How to dress your baby for sleep
Enter the temperature of the room. The tool suggests an outfit, layer by layer — and tells you what to check, because no chart knows your child.
Official recommendation for the room: 16–20 °C.
Changes the outer layer, not the warmth.
In the UK a sleeping bag is preferred, and a blanket is accepted if tucked in firmly, no higher than the shoulders. The American AAP is stricter: no loose bedding at all in the first year.
The outfit, from skin outwards
What goes under the sleeping bag is common practice, not official guidance: no health authority publishes an outfit degree by degree. Only the TOG-to-temperature match is established.
The check that settles it
Feel the back of the neck or the upper back. Warm and dry is right. Clammy or hot, take a layer off. Hands and feet are normally cool — going by them leads to overdressing.
Always, whatever the temperature
- No hat indoors: babies lose heat through the head.
- Never two sleeping bags on top of each other.
- A blanket, if you use one, is tucked in firmly and no higher than the shoulders.
- On the back, on a firm mattress, in a clear cot.
Sources
- The Lullaby Trust — Room temperature
- The Lullaby Trust — How to dress your baby for sleep
- The Lullaby Trust — Hot weather
This tool restates and formats official guidance. It does not replace your GP, midwife or health visitor — ask them whenever you are unsure, and straight away if your baby is feverish, unsettled, breathing oddly or behaving unusually.
Chart to pin up by the cot
What settles it
The back of the neck, or the upper back. Warm and dry is right. Clammy or hot, take a layer off. Cool hands and feet are normal.
Official recommendation for the room: 16–20 °C. TOG is the only figure that comes from a health authority; what goes underneath is common practice. When in doubt, less rather than more. — siestina.com ·