Get clear, parent-focused guidance on how to keep kids warm, fed, and safe during a winter blackout, including safe heating, baby care, and carbon monoxide prevention.
Share how prepared you feel, and we’ll help you focus on the most important next steps for protecting your children during a cold-weather power outage.
When the power goes out in winter, the priorities are warmth, supervision, safe air, and communication. Keep children together in the warmest safe room, dress them in layers, and use blankets or sleep sacks for infants instead of loose bedding. Avoid unsafe heat sources such as ovens, grills, or fuel-burning devices used indoors. Check on babies and young children often because they can lose body heat faster than adults. If your home becomes too cold, or if anyone shows signs of hypothermia or breathing trouble, move to a safer heated location right away.
If you have a fireplace, wood stove, or space heater rated for indoor use, follow the manufacturer’s instructions closely and keep children at least 3 feet away from hot surfaces.
Never use a gas stove, oven, charcoal grill, camp stove, or generator inside the home, garage, basement, or near windows. Make sure carbon monoxide alarms have working batteries.
Close off unused rooms, place towels along drafty doors, wear hats and layers, and gather in one safe room to conserve body heat while you monitor indoor temperature.
Use dry base layers, socks, and hats. For babies, choose fitted sleep clothing or wearable blankets and avoid overheating or covering the face.
Offer snacks, water, comfort items, and quiet activities. A calm routine helps children feel secure during a winter storm power outage.
Look for shivering, unusual sleepiness, pale or cold skin, confusion, or trouble breathing. Babies may feel cool to the touch or seem less responsive when too cold.
Pack blankets, sleeping bags, extra layers, hats, gloves, hand warmers, and a thermometer so you can track indoor conditions.
Store ready-to-eat foods, safe drinking water, formula, bottles, diapers, wipes, medications, and backup comfort items for young children.
Keep flashlights, extra batteries, a battery bank, a weather radio, and a printed emergency contact list in one easy-to-reach place.
If your home temperature keeps dropping and you cannot maintain a safely warm room, children, especially babies and toddlers, may be at risk. If kids are shivering continuously, seem very sleepy, or the home feels dangerously cold, go to a heated shelter, warming center, or another safe location.
Use generators only outdoors and far from doors, windows, and vents. Never use grills, camp stoves, ovens, or gas burners to heat your home. Keep battery-powered carbon monoxide alarms working and leave the home immediately if an alarm sounds or anyone has headache, dizziness, nausea, or confusion.
Move everyone to the warmest safe room, limit door opening, serve easy snacks and water, and keep children occupied with simple activities. Check weather updates, preserve phone battery, and make an early plan for relocation if indoor temperatures continue to fall.
Keep babies dry, warmly dressed, and close enough for frequent checks. Use fitted layers and wearable blankets rather than loose blankets in sleep spaces. Make sure feeding supplies are ready, and seek a warmer location quickly if the room becomes too cold.
Answer a few questions to see practical next steps for staying warm safely, protecting children from cold, and preparing for the next winter power outage.
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