Baby Bamboo Pajamas for Sweet Summertime Sleep
Summer is a season for sweet memory-making with your little one. Long days and balmy nights are full of fun and brand-new rhythms to explore. The rise in temperatures, however, also means that your little one’s bedtime needs may change. Prioritizing your baby’s comfort and safe sleep with season-appropriate infant pajamas helps them rest their best during warm-weather snoozing.
How Temperature Regulation Can Affect Baby Sleep
Every new parent searches zealously to find the magic combination of routine, infant pajamas, and environment to lull their baby to sleep (and help them stay asleep). A baby’s temperature regulation is an important factor that affects how easily they fall asleep and how long they slumber. If they’re too hot or too cold in their infant pajamas, baby’s sleep patterns can be interrupted, which means they may struggle to return to sleep.
During the summer, temperatures can climb to uncomfortable heights. Protect your children from summer’s heat by employing safe sleep practices and assisting their tiny bodies’ immature temperature-regulating processes with simple tricks like cooling bamboo pajamas and making a few small changes to their sleep environment.
Safe Sleep Factors: How Does a Baby’s Temperature Regulation Differ from an Adult’s?
As adults, we have the ability to control our sleep environment if we’re too warm. We can change to cooler clothes, turn on a fan, lower the thermostat, or grab a cool drink. Your baby lacks those abilities, which makes it even more important for you to recognize when the environment is too hot for your baby and poses a risk to safe sleep.
A baby’s body has a surface-area-to-mass ratio three times larger than that of an adult, which means their greater skin surface area can lose heat, or heat up, much faster than an adult’s. This inability to regulate temperature can compromise safe sleep by increasing the risk of overheating, which raises the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Immature sweat glands also prevent babies from efficiently cooling themselves, and a higher metabolic rate results in children generating 20%-25% more body heat for their weight than adults. You’re not imagining it—they actually are little heaters!
Safe Sleep Recommendations for the Summer
A few small changes to your bedtime routine can ensure your baby (and you!) get the sleep you need. These adjustments can help keep your baby cool this summer.
Consider these safe sleep tips so you don’t sweat the summer bedtime routine:
- Use light, breathable layers, like bamboo pajamas and sleep sacks.
- Use only a single layer in very warm rooms.
- Use air conditioning, if possible, to keep baby's room between 68°F and 72°F.
- Keep your baby hydrated by monitoring feedings and urine output.
- Use fans to promote airflow, but don’t point them directly at your baby.
Signs Your Baby Is Overheating During Sleep
While most babies don’t have a hard time letting you know they’re uncomfortable, when it comes to overheated babies, sometimes their cues can be subtle. Especially in very young babies, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the signs that your newborn is too hot to ensure a safe sleep environment:
- Body temperature outside the normal range (97.7°F-100.4°F)
- Heat rash or excessive sweating on the neck, back, or underarms
- Unusual behaviors, including rapid breathing, lethargy, or irritability
- Restless or disrupted sleep patterns
Choose Bamboo Infant Pajamas to Support Safe Sleep in Summer
Bamboo pajamas can help infants regulate their temperature due to the special properties of the fabric. Infant pajamas crafted from our signature rayon made from bamboo are highly breathable, allowing air to circulate. The fabric also wicks moisture away from baby’s skin much more efficiently than others, giving bamboo pajamas a cooling effect that feels three degrees cooler than cotton.
How Do Bamboo Pajamas Compare to Cotton and Polyester Infant Pajamas?
Two of the most popular fabrics in kids’ pajamas are cotton and polyester. These fabrics are common for a few reasons, but when temperatures are on the rise, bamboo pajamas simply can’t be beat. When you compare the fabric options available, it becomes clear why you should try bamboo pajamas for your little one.
Cotton is a widely popular natural textile for infant sleepers and is generally considered soft and breathable. Bamboo pajamas, however, win out in both categories. Additionally, a huge difference between cotton and bamboo pajamas is that bamboo is grown, harvested, and manufactured into kids’ pajamas much more sustainably, boasting a faster growth rate, lower water usage, and fewer pesticides.
