What TOG should your babe wear tonight?

The room-to-TOG guessing game, finally solved. 

You've done the maths at 7pm more times than you'd like to admit. It's a bit cool tonight. Is that a 1.0 bag or a 2.5? Onesie underneath, or singlet too? And by the time you've decided, you're second-guessing it anyway.

Here's the truth: dressing your little babe for sleep isn't about a magic number. It's about matching what the room's actually doing to the right TOG and the right layers underneath. Once you can see that clearly, the guessing stops. We built our whole approach around exactly this, so let's walk you through it.

So what even IS a TOG?

TOG (Thermal Overall Grade) is just a measure of how warm a fabric is. Lower number is lighter and more breathable. Higher number is warmer. Your babe's sleep bag has a TOG rating, and the whole game is matching that rating (plus what they wear under it) to the temperature of the space they're sleeping in.

That's it. The hard part was never the concept. It's knowing which TOG goes with tonight's room.

Our TOG guide: temperature to sleepwear

This is the logic we built (and the exact logic our app runs on). Find the room's temperature, and you've got your TOG and your layers. Want it broken down degree by degree? We've got a degree-by-degree guide too.

All of it lives in the free Stellar Baby app, no subscription.

• Over 25°C: 0.2 TOG. Just a singlet, or nappy only.
• 23 to 24°C: 0.2 to 1.0 TOG. A lighter 0.2 bag with a long-sleeve onesie and singlet, or a 1.0 bag with just a long-sleeve onesie.
• 20 to 22°C: 1.0 to 2.5 TOG. A 1.0 bag with a long-sleeve onesie and singlet, or a 2.5 bag with just a long-sleeve onesie.
• 16 to 19°C: 2.5 to 3.5 TOG. A 2.5 bag with a long-sleeve onesie and long-sleeve bodysuit, or a 3.5 bag with a long-sleeve onesie and singlet.
• Under 15°C: 3.5 TOG. A long-sleeve onesie with a long-sleeve bodysuit underneath.

Why some temperatures give you two answers

You might've noticed the middle bands offer a choice, and the ends don't. That's on purpose, and it's part of how we do it.

At the extremes (over 25 or under 15), there's one sensible TOG, so we give you one clear answer. But most temperature ranges in the middle allow for more than one setup that's comfortable and safe: a lighter bag with an extra layer under it, or a warmer bag with less underneath. When there's more than one option, choose the setup that works best for you and what you have on hand. We call it single-versus-dual TOG, and it's why our guide doesn't box you into owning ten different sleep bags.

The catch with any chart, and how ours is different

Here's the thing a printed chart can't do: rooms don't hold still. It's 21°C when you put them down and 18°C by 2am. The chart on the wall doesn't know that. You'd have to wake up, check a thermometer, and re-do the maths half asleep.

This is exactly why we built the guide into Orbie. Your Orbie reads your babe's live environment, temperature and humidity, and turns it straight into a suggested TOG and layering for that exact reading, right there in the app. When the room shifts, the suggestion shifts. No chart, no mental maths, no 2am guessing. The even better part? You can set your own alert limits, so you can be told the shifts you want to know about, when they happen. You're not taking a guess at what the temperature might get to. You're informed. It's the same Stellar logic above, just doing the work for you, live. Want the whole thing laid out in one place? View the Stellar Baby TOG guide.

A few things we always say

Our guide is a starting point, not a rulebook. Every babe runs a little warm or a little cool, so:

• Red Nose suggests checking your babe by feeling the chest or the back of the neck, rather than hands and feet, which are cool on everyone.
• For the sleep environment itself, we always point you to Red Nose Australia's safe sleeping guidance.
• You know your babe best. Trust your gut and adjust a layer if you need to.

We've got you. The guesswork was never yours to carry.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you're ever worried about your little babe, trust your gut and reach out to your GP, child health nurse, or Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436.

Sources

• Red Nose Australia - What is a safe room temperature for a sleeping baby?
• Red Nose Australia - How to dress baby for sleep
• Red Nose Australia - Safe sleeping bags
• The Stellar Baby TOG guide - our own temperature-to-TOG method.