Help my sanity – keeping child's room warm at night

I’m convinced one of the causes of the little sod darling waking us up once or twice a night is because her room is too cold (she’s well clothed for bed, and has duvet + blankets).

I’m thinking of a wireless thermometer that triggers an IFTTT command that in turn switches on a WeMo switch, turning on an electric heater of some sort.

Can you get reasonably priced wifi connected thermometers or thermostats that can control a wifi switch to turn on a heater? I don’t mean switching on the central heating, as that would be a blunt instrument (and costly – we burn unicorns, aka LPG).

why not just buy a heater with a thermostat on it and skip all that techy frappery?

Portable radiator with thermostat and timer?

EDIT: ^^What he said

De Longhi oil filled radiator. Excellent.

Heating the room through the night is more likely to wake her up, in fact she might be too hot under a duvet + blankets as kids duvets are usually 7 tog. Mine wake up through the night because they are sleep terrorists

I don’t want to heat through the night.

Didn’t know you could get heaters with thermostats. Will have a look at that.

He he, an overly complicated solution to a simple problem.

You are a Bond Villain and I claim my five BILLION dollars !

why not just buy a heater with a thermostat on it and skip all that techy frappery?

this. when our boiler packed up I bought a £50 oil filled radiator with a thermostat. worked a treat to keep juniors room warm.

she’s well clothed for bed, and has duvet + blankets

As you’ve done the above, I’m not sure that air temperature will make much difference. I suspect you may still be woken up regardless of the proposed heating solution.

Its what kids do.

as above, i just use an oil radiator with a thermostat, and a plug in timer to make it come on about an hour after heating goes off, then off again just before CH comes on.

If you want something a bit fancier then i was considering this:

plug in thermostat / timer

You can wall mount the thermostat and its a wireless connection to whatever heater you want to plug in to the socket.

They do a few different variations just search ‘celect’ on amazon

I suspect you may still be woken up regardless of the proposed heating solution.

Its what kids do.

No doubt right.

The little flipping menace’s sweetie’s gate is going back on her door tonight and I’m sleeping with earplugs.

Do you have a thermometer in her room? Do you know how cold it is when she wakes up? Generally they’ll sleep a bit better if it’s a bit cold. Is frustrating when they can’t tell you if they are hot or cold!

meeeee just the job. Thanks..!

An oil-filled radiator with thermostat, yesterday:

19 deg is about right. yinn jnr has an oil filled rad with a thermostat that we put on at bedtime and keeps the room just so for him. Job done.

If only we could stop him having scary dreams now….

The rad above is a De Longhi Dragon. Bad name, eh?

Yep, we did the same. £30 for an oil filled rad from b&q with a thermostat of sorts on there. Trial and error getting it right but really not that hard. Has it helped the little s0d to sleep…..no, but it ruled out one more variable!

http://www.lasmaneta.co.uk/communities/7/004/009/327/917/images/4554285840.jpg

up to you what door you stick it on, sleep well

19deg? wow – seems hot?

Think ours sleep in rooms at about 15deg.

as above, i just use an oil radiator with a thermostat, and a plug in timer to make it come on about an hour after heating goes off, then off again just before CH comes on.

Yep same here.

Thermostat set low enough that it only comes on if the room is getting proper cold.

Nothing wrong with coldish rooms overnight IMO – our nursery had a thick layer of ice on the inside of the single-glazed window and baby was absolutely fine.

(NHS recommend about 18° but that’s tropical for a northerner)

ourmaninthenorth – Member

Didn’t know you could get heaters with thermostats.

😯

this happen every night?

you might need to change your tactics a bit

just to share a bit… mrsmonkfinger was insisting on giving our boy a cuddle when he woke up – end result, he woke (us) up a lot because he wanted a cuddle, after we changed tactics (change nappy then straight back in bed) he got the message that he wasn’t getting any attention during the night and now (usually) goes back to sleep if he wakes up (thankfully)

or to put it another way, we made him mtfu

Nothing wrong with coldish rooms overnight IMO – our nursery had a thick layer of ice on the inside of the single-glazed window and baby was absolutely fine.