Polyester is a nonrenewable material derived from petroleum that is also commonly used in the manufacture of kids’ pajamas. Polyester is not breathable, though it is fairly moisture-wicking. Unfortunately, this combination traps heat and moisture on your baby’s skin, which means that polyester infant pajamas can lead to rashes and overheating in warm and humid environments.
The Benefits of Bamboo Infant Pajamas
The benefits of bamboo infant pajamas are numerous, and many of the qualities of this amazing fabric have a direct impact on your baby’s comfort and safe sleep in warm summer environments, including:
- Highly breathable: Air circulation helps cool your baby’s skin, so they don’t overheat.
- Moisture wicking: This results in a cooling sensation that keeps baby comfortable.
- Naturally antimicrobial: Bamboo pajamas help keep germs at bay.
- Hypoallergenic: Bamboo pajamas are gentle and non-irritating for sensitive skin.
Crafting the Perfect Layette with Bamboo Pajamas and Infant Sleepers
Summer babies need a different layette than their winter-born peers. While cool and comfy is the goal, the tiniest babies often still need a long-sleeved infant sleeper to aid in their temperature regulation. Consider adding three or four of each style to your little one’s warm-weather wardrobe for comfortable, safe sleep that lasts all night.
Easy-Breezy Baby Bundlers and Gowns
A gown is a style of infant sleeper that has been used for centuries to easily and comfortably dress babies for sleep. Infant gowns make diaper changes quick, so they’re a favorite during the earliest weeks, when your little one may go through 12 diapers a day!
For even easier dressing and changing, opt for a snap-up bundler. This style of infant pajamas features a kimono-style wrap with snaps and two simple snaps at the feet to keep little toes covered. The extra roominess that these special infant pajamas provide around baby’s legs allows ample ventilation to support temperature regulation and safe sleep in warm temperatures.
Versatile Footie Infant Sleepers
Versatile and practical footie-style infant sleepers are a year-round favorite. If you prefer to run your air conditioning nonstop throughout the summer, the built-in socks of our favorite infant pajamas are a must-have. The grippy soles on our infant sleepers in sizes 6-12 months and larger are great for babies who are pulling up and taking those first tentative steps.
These infant sleepers also work beautifully as daywear, with a practical one-piece design that simplifies dressing and diapering. Bamboo pajamas with long pants and sleeves protect sensitive baby skin from harmful UV rays, while still being breathable enough to keep your little one cool.
Flexible Baby Rompers for Night or Day
Babies shed heat through their hands, head, and feet, so when you’re looking for ways to support your little one’s summertime temperature regulation, consider freeing the feet with footless infant pajamas. Rompers are a special type of infant sleeper that do not include built-in socks.
Available with either snaps or easy dual-zipper closures, rompers are perhaps the most flexible infant pajamas. These infant sleepers easily transition to daywear and provide more growing room than footie pajamas.
Toddler Pajamas in Breathable Bamboo
When they’re around 9-12 months old, your little one will become better at regulating their own temperature, and you won’t worry quite as much about overheating as a risk to safe sleep. However, just like grownups, toddlers still sleep better in buttery soft, breathable bamboo pajamas.
Toddler Pajama Separates
While a one-piece infant sleeper is best for babyhood, your increasingly independent toddler will love the freedom that toddler pajama separates provide. Combat summer’s heat with toddler pajamas featuring shorts and a matching short-sleeved shirt, or let them enjoy the chill of your A/C with a matching short-sleeved shirt and pants kids’ pajama set.
Top Your Little One’s Bamboo Pajamas with a Sleep Sack
For even better temperature regulation, a sleep sack is an essential add-on to your little one’s bamboo pajama wardrobe. A sleep bag is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a safe sleep alternative to loose blankets in the crib, which can pose a suffocation risk. Layer a sleep sack on top of your little one’s bamboo pajamas to keep them at just the right temperature.
