Air con - overnight?

2

2010-NewDad

Registered User
A question for you all - do you use air conditioning overnight in the summer for your babies?

My mother-in-law is very against this, whereas I tend to think we should leave it on and my wife is more agnostic on the issue. Would welcome other peoples thoughts and opinions.

Currently, the indoor temperature is too hot for me to be comfortable without air-con in the night and day - sometimes we can leave the door/window open and have a nice breeze blow through but this is rare, and not an option at night. When I get up to feed/change her I always have to switch the air-con on or sweat profusely on the sofa.

Our young baby is usually dressed in a loose vest and one-sie. I don't think she really needs a blanket too but sometimes her lower half is loosely covered by a thin cellular blanket.

What do other parents do?
 
Yes, we use air-con overnight for ALL OF US. Our little house turns into an oven if the air con isn't on in the summer and none of us sleep well with sweat running off our faces. We dress the kiddos warmly and they have blankets so they're fine.

Some Chinese folks I know think that the air con will cause people to get ill. They prefer to leave the windows open at night for "fresh air" but I don't know how the humid air can feel all that fresh.

I've considered getting a "gro-bag" type sleeper for my children--my older child is 3 1/2 and probably would need it more than my younger one as he moves around at night and she doesn't. I actually dress my kiddos in long-sleeved sleepers or two-piece pajama sets so if they kick off the covers they won't get chilled. A onesie is a bit too light for my baby when she's sleeping in the room with us because we keep it pretty chilly in there.
 
We leave it on. My youngest daughter (11 months) NEEDS it otherwise she wakes up drenched in sweat. She wears just a onesie to bed and no blanket/grobag etc. Our older daughter (2.5) sleeps in the same room and she has a light sheet on most nights. It can be hard to find the right temperature - not too hot and not too cold, but they definitely need it. I could see it would be a problem if it gets too cold in the bedroom, but our AC only brings the temperature down to something like 25 degrees, just enough to take the edge off the heat really.
 
We put it on, opening the window would be noisy where we are and in this weather probably not that effective. I don't put it on cold, it's probably somewhere between 23 and 25 (very unreliable thermostat!) and he sleeps in jammies without a blanket or grobag. To be honest I'm not sure he's ever that bothered by hot or cold, but the air gets very close and stuffy without it.
 
We have tried both and she seems happy enough either way. We have the air-con set to 27 or 28 in the day and that's what I leave it on overnight too. I figure plenty of babies survive and thrive in tropical countries like Thailand and the Philippines without any air-con so I have not made a fight of it with the mother-in-law. Was just curious to see what other families do.
 
We pretty much have ac on in the house all the time. 6 mth old sleeps in a long sleeve and a grobag. We set ac to 24 degrees
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we tried both - but our 1 year old sleeps 12 hours with the gro bag and air as opposed to 10hours with the window - easy decision for us! air con on...plus she doesn't wake up with a wet pillow which to me is quite disgusting!
 
i can't imagine ANYONE being expected to sleep without air con in this weather!

very strongly YES from me.... my kids, both like me, prefer to sleep in a very cold room, but with blankets.
 
We all love ac here. My 2yo sleeps in short 2pc pjs with grobag in ac room. We sleep in same room as 4 month old, who wears light footed pjs with a very light blanket that she often kicks off. I love my ac.
 
We also use the air con for both of the children and ourselves! I wouldn't leave the windows open for fear of mosquitos and cockroaches coming in at night!
 
The aircon is not healthy but its difficult to sleep as the temp goes beyond 24/5 i find.
we use our and daughters on dehumidifier setting (we changed the aircon throughout our flat to high quality split aircon-we can't stand the noisy box type)

Using on dehumidifier bring the room temp down and is easier on your bill.

Don't forget a good ceiling fan, makes big difference.

Plus depends on the flat/house, ours keeps the cool quite well. Our last place was like a sauna upstairs, so we painted the outside of the roof white, which lowered the bedroom temps a couple of degrees (ordered from UK )

Don't forget a filter (which needs replacing regularly and aircon needs cleaning)

I dont know how anyone puts up with the old noisy aircon boxes in expensive rentals. THey are a risk, I think (asthma/bronchial infections)

My daughter gets runny nose regularly with aircon use - what can you do, its just not a healthy thing, but we have to use them here, its too hot!
 
Ahh yes - I run a standalone dehumidifier 24/7 in the summer. Bringing the humidity down definitely makes temperature more bearable.
 
