Summer Baby Essentials for Newborns

A summer baby has a few clothing advantages: no bulky snowsuits, no wrestling with mittens. Still, a few things are worth getting right so your newborn stays protected and comfortable. This checklist covers the essentials.

Summer Clothing for Your Newborn

A sensible base outfit looks like this:

• 3 short-sleeve bodysuits (onesies) in breathable cotton
• 3–5 long-sleeve bodysuits, important outdoors, since long sleeves protect sensitive skin from the sun (tip: kimono bodysuits make changing much easier)
• 5–6 rompers for freedom of movement
• 3 T-shirts and 3 long-sleeve shirts, the latter mainly for outdoors
• 1–2 sweaters and 1–2 thin jackets for cooler evenings, which happen even in summer
• 2 thin cotton hats or bonnets
• 6 pairs of thin socks
• Bandana bibs to catch drool and spit-up

It looks like a lot at first. Measured against how often you change a newborn in a day, it's tight.

Sleepwear for Summer Babies

For the night, these pieces form the base:

• 4–5 light cotton pajama sets
• 2 thin, unpadded summer sleep sacks (a sleep sack is called a sleeping bag in the UK and Australia), 0.5 and 1.0 TOG

What your baby wears underneath depends on the room temperature and the TOG value of the sleep sack:

• 25 to 27 °C (77 to 81 °F): a short-sleeve bodysuit in a thin sleep sack (0.5 or 1.0 TOG)
• 23 to 24 °C (73 to 75 °F): a short-sleeve bodysuit and thin pajamas in a 0.5 TOG sack, or the pajamas alone at 1.0 TOG
• 21 to 22 °C (70 to 72 °F): a long-sleeve bodysuit and pajamas in the summer sleep sack

Sleep sacks sold in the US often carry no TOG rating; as a rough guide, a light muslin or cotton sleep sack is about 0.5 TOG and a warm quilted winter one 2.5 TOG.

A small thermometer near the bed helps you keep the temperature in view. And even on hot summer nights: the sleep sack stays, and a hat never goes to bed.

Because the weather doesn't stick to checklists, the Wetterbaby app shows day by day what your baby currently needs, in summer heat as well as in a surprising breeze. Before a trip, you can also check the recommendations for your destination.