could breath in the winter we used and still use a more tighter knited crocheted blanket with fleece footed PJ'S. I think you need to see how well he does with the blanket and go from there.