DS was an April baby so we didn't worry about the blanket thing until he was about 6 months old. One of my friends gave ds a hand knitted Afghan. We put that over a receiving blanket. When it got colder we covered ds with a polar fleece blanket with the afghan on top. the fleece blanket was light enough that I wasn't afraid of it as a SIDs risk. Also, we bought a portable electric heater for ds's room. It is supposed to turn off if it falls over. We always kept it away from things like paper or clothing that would cause a fire hazard. We have a smoke detector in the room as an added precaution. Also, we dressed ds in footed pajamas and a t-shirt at night.

We're getting set to have baby #2 in March. I'm not sure what we'll do this time since ds is now a very mobile toddler and would probably like to play with the portable heater.

At night we are still using the little sleeping bag type sleepers that you can zip up. I absolutely love them. During naps we are using a light fleece blanket. DS really loves the soft fuzzy feeling and he won't go to sleep at the babysitter's without his favorite fleece blankie. He is almost 6 months old now. We started using a light blanket when he was 3 months old.
Honeybina

Boy, have I been through the ringer with this one. He's 6 months old now.
When he was teeny, he got a receiving blanket. He was born in June, so the only thing I had to worry about was the air conditioning.
Then, he slept with no blanket, then when it got chillier and he was able to fidget, I wasn't comfortable with a blanket anymore, so I made my own.....
I took a small boys, say size 7 or 8, joggin paints and took the seam out of them, so now I just had a large piece of material, with elastic all around the top. The elastic in the legs had to be cut when I took the seam out. I sewed off the top elastic, so it wouldn't go back into the paints. Then I bought the two edges of material up and around and put in a zipper the whole length of the pants, and on the bottom where the ankle elastic used to be, I put a draw string. So when I was all done, I had a sack. The sack would lay completely open when I put my ds in it and then I would bring it up and zip it up his back (he sleeps on his stomach). The elastic band on the top feel right under his arm pits, and then I pulled the bottom tight and tied a bow in it and stuffed it back up into the sack. Does this make any sense?????
Well, then, when he started tossing and turning, I felt the sack was to confining, so now he sleeps in some heavy p.j.'s and with a knitted afghan with big holes in it. He just moves so much now that I'm afriad of something to heavy or solid, you know?
And you talk about a scare, one night, maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago, when he was on some medication for a upper respitory infection that hyped him up, he would squirm all night in the crib. For many nights I slept in his room on the floor, just cause he was sick...., but one of the nights I didn't, in the middle of the night, he lets out a SCREAM! and I go running in there, and the child had actually gotten his head wrapped in the blanket and because he couldn't get it off, it scared the crap out of him. But it didn't worry me toooo much, because it was the afghan with holes in it. So yeap, he still has it.
Now a few months from now, who know what he'll have.....:o)

I posted something like this a while back too. My dd is 6 months but I wouldn't use a blanket because she moves SO much she would end up all tangled up. I just use a small portable heater like posted above and a zip up sac. or a fleece legged sleeper.

Since we have a cool mist humidifier in our 2 month old's room, I feel I need a blanket for her since it's a little cooler in there. She sleeps swaddled (but she does come out of it sometimes), plus I have a blanket over the lower half of her body only. I tuck the sides of the blanket as far under the mattress as possible.

My DD is 7.5 months and has been sleeping with a blanket since at least 4 months. She doesn't fidget or move around much in her sleep, and her room is pretty cool. When she was younger, it was a very light receiving blanket and now it's a heavier knit blanket. It seems like the weight of the blanket as well as the warmth help her to sleep.

I dress her in one of those zip-up blanket sleepers, but when I wasn't also using a blanket on top of that, her skin would feel cool to me and I thought she needed a little extra warmth.

I simply lay the blanket on her from about under her armpits on down. If she moves at all while she sleeps, she tends to scoot up towards her head, and therefore out of the blanket rather than toward it.

What are these little portable heaters like that some are describing? Our room is the warmest and his is the coolest. So, in order for his room to be warm, ours is too warm and I don't sleep well. He also has a cool mist humidifier which probably keeps the air cool, too. I don't know if it would work for us, but now I am curious.
Michelle, I dress DS the same way....tshirt and blanket sleeper. I know I like to feel covered so I assume he sleeps better that way, too. Even with the blanket over his legs (I actually put him on the blanket and then wrap around him and tuck) I can't seem to get his little hands warm.

i live in frigid minnesota and have never used a blanket with either of the kids- i just use a blanket sleeper also, and keep the heat at about 68 degrees- they say it should never be warmer than that. if you do use one, they suggest putting baby at the bottom of the crib then if the blanket comes off it will usually end up by their feet and they won't be able to scoots over their face

I believe we always used a blanket when our DS was little. He was born in April and it got pretty warm but even then we used a light blanket. I've always been the type that needs a blanket to sleep. Even in the middle of the summer I will still have a sheet and the comforter on me to sleep. My Mom said I felt secure and that's why I slept better. So DS has always used blankets of some sort. Never anything huge. I can't rememeber when but at some point we started using this white blanket with the silky binding on it and that became his blankie and then he got a green one and he still carries them around and he's almost 3.

~Leslie~

My dd is 3 weeks old and has used a knit blanket from the beginning. I don't worry about knit blankets like I would with a comforter and she barely moves when she's sleeping. Also, I have her in a bassinet right next to my bed.

We've been using a fleece blanket folded in half over the lower half of his body (waist down) for about 2 months now - since it started getting cold. DS is 6 months. He moves around a lot in his sleep, so the biggest problem is that it doesn't stay on him. We've never had a problem with him pulling it up over his face. Even if he did, he moves so much that I don't think it would be a problem.

Our baby was born in the summer so we really didn't need blankets much. At 6 mos regardless of the concerns I am not worried about SIDS. My baby turns her head & moves around & pulls the blanket so if she's uncomfortable she can really comfort herself & it's doubtful she's going to suffocate. She's sleeps with us most of the time & since we always sleep with a quilt that's what she used too. I'd cover up to mid belly. Now that it's cold & we're using a heavier comforter at first I was a little more worried but found that most of the time she kicks it off anyway.

I posted about this 11 days ago. Now we no longer use a blanket for our 2 month old. DD has just recently begun to turn herself around in her sleep. Her head ends up where her feet were! No more blanket for her but we still swaddle.

At night we are still using the sleeping bag sleepers that you can zip up. I absolutely love them.

I've always covered DS from the waist down with a thin quilt tucked into the bottom of crib so she can;t pull it up around her face. Now that it's colder I've added an afghan on top. So far so good!

I have used blankets since day one with both of my kids. I just tuck it under her arms and she's fine. She does move around a lot, but she mostly kicks the blanket off...never pulls it over her face. My house is too cold at night to not use blankets and it's also not as cozy without a blankie!

DD is only 13 days old, but like Shelby, we have used a blanket with her from day one. I generally have to recover her occassionally because she kicks them off. She stops squirming almost immediately after being covered back up.

We have never put a blanket on out 12 month old. Being a January baby we swaddled him for the first few months. When he started rolling over he could unswaddle himself. So we switched to footed sleepers. He moves around a lot and never will stay under a blanket anyway. We live in NC and keep our house relatively warm. This winter we used polar fleece sleepers.