Dressing my 19 month old for winter has been a challenge. She is extremely mobile and loves to explore. Bulky outdoor clothing just does not work for this little gal. The most challenging piece of clothing has been her baby mitts! If, after trying, she couldn’t manage to pull them off she would just stand there and cry because she could not do anything with her hands. It’s not that I only tried one pair of mitts. I used different kinds of mitts and she either could not move her hands or she was able to pull them off. My girl is definitely a doer and just standing and looking cute (while she sure is a cutie) does not make her happy. She wants to play, be active and get involved in the action. That is why I said no to baby mittens!
For me staying inside, even during colder weather, is not an option. I grew up where in Saskatchewan, a place where temperatures would dip as low as -40 degrees Celsius at some point throughout the winter. While it was not always quite so extreme it was fairly common for the weather to stay around -20 degrees Celsius. That is cold BUT we would still head outside.
Even though I grew up in those temperatures it had been a couple of years since I had lived in such a cold climate. I never had the chance to really experience cold weather with young kids until last year. Last year we moved to Calgary and while it does not typically reach such cold temperatures, this year temperatures have stayed at -20 to -30 for weeks!
Now your probably thinking….
How could she not put mittens on her little gal?!
I decided that we were not going to use baby mitts anymore. Since she was unable to play with her mitts on they were not working properly and so I needed a solution to the baby mitts dilemma. A solution that did not involve frost bite on my little gals hands!!!
A Solution to Baby Mitts
My solution is quite simple. Have a one piece snow suit with arms that will fold over the hands. We had the Patagonia Puffball Reversible Bunting. If it was colder out then we either put her in a fleece Bunting suit similar to the MEC Ursus Bunting Suit where the arms would fold over the hands. While she protested the first two times we went out the fold over stayed on and kept her hands warm!
I found that this solution did two things:
1. Kept her hands covered! There was no way she was going to figure out how to unfold the arm off of her hand.
2. Her hands could move! She still was able to use her hands better then when she was wearing mitts. This made her a lot happier.
3. We no longer lost mitts or spent the time outdoors trying to keep them on.
I know it is only a short stage where she will not be wearing mitts but outdoor play has become a lot easier now that we said no to mitts. Investing in a good winter suit that will last for the babies first two years of life is extremely worth it if you live in a winter city.
While we have not find any that work for younger babies we have found mitts we love for our 3 year old. We love the MEC Toasty Mitts because she can put them on and off herself and they keep her hands warm.
Do you have any winter mitts that work for you baby?!
Yup! That’s what we do too! So much easier. I recently saw that North Face makes a toddler jacket with the fold-over sleeves. So handy.
That is sooo handy. Because we also have just a jacket that does not do that but it’s hard on her hands when we want her to just wear her jacket
For my 17 month old, I double mitt! Haha, she still manages to run around and eat snow, but since she is mostly toddling and wiping out anyway, her hands stay warm and dry, just the mitts that are attached to her jacket plus dollar store stretchy mittens over top. She can hold her shovel, sit on her GT racer and lean on the steering wheel, and can’t figure out how to get them off. But I wish I had a flip mitt coat!
That’s awesome! Which mitts do you use? Mine definitely just gets frustrated with mitts and can’t pick up anything! She is crafty when it comes to getting them off haha.