Gro-bags One shoulder fastening.. or two?

TargetWidow

I have used gro-bags extensively since we stopped swaddling at about 10 weeks. I have had all togs and fabrics, front and side zipping. But it really annoys me that most of the time I can only get the larger sizes in a version that only has poppers on one shoulder. I have queried this with the manufacturers who say that it's what people prefer. I find it one more finicky thing to manage with a wriggly little toddler at bedtime and would prefer the poppers on both shoulders so that I don't have to manouever her little arm into an armhole when she is sleepy.

So if you use gro-bags, would you prefer the ones with one shoulder fastening or two? Use the poll to answer this, and if you want to leave further info such as whether you would prefer the side zips or front zipping you can do so with a reply. Thanks.

January

I use grobags for DD and to be honest, I prefer the two popper ones. Thing is, like you said, sometimes the sizes and designs don't have the two poppers!

I was in Guineys the other day and got a 2 tog sleeping bag with the two poppers on the shoulder and zip up the side! Know they're not the same, but they work just as well as branded grobags.

Khannie

I've used both and I've no real preference tbh. Maybe a very very slight preference for one button. Less buttoning.

Ludo

Erm. The ones we have always used have no shoulder fasteners at all. Just one zip up the middle. Got new bigger ones last week again and still the same.

We used ones with one shoulder fasteners when boys were very small briefly but didn't like them. Much prefer ones with no fasteners.

run_Forrest_run

a button on each shoulder and a side zip is my preference.
Grobags are excellent.

Chuchu

First post in parenting having been in 'pregnancy' for a while... our little on is 1 week 1 day today... anyway just out of interest when and why did you all move from swaddling to gro bags? OH you said 10 weeks... I'm wondering when we should do this as it seems already our little one likes to wriggle her arms about a lot!

Tabnabs

We bought a grow bag in Ikea last week. No poppers on either shoulder but it works really well and is easy to get junior into and out off. A tenner.

The question we now have is do we use a blanket for cold nights or get a heavier grow bag?

January

Chuchu wrote: »

First post in parenting having been in 'pregnancy' for a while... our little on is 1 week 1 day today... anyway just out of interest when and why did you all move from swaddling to gro bags? OH you said 10 weeks... I'm wondering when we should do this as it seems already our little one likes to wriggle her arms about a lot!

I swaddled from birth to 5.5 months... mainly because my daughter had a veeeerrryyy strong startle reflex and couldn't sleep without being swaddled. She started to break out of the swaddle at around 4.5 months but still didn't feel ready to be out of it yet, so weaned her out of it by using a swaddle and a grobag! It's all trial and error really... but some parents do like to get their baby out of the swaddle early. I didn't see the point as she liked it and it settled her

Dyflin wrote: »

We bought a grow bag in Ikea last week. No poppers on either shoulder but it works really well and is easy to get junior into and out off. A tenner.

The question we now have is do we use a blanket for cold nights or get a heavier grow bag?

You could try using a blanket but the problem I find with my daughter also (she's a fussy one this one!) is she tends to kick blankets off, even when she has a grobag on. I'm also not sure if it's recommended to use a blanket with a grobag incase of overheating.

TargetWidow

They do say that additional bedding on top of a gro-bag poses a risk of overheating which is a factor in SIDS. Personally I was a happy slave to the Gina Ford books for the first 12 mths and they recommended the swaddling to overcome the startle/Moro reflex and recommended getting them out of swaddle by 12 weeks because the stats for SIDS take a huge leap at this age usually. So I just used the all in one babygros with a baby sheet folded into a triangle (two layers) to swaddle her. I've since bought a cleva mama swaddle which I will try with the next one (which as yet we haven't managed to conceive!).

The swaddle can be tricky to get right so that they dont wriggle out particularly if you find that baba finds it calming to have their little hands up by their chest. I do absolutely swear by it as a great way to get tiny babies to feel calm and secure and drift off to sleep easily. The Gina Ford Contented baby book shows how to gradually get the baby used to half swaddle at 10 weeks and then no swaddle so as to keep the dreaded Moro reflex at bay which worked great for us. That took 2 weeks. Then it was gro-bags from 12 weeks on.

She was an April baby so the extra layers didn't really become an issue until she was almost 6mths old so we simply switched her next size up (6-12mths) gro-bags to 2.5togs and left her in her all in one babygros. Then for spring we got 0.5 tog for daytime naps and 1 tog for night times and had just a vest day times and her lovely jimjams from Penneys for night. Heading back into winter now and I've bought 18-36 mths 1 in 2.5tog and 1 in 1tog. Happy days.:D

Kimono-Girl

we have the one with two popper shoulders only i haven't used it yet as she loves snuggling under her cot duvet, im just wondering though if she's in the gro bag instead how do others keep her hands warm?

TargetWidow

In short there isn't really anything we do in our house to keep her handies warm. We keep the bedroom at or below 21deg and if we want to see if she is warm enough we just stick a finger inside her grobag and vest to see how warm her chest is. I've never felt her chest cold and though I've often thought her little handies were cooler than I would like myself she has never once woken in the night to complain! Surely the room wouldn't be that chilly?

IsThatSo?

I voted on this earlier (two poppers, side zip girl myself) but just wanted to add my bit about room temp.

No extra bedding with the grobag was already covered so will leave that.

Cold hands? we ignore them, if baby does not wake up then they are comfortable. If you are very worried try scratch mitts, but they won't help all that much I suspect.

Room temp - we use a grobag egg and LOVE it. Ideal room temp is between 16 -20 C and the egg is yellow, if it goes higher it glows red, if its lower it goes blue, so its very easy to judge the temp of the room quickly and figure which grobag to use It does also specifiy the room temp on the digital display, if you want to know, but colour is good when you don't want to mess around and possibly wake the little one

Question re the original topic........................I need to get grobags for my DS size 18-36 month 2.5 tog...............anybody know where I can get them? Got a 1 tog one in TK Maxx, but very few places do the bigger size at all. TK Maxx will have me arrested if they see me in checking for a winter tog again

TargetWidow

I bought my first three or four here.....
http://www.babysleepshop.com/acatalog/2_5_tog_Grobags.html they do deals sometimes like once I bought two grobags and they threw in a gro-bag egg room temperature monitor. Another time it was free shipping. A good site IMHO. And the last two I bought were (pretty petals design) in Mothercare because they had a buy one get another at half price deal going on about 6 weeks ago. Even though I only really needed one one tog for daytime naps I got her 2.5 winter weight one in the same design but one size up because of the bargain. Hope this helps. Sorry IsThatSo.. just realized you are shopping for a little boy.... they have ones suitable for boys more often than girls in Mothercare in my experience (like you liable to be arrested for having quick scopes to see if they have what I want!) and the baby sleep shop site also have boy patterns. The jersey ones are really lovely buy hard to get in girl colours. We love Lollipop, the male version of which would probably be Jellybean. Enjoy.

January

candlelover wrote: »

we have the one with two popper shoulders only i haven't used it yet as she loves snuggling under her cot duvet, im just wondering though if she's in the gro bag instead how do others keep her hands warm?

It's proven that a babies hands are the coldest part of their body. Don't do anything about them unless they're waking up and crying.