hobo baby needs clothing help

October 14, 2012 5:50 PM

For the first six months of his life, baby machine has lived pretty exclusively in onesies & sleepers. Now that the weather is turning colder he's still in sleepers but I'm wondering whether they are going to be enough. So mostly he's been a hobo baby with many wraps and sweaters and blankets that make going places slightly daunting. What did your small child wear that worked for fall/winter?

Baby machine was born in mid-april and when it was brisk we did long sleeved onesies or footie pjs with a loosely swaddled blanket. Now that he's older, the blankets are a no-go as the feet, they need to be free.

We have some "real clothes" (jeans and shirts) that were gifts but I find that the shirts will ride up leaving expanses of uncovered skin since he's still being carried around a lot.

What worked for you and your kid?

posted by machine to clothing, beauty, & fashion (18 answers total)

Baby legs, socks and a whole lot of just pulling the pants down to cover the legs.
posted by iamabot at 5:56 PM on October 14, 2012

My daughter was also born in mid-April and last fall and winter we did lots of jumpsuits/rompers/one-pieces, like these from Old Navy and these from Carter's. They're easy on and off and stay put and you can find them in lighter-weight cotton for fall and fleece for the winter.
posted by kittydelsol at 6:05 PM on October 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yeah, you just end up pulling things up or down a lot. I always put mine in that underwear that snaps between the legs, in long sleeved versions for winter. Usual cold weather outfit: long sleeved underthing, long sleeved tshirt, tracksuit pants or equiv (but soft and warm), woollen socks, cloth/leather slippers, woollen vest.
posted by thylacinthine at 6:06 PM on October 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Put a onesie on under the pants/shirt. Pants with elastic cuffs help too.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:08 PM on October 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

Sleeved onsies under everything. We layered constantly.

None of our girls liked being overly hot. It made them very fussy. However, two of the three girls hated having their bellies exposed. They wore a onsie every single day until they outgrew them.

The whole rigamroll of getting into a coat just wasn't worth it. We usually just layered blankets over the car seat (and this was in Pennsylvania in the winter).
posted by 26.2 at 6:11 PM on October 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Snowsuits + hats for ergo carrier. Snowsuits + arctic bundleme from jjcole for stroller. Usually with just a warm footed onesie underneath.
posted by mooselini at 6:11 PM on October 14, 2012

Sleep sacks for nighttime is where it's at, incidentally.
posted by mhoye at 6:20 PM on October 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

Things changed drastically for us when babycrab got more mobile. He started crawling and pulling up around 7 months, and the footie pj things he lived in until then stopped working because the feet were slippery and he could get his knees up into the body and stuck there!

We do all seperates now. So far in the London fall he has two formulas: under-onesie + pants (mostly sweatpants style) + long sleeved tee, or under-onesie + long sleeved onesie/body + dungarees. Socks only go on when essential because they hinder cruising or just fall off. If its cold he gets a cardigan over it all, if it's colder it's a really thick lined cardigan with a hood (he will not allow hats ever!). We have a few things that are pure wool with cotton jersey lining and a zip, and they are the best.

When it gets really cold he'll go into a full body padded zip-up suit (we made sure to get one with detachable feet). He also gets a fluffy lap blanket in the stroller if needed. Usually I have him in a front carrier and that's as much extra warmth as another couple of layers - I can put my coat over him too.

His footie/sleeper things are just sleepwear now, with an under-onesie for warmth.

So I guess my long ass probably TMI point is that your kid might need a whole different way of dressing this winter, not just more warmth. Hope this is vaguely useful!
posted by crabintheocean at 6:21 PM on October 14, 2012

We did something similar to this L.L. Bean snowsuit. Seconding sleeved onesies (snap-crotch) with snap-bottomed pants. But honestly? There were a lot of days when they just stayed in their one-piece footed jammies.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:23 PM on October 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

My friend that I'm visiting swears by a thing called a Bundle Me. She loves it so much that she has bought a new one for her new baby. She had one for the older daughter, but it got lent out or something.

