One of the first things new Indian parents learn from their family is how to dress the baby: keep them warm, add layers, no cold air, no AC. Some of this advice is sound. Some of it, however, leads to overheating that is significantly more dangerous for young babies than being slightly cool. Understanding how babies regulate temperature — and how that changes across India's diverse seasons and regions — is essential.
Why Babies Cannot Regulate Temperature Well
Adult humans regulate body temperature efficiently through sweating, shivering, blood vessel dilation and constriction, and voluntary behaviour like adding clothing. Young babies have all of these mechanisms but they are immature and less efficient. Newborns in particular have a high surface-area-to-body-mass ratio, meaning they lose heat rapidly in the cold and gain heat rapidly in the warm. They cannot shiver effectively, their sweat response is immature, and they cannot communicate that they are too hot or too cold.
The Greater Risk in India: Overheating
In most of India for most of the year, overheating is the greater risk, not cold. Indian cultural conditioning toward keeping babies warmly covered — which made sense in colder climates where many practices originated — has been linked in the global literature to increased SIDS risk. A baby who is too hot will show the following signs: sweating (particularly on the head and neck), flushed or red skin, rapid breathing, increased irritability, and sleeping more deeply than usual. Remove a layer and move to a cooler environment.
How to Dress for Each Season
Indian summer (March to June in most regions): A single thin cotton onesie or jhabla. No socks indoors unless the floor is cold. No hat indoors. In AC rooms, one additional light cotton layer. The rule of thumb is to dress the baby in one more layer than you are comfortable in — if you are in a short sleeve t-shirt, the baby wears a thin onesie.
Monsoon (June to September): Humidity is the challenge. Cotton continues to be the only appropriate fabric — synthetic fabrics trap moisture and cause prickly heat. Keep clothing loose. Change damp clothing promptly to prevent fungal skin infections which are common in Indian monsoon.
North Indian winter and high altitude areas: Layers are appropriate. A cotton inner layer plus a warm middle layer (wool or fleece) plus an outer waterproof layer for outdoors. Hats, socks, and mittens are appropriate outdoors. Remove outer layers when indoors in a heated environment. South Indian winters are mild enough that a single cotton layer with perhaps a light cardigan is usually sufficient.