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What are Footed Pajamas?
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Footed pajamas usually refer to one-piece pajamas that cover the whole body, including the feet. These pajamas may also be called blanket sleepers, of Dr. Dentons. They are common wear for infants and young children in cold weather, but some manufacturers make versions for older children and adults. To confuse matters, blanket sleepers can mean a one-piece garment with no feet that resembles two blankets sewn together with sleeves. Newborns in cold weather may wear this type of blanket sleeper.
Infant-sized footed pajamas are usually made of flame resistant polyester fleece. Alternately, terrycloth pajamas are popular in slightly warmer weather. Either type may be snapped or zipped. Fleece versions are more likely to have front zippers starting in the center of the neck, which veer off to end at one leg, while the terrycloth ones are associated more often with snaps.
Zippers or snaps make access to diapers easier, and for older children, zippers can be helpful for middle of the night bathroom trips. Some footed pajamas, like old long underwear styles have a snapped back or snapped front at waist level, which allows bathroom use without removing the whole garment. Two-piece pajamas can make trips to the bathroom easier, and less shockingly cold, for adults or for potty training children.
Vinyl fabric usually covers the feet bottoms of this style of sleepwear and prevents slipping. This proves helpful for children learning to walk, and even for adults who might take a misstep in the dark. Some complain that footed pajamas are too hot on most nights, especially when made of fleece. To address this, manufacturers occasionally offer either detachable feet, or a small slit through which you can slip your feet to avoid wearing the foot part while sleeping.
For very young children, footed pajamas can help parents meet safety recommendations regarding the use of heavy blankets that have been linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Since these pajamas are so warm, children tend to require very little covering in addition to them. Heavier covers, like comforters, are not recommended and may actually suffocate a newborn. Thus parents often turn to footed pajamas or blanket sleepers in order to keep a baby warm with little additional covering.
Adults and older children may enjoy the energy saving features of footed pajamas. Since covering the feet does keep the body warmer, you can turn down thermostats at night. Even in the morning, you may not need to run the heaters as often because the total coverage of the pajamas provides greater warmth.
Tricia Christensen
Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.
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Tricia Christensen
Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.
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![Footed pajamas typically cover the entire body.]()
By: Barbara HelgasonFooted pajamas typically cover the entire body. -
![Cotton footed pajamas can be a good choice for babies, particular during warm weather.]()
By: Adam BorkowskiCotton footed pajamas can be a good choice for babies, particular during warm weather. -
![Babies cannot sleep with blankets due to the risk of suffocation and SIDS.]()
By: Monkey BusinessBabies cannot sleep with blankets due to the risk of suffocation and SIDS.
Discussion Comments
I think that flannel footed pajamas are great for camping trips. My family goes camping in the mountains in spring, and while it is warm enough during the day, it gets frigid at night. We all wear these pajamas to stay toasty.
Flannel is just so soft, and it insulates well, too. My young son and daughter love their footed pajamas, and I love the fact that I don’t shiver too much if I get up to go outside the tent to the restroom. I slip some fuzzy slippers with hard soles on right over my pajamas, which are much warmer than socks.
I have seen a lot of men's footed pajamas that zip from the neck to the legs. My brother wears this kind, because he is very cold-natured and can’t stand to freeze in the winter.
His wife is the opposite. She keeps the house way too cold for his blood, so he compensates for this by wearing the warmest type of pajamas you can buy.
It’s pretty funny to see a grown man walking around the house in a full pajama suit, because he used to wear this kind of pajamas as a kid, too. He just looks like a grown boy with them on.
@shell4life - I own a pair of ladies footed pajamas, but I rarely wear them because I do have to go to the bathroom a couple of times during the night. I think that footed pajamas are best reserved for babies because of this.
Of course, I might feel differently if I had the two-piece kind or the kind that snaps at the waist. Mine have to be fully removed in order for me to sit on the toilet, and I hate being suddenly cold when I have been warm for hours.
I only keep them because they were a gift from my grandmother. Also, I only wear them once a year when she comes to visit.
My mother still has the pair of cotton footed pajamas that I wore as a baby. I have seen photos of myself in them, and they looked very cozy.
They were mint green and very soft. They had square snaps, which you don’t see a lot these days.
For adults, I’m sure that inconvenience with going to the bathroom would be an issue in footed pajamas, but for a baby, it is no problem. They just do their thing and wait to be changed, so it doesn’t matter if they are trapped inside their outfits!
I like one-piece jammies for my little ones, too. I use cloth diapers, and the overnight kind are so bulky that it is hard to fit pants over them at all!
And many cloth diapers are velcro, which are even easier to remove than disposable diapers. But to get around that problem - especially during nap time, when baby is not wearing pajamas - I always made sure to keep around some cloth diaper covers that used snaps instead of velcro. Much harder for baby to get off!
I really like to use toddler footed pajamas right up until potty training, at least in the winter. (In the summer, they just sleep in onesies.)
The main thing is for them to be one-piece and difficult-to-impossible for the child to remove by him- or herself. Once they get to be about ten months old, some of them start learning that they can take off their diaper! *Not* something you want them to do in the middle of the night. But if they are wearing one-piece pajamas, they can't get ahold of it to open it up.
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