Sleeping Bags

If your baby, like our Lily, wriggles a lot then using traditional blankets and sheets at bedtime isn't the best idea in the world. I had visions of Lily kicking the blankets off of her, therefore making her cold at night or – and a scarier thought still- moving around so much that the blankets ended up over her face. Friends of mine had mentioned using sleeping bags with their babies and they seemed an ideal solution to my dilemma and certainly a safer option for a little wriggler!

Baby sleeping bags work in much the same way as an adult version, albeit with the addition of arm holes or straps at the top (usually fixed together with poppers) to keep the bag in place and baby snug and secure within. You'll find these bags in many high street baby clothes sections as well as online such is their popularity. In the same way as quilts, different tog levels are offered so that thicker bags can be used in the wintertime (of say 2.5 tog) with thinner ones for the summertime (1 tog for instance).

As sleeping bags take the place of blankets or sheets there is no need to use anything other than them at night, bar putting baby in a sleepsuit or appropriate nightwear of course. We tend to give Lily her last feed of the day once we have dressed her for bed and put her in her 'snoozy bag' (as we call her sleeping bag). That way, once fed and burped she can be gently put to bed with the minimum of disturbance.

As baby grows it is possible to buy a bigger size of sleeping bag. Many manufacturers offer them in sizes up to three years. At the moment, Lily has a number of 0-6 month bags, but when she outgrows these we will upgrade to larger versions.

There are also special travel sleeping bags. Here you may have to invest in one of the more expensive brands as I have thus far only seen this type of bag offered by one manufacturer (Grobag). This nifty sleeping bag (which we were lucky enough to be given as a present for Lily) can be safely secured within a car seat.  Which means baby can be settled when out and about, put in the car seat and then when home simply taken out and put to bed without any disturbance.

One piece of advice I would give is that it's very important that you check the suitability of a sleeping bag to your newborn baby, especially if he/she was born on the small side. While Lily, born at 7Ib 2oz, was fine in the bags from birth I can imagine that smaller babies risk passing through the neck hole if they don't fit securely in. If your baby doesn't feel secure in the bag then don't risk it until he/she is a little bigger and use an alternative bedding option.

It is also important that baby has plenty of room in the bottom end of the bag so her legs and feet aren't constricted and have plenty of room to move. Sleeping bags are designed, you will no doubt notice, will quite large bottom halves to ensure that baby can be snug up the top end but with room to move down the bottom.

I would suggest that it is worth investing in a few sleeping bags to ensure you always have a clean one available (they wash up pretty well on a regular 40 degree cycle by the way and can be tumble dried but I prefer to dry them on the airer or washing line). Remember to have a couple of lighter tog versions for the odd hot day we get in the UK!.