Weather and what baby should wear

[pattersl]

I am moving to HK in August and will be having my first baby in October. I am little unsure about clothes that would be appropriate for bub at this time of year. E specially with air conditioning confusing matters? Should I be buying sleevless, short sleeved or long sleeved clothing? Also, with winter aorund the corner is there a need for winter woolens?

Thanks
L

[BLC]

Hi,
My doctor said dress the baby as you dress yourself. So I found it easier to buy short sleeves and then add layers if baby is cold or remove if hot. Autumn in HK is lovely and gets much colder from January. So don't bother buying much until you after the baby is born. You will find that HK people wrap their babies up for artic weather even when they themselves are in tshirts. A lightweight cardigan is always in her bag just in case for aircon buildings but my baby is usually always hot so rarely wears it.

My daughter doesn't sleep with aircon only a fan so sleeps in short sleeve body or pj's. Then when it gets colder she uses the gro bags, which are excellent as she moves so much.

Good luck with your move and for October.
BLC

[joannek]

i agree w/ blc. it's still warm in october in hk, although you can see many babies are wrapped up in "artic" clothings. I always dress my baby however much clothes I wear.

my baby usually wears short sleeve and shorts until mid november (although everyone says i should give her more clothes cos chinese seem to think that baby needs to "bundle up"). but also NOTE THAT always layer up if you go out w/ your bub, cos air-con in the malls & restaurant is crazy (can be as cold as 15Celsuis indoors where it is 35Celsius outside) in hong kong. i always bring a cotton cardigan & 1 cotton blankie with me wherever my baby goes.

[JennyB]

Are you moving from the UK? If so, you will still find Oct-Dec to be hot. Layers is definitely best, esp because it tends to be windy at that time of year so how cold you feel outdoors depends on whether you are exposed to the wind or not. You do need winter woolens but the cold spells tend to be short so don't go overboard. There can be patches of summery weather (20C plus and sunny) even in Jan & Feb. There can be cold snaps from late Nov onwards when the temp gets down to 10C or below which feels colder than that because you don't find heating in many places so it's hard to warm up.

[loupou]

You can buy plenty of warm baby clothes in HK, so no need to load up in the UK with winter baby clothes.

[hkgirl]

From what I've read it's best to dress baby as you would yourself. Winters in HK are cold as there is no central heating, but a space heater with a regulated temperature setting is perfect to keep baby comfortable in his or her room. I think layering is the best strategy also. The air conditioning is ridiculously cold in HK and you are constantly going from extreme heat to extreme cold during the hot seasons. There are lots of great baby clothes in HK, so you should be able to find anything you need here. Grobags are a great concept and I'm glad they worked for some moms, but my daughter hates them! She just cried and got upset when I'd put her in one as it was constricting and she couldn't move around like she usually would. Maybe try a friends before buying one as they are expensive, especially if your baby won't use it!

[Sumei]

hi,

HK is baby/toddler/kids clothes heaven - you certainly do not need to stock up on any baby apparel! It's hard to say exactly what your baby needs as each household is different in terms of how they heat/cool their living areas, some families like to keep their places very toasty and warm during winter with the heater on the whole day so they can walk around in short sleeve tees at home, others only turn on the heaters in the apt when it gets cold in late Jan/Feb.
It is general consensus that as HK apts/houses are not insulated, despite our aumtumns and winters being very mild by comparison to other countries, it does get cold indoors too so you may want to think also how you plan to keep your rooms warm (we use individual oil heaters in each room).

Sept (start of autumn) to Dec is generally cool weather eg. 15-25 degrees celcius and Jan to March could be 12-20 degrees celcius, with some rare days dipping to single digit. If your baby is arriving in Oct, it won't be cold then (we still had the a/c on in Nov!) so you don't have to pick up too many warm woolly pieces until baby is about 2 months old......

hope this helps!

[jasminea]

dont know about that...but the other day,i overdressed my baby in taikooshing ,yep she developed a rash-diaper area..plus flu !!how could you get flu when you are overdressed?!!!!