When will parents realise that covering pushchair with blankets and muslin sheets is actually dangerous?

You’re the one lacking common sense. Keep your silly little poorly informed opinions to yourself.

In Africa you also have to worry about (nasty) flies getting on the baby so a cover may be more essential. A heavy blanket I can believe might be dangerous, a light muslin cover (almost like net curtains) I can't believe could cause over heating, but keeps some of the worst of the sun off.

By 11am it must have been what, 17-20 degrees in the warmest part of the country?

I think the mothers can use their own common sense.

This is actually the sort of thing that bothers me, not the muslins but the judgey nosey parkers. When was the last time you heard of a baby dying from SIDS due to a 40 minute nap being shaded by a very light breathable cloth?

I’m asking for the evidence base. If, as previous poster has said they’ll do, you’re going to call mums “silly little girls” in a very patronising and misogynistic way, you’d better have some solid facts behind you. Another poster has shown that the temp might go up a degree, and there’s a big difference between closing the gaps tight and parking the pram in the midday sun for an hour and strolling around, in and out of the shade, with a breeze wafting through.

Some common sense!

Yes but the nhs also warns against prep machines or storing formula in the fridge - make it fresh each time. It’s not practical. Which is why people take their advice with a pinch of salt. So long as there is air circulating a light muslin is not going to cause harm.

'Silly girls'???

I did this 17 years ago...I had no idea. Obviously if I'd have known I wouldn't

What did they say when you politely stopped and told them?

I think the problem is there are some risks to this- the original study in 2014 which kicked off all the newspaper reporting covered the pram fully with a blanket and left it in the midday sun for an hour. Clearly not a good idea! This study shows an increase in temperature of 2.6 degrees when covering a pram with a dry muslin- in the Australian summertime.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00140139.2023.2172212#d1e211

Realistically, lightly covering a pram with a muslin in the UK summer is not going to cause infant deaths. You also have to weigh up the dangers of UV exposure on baby skin vs the pushchair getting a degree hotter on a 22 degree day. But guidance from the NHS etc is going to have to hit the lowest common demonstrator (ie. The idiot who will
fully cover the oram with a blanket and leave it in the sun) so of course they say don’t do it. But the fear mongering “I must tell mums in case they kill their babies” is ridiculous and based on very little.

You haven't read my post properly despite quoting it.

I stated no such thing?

I stated that they replied they do it because that's what they do in their country.

My opinion (not that I gave it) is that they know their own children best, and they know how often they check on them.

It's not for others to judge.

I always thought it was because the blanket might fall down and cause suffocation. If a covering makes the pram area dangerously hot then surely babies would all drop dead when you put a waterproof cover on?

You are stating that two women, from Africa, a country a tad bloody hotter than the three days of 26 degrees we get here per annum, have not thought it out? That they are just on a bandwagon?
Why would millions of such women put their babies at risk.
Incredible

Has anyone ever called you a nosy little girl in retaliation?

I can guarantee that you've done at least one dangerous thing with your kids, and you've had more than one luck over judgement moment.

Why would you refer to grown women as 'silly girls' and why would you call someone out rather than just have a reasonable conversation. Says more about you than them.

https://www.nhs.uk/baby/first-aid-and-safety/safety/safety-in-the-sun/

• “If you go out when it's hot, attach a parasol or sunshade to your baby's pushchair to keep them out of direct sunlight. Do not cover your baby's pushchair or pram with a blanket because it could lead to overheating. Check on them regularly to make sure they're not getting too hot.”

Every time the sun comes out someone posts this.
God knows how previous generations of roasted children made it to adulthood.
Do you have a link to the peer-reviewed research about muslin cloth-associared deaths?

‘silly girls’

Wow, are you some old battle-axe?!? That likes to be condescending to younger women because it makes you feel better about yourself

Midwives and HV’s advise against doing this. It isn’t secret information that is being withheld, it is an active choice to ignore advice regarding infant safety.

Because “mum knows best”.

Is there any record of a baby dying from this? I can’t find any and it’s exactly the sort of thing newspapers love to report

Why would you wait to see if a child died before doing something in a safer way?

I will call every single one of these silly girls out. I would rather have a ‘oh so offended’ mum than a dead baby on my conscience. Pure lack of common sense.

If mums are being seen doing it in Spain all the time then surely it’s not that dangerous or babies would be dying far more. Muslin clothes used to be super thin so you’d still get air flow and I’ve never known a muslin cloth big enough to cover the whole gap so air would still be getting in.

I’m not trying to be argumentative but putting in a different perspective. Happy to be told I’m wrong and there’s stats showing high rates of SIDS in hot countries where people do this.

Agree. How about we leave other mums to it, and not interfere.

Are babies dropping like flies because of this? I did it for years with DD, with either a cellular blanket or a muslin.