A sleep sack is a secure, wearable blanket that fits snugly around your baby’s torso and drapes loosely over their legs like their favorite cozy blanket. To support your little one’s temperature regulation, choose a sleep sack constructed from a lightweight, breathable material, like rayon made from bamboo. Sleep sacks from Kyte Baby are available in three different togs, appropriate for different room temperatures and seasons.
What is TOG for Sleep Sacks?
Kyte Baby sleep sacks are available in three different thicknesses, which are differentiated by their thermal overall grade, or TOG, rating. TOG is a unit of measurement that indicates the warmth of a garment.
The three TOGs available in Kyte Baby sleep bags are:
- 0.5 TOG: Our breeziest sleep sack, suitable for warm room temperatures between 74°F and 78°F
- 1.0 TOG: Our middle-weight sleep bag, best for rooms between 69°F and 73°F
- 2.5 TOG: Our warmest sleep sack, perfect for chilly rooms between 61°F and 68°F
Ideal TOG Ratings for Summer Sleep Sacks
Deciding what TOG sleep sack your baby needs for summer requires considering two primary considerations: nursery temperature and their infant pajamas. The TOG you need for your baby’s sleep sack will depend not on the temperature outside but on the temperature of your baby’s nursery.
For those who don’t use air conditioning, keeping your little one comfy in their sleep sack and infant pajamas requires a special, lightweight TOG for summer. Our thinnest 0.5 TOG sleep sack is the perfect choice for adding a breezy, thin layer to keep your little one comfortable in the warmer summer months. Those who use air conditioning may prefer to stick with our 1.0 TOG sleep bag and, instead, swap to cooler infant pajamas or even just a bodysuit to keep their baby snoozing peacefully.
What Infant Pajamas Should Baby Wear Under a Sleep Sack?
There are many ways to layer your little one’s infant pajamas and sleep sacks to keep baby comfortable during summer nights. For the warmest nurseries, your baby may sleep best in just a diaper or bodysuit under a 0.5 TOG sleep sack.
For nurseries with temperatures in the sweet spot of 68°F to 72°F, as recommended by the AAP for safe sleep, you have flexibility in how to layer your little one’s bamboo pajamas and sleep bag for optimal comfort.
If you’d like to stick with long-sleeved infant sleepers, simply top with our warm-weather 0.5 TOG sleep sack. You can also switch to cooler bamboo pajamas, like short-sleeved toddler pajamas or an infant bodysuit, and layer a middle-weight 1.0 sleep sack on top.
Matching Grownups and Kids’ Pajamas
Summertime sleep essentials aren’t just about practicality. Celebrate the fun of summer with matching grownups and kids pajamas for the whole family.
Whether you prefer simple solids in the season’s brightest hues or fun prints that celebrate a shared family interest, we’ve got dozens of options to celebrate your family’s bond with fun matching bamboo pajamas.
Some of our favorite summertime prints are:
Beyond Bamboo Pajamas: Creating a Safe Sleep Environment During Summer
Creating a comfortable and cool sleeping space is essential for quality, safe sleep for your little one in summer. Try to keep your baby’s nursery at the ideal temperature recommended by the AAP for safe sleep: 68°F to 72°F. A few summertime additions to your nursery can help keep baby’s room more comfortable during sweltering days and nights.
Fans can create airflow that makes a room feel up to four degrees cooler and aids a baby’s temperature regulation for safe sleep, but be careful not to point fans directly at your baby. Blackout curtains can reduce the heat transferred from your windows by 24 percent.
Swapping to cooling bamboo sheets can also help your little one feel more comfortable throughout the night. Older children will love the cooling effect of a snuggly toddler blanket in our signature fabric, which features all of the same benefits as our bamboo kids’ pajamas.
Setting Up Your Baby for Summer Sleep Success
A few key changes can help keep your little one safe and comfortable during summer heat waves. Switching to bamboo infant sleepers and toddler pajamas is one big way to beat the heat. Combining bamboo kids and infant pajamas with a few simple nursery swaps will have you well on your way to enjoying safe and sweet summertime snoozes.