Our youngest couldn’t cope with pajamas or those baby grow bag things, and always kicked off the duvet.

We use a cheapo oil filled rad which has a thermostat, and it’s on a 24 hour timer so comes on at night. I don’t think it’s on at all in this weather – we may remove it cos she’s now learned to tuck herself under the duvet for warmth.

or to put it another way, we made him mtfu

Well that’s a possible scenario but it depends on the kid. Youngest was always a pretty highly strung needy baby, and she was genuinely upset and afraid waking up at night between maybe 1-2yo. So it would have been heartless to leave her imo, and caused her emotional trauma. As she’s older though she just got into the habit, so we weaned her off by just going in for a quick cuddle.

We’ve also given her a light she can use if she’s scared, and the glo-clock is working well for her. I suspect she sometimes gets up in the night to read a book or play a bit, but I’m ok with that – after all, sometimes you just can’t sleep, and being forced to remain in bed wide awake would be tough enough for me never mind a 2yo. This is rare though lately (touch wood)

Ours wakes up. Nothing to do with being cold – he just wonders where we are/wants to be with us.

Are you ‘sure’ its the cold? Ours will kick off his duvet even in the midst of winter and happily sleep…until he realises we aren’t there.

hora – Member
Ours wakes up. ….wants to be with us.

Oxymoron? 😉

Well that’s a possible scenario but it depends on the kid

Very much so, hence the prefix of “might” to my post.

Our lad was recognisably ok when we were going in to see what was up.

Now when he does wake up, he usually wants to go back to sleep straight away and sometimes just needs a quick couple of minutes to reassure him that everything is ok before he’s happy to get back into bed and snooze again.

Horses and courses, etc.

Eeeee I remember when I were a lad and the inside of the windows had ice on ’em at night! The youth of today! They don’t know they’re born…. etc etc….

thermostat on my heating is usually 11 in the morning (I don’t have it on a timer) and its OK.

If it drops below 9 then its a bit nippy, but it gets you moving.

Put the rad in there, but switch it off as soon as she’s asleep. She’ll have to think of another excuse for terrorising you then.

Mine wake up through the night because they are sleep terrorists

My younger one wakes up to shout BABABABABABABABABABA! at two-hourly intervals, which is apparently how an 11mo asks for cuddles.

What temperature is her room and what temperature is the rest of the house? I very much doubt that with PJs, blanket and duvet that temperature (other than too high) is the issue. Even your bedroom should be a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988

Daytime temperatures this winter in Stockholm have regularly dropped to -5C (23F) but it’s still common to see children left outside by their parents for a sleep in the pram.

get a high/low thermometer so you can see what temperature the room is getting to at night.

Our kids both woke *a lot* in the end (after all sorts of experiments with temperature, humidity, blackout blinds etc) we just decided they were those sort of kids and got on with life.

The overly complicated original method has made my day 🙂

I think the only way making the room warmer will keep your kid in bed is if you convince them that the reason they’re waking up is cold and then explain what the heater is for. In fact, if that works you won’t even need to switch on the radiator 🙂

We managed to get our eldest to stay in their own bed all night just before her sister was born. We got her to (mainly) stay in her own bed after about 6 or 7 years.

The best thing we did was buy a kingsize bed, so it didn’t matter that they were in with us 🙂

Cold room and warm snuggly bed for a good nights sleep
my kids hated a hot bedroom and still do 23 years later

My younger one wakes up to shout BABABABABABABABABABA! at two-hourly intervals

I’m sure this technique has been used in the past to break POWs during interrogation.

FFS! WTF is happening to this place?!!?!? OP posts a question regarding making a room warmer and despite the millions of threads on the subject of woodburners, not one gets mentioned here!

Y’all need to have a word with yourselves.