Keeping Your Baby Cool Enough

Everybody knows new babies need to be kept warm, but they can get too hot! Your baby cools himself by sweating, so he gets the cooling effect of moisture evaporating in the air. If you dress him too warmly, and especially if you use plastic pants, insulated snowsuits or rain proof stroller covers, you make it difficult for your baby’s sweat to evaporate.

So, however warmly he needs to be dressed for outdoors, remember to take extra clothing off once he’s indoors, or in a warm car or store.

After all, in a stroller or car seat, he’s more or less in
bed — would you like to go to bed in your outdoor clothing?
Watch indoor temperatures a little too, especially while your baby can’t kick his covers off, or sleeps better when he’s wrapped up.

In a warm climate or house, don’t wrap him in anything heavier than a cotton receiving blanket. And if it’s really hot, keep clothing minimal and loose — so air can get to his skin. He’ll be more comfortable on a diaper than in one.

He can’t cool himself if he can’t sweat and can’t sweat if his body is short of water. Talk to your pediatrician about offering water to drink.

And if he ever seems hot and dry skinned, perhaps because he has a fever, sponge him over with warm water. Evaporation will cool him, as his skin dries.

Penelope Leach, Ph.D., is one of the world’s most respected (and best-loved) developmental child psychologists. She is most widely known for her best-selling books on child development and parenting. They include Babyhood, Children First: What Society Must Do — and Is Not Doing — for Our Children Today, the classic Your Baby & Child: From Birth to Age Five (now in a new edition for a new generation), and Your Growing Child: From Babyhood Through Adolescence.