Which sleeping bag for winter?

October 07, 2022

The nights are getting cooler and you need to cover your baby more? It's time to get a wadeed sleeping bag for the autumn and winter.

Here are our tips for choosing a warm and cosy sleeping bag.

What is a wadded sleeping bag?

As the name suggests, the wadded sleeping bag is a baby sleeping bag with a quilted layer of wadding. This means that it is padded with a polyester filling.

It is this fleece that makes the sleeping bag warm in the cooler months.

Warm sleeping bag ≠ thick sleeping bag

Please note that the thickness and weight of the wadding have no relation to the warmth rating of the sleeping bag. In other words, a thinner sleeping bag may be warmer than a comparatively thicker wadded sleeping bag.

We advise you to rely on the sleeping bag TOG: Thermal Overall Grade. The TOG indicates the thermal resistance and therefore whether it is a warm sleeping bag or not. This TOG should be combined with the temperature of the room and your baby's nightwear.

Which sleeping bag to choose for winter?

There are several TOG sleeping bags available on the market and you are probably wondering which TOG and which winter sleeping bag to choose...

At the Lab, we offer 4-season sleeping bags! Thanks to its removable liners, our sleeping bag can be used as a summer sleeping bag and a winter sleeping bag.

For summer, without the removable liners, you have a TOG of 0,5
For winter, with the liners, you get a TOG 2,5. This is the ideal TOG for us. Depending on the sleepwear, you can use the sleeping bag for a room temperature of 16° to 21°C. Please read our article on sleeping bag tog and check out our summary table below for our 4-season sleeping bags.

Sleeping bag with or without sleeve?

Especially for winter, you wonder if you should choose a sleeping bag with or without sleeves?

We have decided not to put sleeves on the Kokùn Lab sleeping bags for 3 main reasons:

Baby should not be too hot at night. It is precisely a too high body temperature that can be responsible for cot death. It is therefore important that the air in the sleeping bag circulates well. And the sleeves can block the air circulation. To check that your baby is not too hot, touch the back of his neck and his skin, which should not be sweaty and damp.
It is especially important to cover the torso. Be aware that babies often have cold hands when their body temperature is normal. The vascular system of infants is still immature and they have difficulty regulating their temperature. In addition, our little kokos don't move around much when they are small. So don't worry: baby can have cold hands without being cold! To find out if your baby is cold, you should refer to the temperature of his neck or chest. You can compare the temperature of his neck with your own.
Sleeves can impede baby's movements. When they are small, our little ones tend to sleep with their arms folded upwards and their fists closed. Sleeves can prevent them from assuming their natural position. As they get older, they tend to wriggle a bit more and sleeves can get in the way too.

However, if the room temperature is below 16°C, which is not recommended, a higher TOG sleeping bag with sleeves may be useful.

How to choose a winter sleeping bag?

Are you expecting a winter baby? You need a newborn winter sleeping bag.

Regarding the size, we strongly advise you to choose a baby sleeping bag of size 0-6 months, that is to say 65cm for the Kokùn Lab newborn sleeping bag. Other brands also offer 0-3 month sizes but you would not wear such a sleeping bag for more than one month. See our page on sleeping bag size for more details.

Regarding its warmth index, our recommendations remain the same regardless of the age of the child. We recommend that you choose a winter sleeping bag with a TOG of 2.5. In addition to this sleeping bag, you should also bring a long-sleeved bodysuit and pyjamas. For more information, read our articles on the maternity list or on the sustainable birth list.

And for older babies... what about a 36 month winter sleeping bag?

As a reminder, professionals in the field of early childhood recommend the use of a sleeping bag at least until 24 months to avoid any risk of suffocation and sudden death of the infant.

Your little koko is growing up but still uncovers himself at night? Do you find him on top of his duvet every morning? Using a 36 months winter sleeping bag can keep your child warm until the early morning. And you can even use it in a big bed. The 36 months winter sleeping bag can be a transition to the duvet until your child can cover himself. At Kokùn Lab, our sleeping bag is upgradeable from 6 to 36 months so that you can use it until you decide to switch to the duvet.

Finally, which fabric should you choose for your winter sleeping bag?

The choice of the wadding is a thorny issue... At Kokùn Lab, we worked a lot on the stuffing of our 4-season sleeping bags. The wadding had to be:

comfortable and above all breathable for our little kokos
warm enough but not too warm: we had to do several tests with laboratories to get the right heat index, i.e. the perfect TOG for a winter sleeping bag
not too thick and soft enough: on the one hand so that baby can move easily but also so that it can be carried easily in the suitcase.

In short, we are delighted with the result. All the more so as our wadding is made of recycled polyester manufactured in France.

For the fabric of the winter sleeping bag, we advise you to choose natural materials like organic cotton. Natural materials are more breathable and prevent baby from sweating and getting clammy.

So how do you choose that quilted sleeping bag for those autumn and winter nights? Which TOG? With or without sleeves?

Looking for more tips? Check out our blog and our testimonials!