And let me tell you, this friend is like me. We do not spend money lightly. The Bundle Me came in the mail this morning and she nearly wept with joy. She puts the kiddo in a footed sleeper and then into the bundle me. And all is right in the world.

The baby in question is 10 weeks old. Bundle Me comes in different sizes, she likes the infant size as being more useful than the toddler size. Available on amazon, she says look for the less popular colors which are less expensive.
posted by bilabial at 6:29 PM on October 14, 2012

While you can, definitely use the zip up one piece snowsuit like what MonkeyToes linked to. My boy is only 10 months old (but wearing 18 month clothes due to height) and I already miss the easy snowsuits. He hates winter coats so far!

We layer though. It works well for his mobility. Snap-crotch Gerber onesie (long or short sleeve, depending on temperature and top layers - Gerbers always shrink, so go liberal on sizing) and then on comes shirts and sweatshirts or sweaters, etc. For regular everyday clothes, sweatpants usually do well for my little dude. I also have some corduroys and jeans.

At night, zip up fleece footie sleepers with a short sleeve onesie underneath. Sometimes he lets me put a blanket on him in the crib, sometimes he flings it.

Good luck!
posted by jerseygirl at 6:34 PM on October 14, 2012

Definitely the "bundle me" type thing, the car seat cover is so great in the winter. We had one of those snow suits that zipped from toe to chin but so often it was overkill, or we only needed the baby that warm for the short run from inside to the car and then vice versa. I loved sweat pants for him then, too. Onesie, sweatpants, sweat shirt - what worked for us was to basically make sure he had one more layer on than I wore, and he was comfy.
posted by lemniskate at 8:38 PM on October 14, 2012

Anecdata - Baby wisdom changes so fast that I might be out of date, but we were actually told *not* to put the mini-syn in bulky outerwear before he went in the car seat, since the it made the harness less effective. Normal indoor winter layers (cotton onesie under fleece footie pajama type thing) plus blankets or cover over the seat was how we traveled in the cold weather. And yes, we bought a separate warm stroller cover too!
posted by synapse at 8:58 PM on October 14, 2012

Hanna Andersson carries a really lovely fleece bunting that worked really well for Giant Baby through the Seattle winter last year. Not bulky, but cozy.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 9:31 PM on October 14, 2012

Onesie plus cotton pantyhose. Pants and cardigan over that, as necessary, and you can remove the pants inside.
Snowsuit over the lot.
In colder weather: sleeveless onesie as an undershirt plus longsleeved shirt.
posted by Omnomnom at 12:46 AM on October 15, 2012

My coat, mostly. Baby in normal baby clothes, in a sling under a slightly large coat works well; button it up over the kid, leave the head peeking out in a wool balaclava. Also sorts out the car seat issue synapse mentions.
posted by kmennie at 5:25 AM on October 15, 2012

So we mostly do the onesie with pants over it and socks under that. Shoes help keep the socks on (at least till he gets out of the shoes), socks pulled up and pants pulled down to try to keep the legs covered, and if you do baby carrying, think about getting pants one size larger to account for what gets squished in the carrier. We also have one pair of the baby legs that was mentioned above, basically they are leggings, and those are fantastic about keeping the legs covered and help keep the socks on better too (and my baby is a boy, I have no issues putting a boy in leggings, but YMMV). They leave a bit of the bum exposed, but you can cover that with pants, or when it is not super cold, the carrier covers it for me. I need to get more of these in fact. Then add jackets and hats as necessary. For super cold weather, if we were going out for a walk, that's when I used the snow suit. Otherwise, if it was just out to the car, normal clothes and a jacket (and hat) and throw a blanket over him in the carseat after buckling him in.
posted by katers890 at 7:58 AM on October 15, 2012

You can find BundleMe type covers in baby consignment stores! Go now before they're all out. :)
posted by amanda at 7:59 AM on October 15, 2012