cold weather and dressing a toddler (infant, weight, toddlers, child)

[nnyl]

I put this question in the weather forum, may be the wrong place for it. Hopefully someone here can answer.

Born in the south here, and never had to deal with snow/frigid temps. Going to be taking the 14 month old g'daughter on a winter vaca. Fun in the snow hopefully.

When my kids were little jackets had hoods with drawstrings, beanies for heads had ties, one could secure under the chin. Not so anymore.

So how do you keep a toddler's head covered and warm? They will snatch off whatever you put on their heads.

Hands, same question. Gloves? Mittens? How do you keep them on their hands?

[Hopes]

You buy gloves with strings for toddlers. Even if they take them off, they don't fall to the ground and lose them. They also make gloves with snaps but the coat would have to have a snap too. They still make hats that secure under the chin. You just have to look for them.

Columbia® Toddlers' Pigtail Hat : Cabela's

[rrah]

Buy mittens instead of gloves. Little ones don't need to be able to move their fingers around like one does with gloves, and mittens keep little hands warmer (it's the body heat of the fingers being together.

There are clasps one can purchase to attach mittens to the bottom of coat sleeves. Hats do come with ties or straps to keep them on as posted above.


Mitten clasps: http://www.target.com/p/infant-toddl...FQGRaQodimEATw

[nnyl]

Yep had seen the mitten clasps, and plan on getting those. And the mitten clasps explain how to keep from loosing the mittens, but it still doesn't help, as far as keeping them on their little hands. Don't they just snatch em off their hands?

Have had a hard time, maybe it's because of where I live (FL) finding anything for a child's head, beanies, jackets, etc., with any kind of drawstring to it, to secure it under their chin.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by nnyl

Yep had seen the mitten clasps, and plan on getting those. And the mitten clasps explain how to keep from loosing the mittens, but it still doesn't help, as far as keeping them on their little hands. Don't they just snatch em off their hands?

You're not going to leave a toddler unsupervised outside. You'll be there to put them back on. If you get a short mitten clip, there won't be much wiggle room to get them off, especially if you use mittens which will make it harder for your toddler to grasp the other mitten. Make sure you and your husband set a good example and wear gloves too.

Originally Posted by nnyl

Have had a hard time, maybe it's because of where I live (FL) finding anything for a child's head, beanies, jackets, etc., with any kind of drawstring to it, to secure it under their chin.

There's a wonderful little place you can shop called the internet.

[germaine2626]

Many toddler size winter coats have snug elastic cuffs/ends on the sleeves of the coat or snowsuit (to keep snow out). If you put on the mittens first, then the coat, the mittens will not be easy to get off for a toddler (as the mittens are "held in place" by the elastic cuffs on the coat). This works especially well if the mittens have longer cuffs as well.

When you tie the scarf around the toddlers lower face & neck, just tie it in the back (over the back of the hood) and the toddler can not take the scarf off and also has difficulty pulling the hood off as well (which helps keep the hat in place).

If you put the boots on first, then the snow pants or snowsuit, the elastic cuff will keep the boots on as well as keep the snow out.

Obviously, this is only good for when the adult completely dresses the toddler for outside. If you want to build independent dressing & undressing skills the order of dressing is different.

[Natsku]

Mittens are definitely better, and put them on the way germaine2626 says, so the cuffs are inside the coat sleeves.

Try a balaclava instead of a hat, a toddler will find it hard to take that off plus its much better for keeping the whole face and neck warm.

[WildColonialGirl]

Also, once you're in the cold the natural consequence of taking off mittens or hat should help keep it on.

Try Target.com for relatively cheap outerwear.

[zenapple]

I have kids (three of them!) that will NOT tolerate hats, gloves, anything. Even the little ones manage to untie the caps with the strings on the bottom. (Hanna Andersson just had a sale on some that tied under the chin.) Luckily, for the first year we had a snowsuit that had built-in mittens. Picture a very warm, outerwear-weight footsie jam - but with coverings that went not just over the feet but over the hands as well. There *was* a slit where you could theoretically pull the mitts back over the hands, but we never used them that way. If your kiddo is small enough, that might work.

If they're older, it's a little strange, but try slitting a pair of socks at the very tip and putting it over the child's wrist, under the coat sleeve. Almost like fingerless mittens. Then you can try putting on mittens over it... even if they get the mitten off, their hands will still kind of be warm - and snow can't go around the mitten into the coat sleeve. I used to hate snowed wrists when I was a kid!