Just a different take - we very rarely have the air con on all night for either us or the children. We have it on dry economy setting in the main living area during most of the day with the temp set at 24 degrees from around mid June til Sept ish. As we are in a one level apartment this keeps the temperature down in the rest of the place. If it is very hot we put it on in the childrens bedroom before they go to bed around 7pm ish and may leave it on til we go to bed, but usually we turn it off when they go to bed and have a stand up fan. Both kids wear summer pj's, the 2 year old is also in a v light sleeping bag but with only the top done up so his legs are free. 4 year old has a light quilt but usually sleeps without it. We have tried the air con but found both kids woke even earlier than usual as they were too cold and also seemed to cough a lot more during the night. Windows are open if there is a breeze and pollution is not too bad, but otherwise closed.

We also only have a fan in our bedroom and sleep with no clothes and just a sheet over us. We both find air con very drying making us sneeze and get blocked noses so this works fine for us. If it is particularly hot we'll put the aircon for a while before bed, but haven't done that for a while.
 
We sleep without airconditioning. I usually turn it on for a little bit and then switch it off. I sleep on top of the sheets, in a t-shirt and I am fine. If I am really hot during the night, I may switch it on for a little longer. During the day we have it off as well, we run dehumidifiers and occassionally when it's too hot we run the a/c. The children will have the a/c on the timer for 2-4 hours when going to bed on 24 degrees and then it switches off automatically and they're fine (their rooms still feel fresh and fairly cool in the morning). They sleep with a sheet and a thin pj, my oldest sometimes just wears undies.
 
wah! must say, i am jealous!

this is how i sleep:

1)split air-con is DIRECTLY over me, blowing on HIGH cool 16C
2)ceiling fan above the bed to direct the cold air onto me
3) light camisole
4) very thin blanket/sheet
5) stand up fan pointed at me
6) most nights i have an ice pack under my head

i kid you not.... i STILL wake up with a wet pillow and wet camisole because i'm sweating.

hubby beside me sleeps with a t-shirt, long sleeved sweatshirt and 2 blankets.... sometimes even a woollen hat!

my kids take after me. if they get the least bit hot, they wake up 6X/night!

we live in a village house, our bedroom is on the top floor and is sauna like without the aircon. the kids sleep on the middle floor which is slightly cooler than our bedroom without air con...
 
LOL! I can related to Cara! My husband whinges about how cold it gets in the room. He's dressed like it's winter. Ironic given that he grew up in a country where COLD COLD winters are a norm and I grew up in a tropical country!
I have to have the a/c running through the night. We keep the house air-conditioned from sundown to prevent mozzies and bugs from coming in. During the day, the fan is running or we'd have the a/c running at 24 degrees - only the main a/c in the living room is turned on. Seems to work well. Also at night, all 3 rooms are air-conditioned - Helper sleeps in 1, son in one and us in another (with our daughter who is dressed in just her jammies, she doesn't like the blanket).
 
carang said:
wah! must say, i am jealous!

this is how i sleep:

1)split air-con is DIRECTLY over me, blowing on HIGH cool 16C
2)ceiling fan above the bed to direct the cold air onto me
3) light camisole
4) very thin blanket/sheet
5) stand up fan pointed at me
6) most nights i have an ice pack under my head

i kid you not.... i STILL wake up with a wet pillow and wet camisole because i'm sweating.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your air conditioning isn't working properly.
 
We sleep with the aircon on otherwise we wouldn't get any sleep, especially now that I'm pregnant. However, I find the room gets too dry and I wake up with a very dry nose, eyes and throat. I know it sounds crazy but I'd like to get a humidifier to moisten the air a little, especially as baby will be rooming in with us for the first few months. Of course, shops in HK have plenty of DEhumidifiers but no humidifiers.

Any idea where I can get a baby friendly humidifier? How do you cope with the dryness of the aircon?
 
2010-NewDad said:
Sounds like your air conditioning isn't working properly.
Click to expand...

i think its got nothing to do with the air-con working properly or not. Its gentic. Me and my daughter are sweating even with a/c set on 18, but dear hubby is shivering. And our a/c's are very new and work perfect well.
 
We in the minority here with TNT & Mummyto3. We very seldom use the air-con at home. Instead we have the floor fans running most of the day. Our flat faces a hill so we do not get the heat from neighbours' air-con units. Sometimes it is breezy. On hot days (32 Celsius up) we may have the air-con on during the hottest times of day (mid-day to late afternoon). Some nights we may have the air-con on in bedrooms for few hours before going to bed, then fans the rest of the night. Same for bub & myself. With the fans on we sleep in very light cotton tank tops and shorts, no blanket or sheet except on rainy nights. This seems to keep us healthy - we almost never have flu or coughs or colds, whereas others around us constantly are.
 
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