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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

...taking 15 week old DS outside on a cold day?

63 replies

mamaGool · 01/03/2011 13:51

Waiting at the bus stop to take 15wo DS swimming. He is in a sling, with my body heat, a bobble hat on, cashmere shawl & silk cardie wrapped over the top of that & snoozing happily.

I notice a woman staring at me/him (this happens a lot), so I smile.
HER: it's windy for baby.
ME (thinking she's making conversation): Yes it is, isn't it? That's why I've got him so bundled up.
HER: Tsk!

OP posts:

trixie123 · 01/03/2011 16:32

DS was born in August and lotys of people around me seemed to get hysterical about the risk of overheating - after a while my standard respinse was something like "yes, I wonder how babies in India / Africa / Southern half of the world generally survivbe at all"

The old ladies commenting on "must be hungry / tired etc" REALLY winds up my DP if he is out with DS alone. He seems to think they feel as a bloke he must especially not have a clue. I try to tell him that it happens to us too but I think he takes it personally!

Mare11bp · 01/03/2011 16:33

Cheeky, interfering cow.

lazarusb · 01/03/2011 17:11

Your baby? Fresh air? What are you thinking?! some people are just ignorant, don't let it worry you

twopeople · 01/03/2011 17:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

meliesmummy · 01/03/2011 17:27

YANBU, you are a good mum who wanted to take her baby out to experience the world. When my dd was a baby we were on a cross channel ferry in the summer and she was tired, it was naptime and she was grouchy so we put her in the pushchair and pushed her around to try to get her to sleep, every time we walked past a particular old lady she huffed and tutted, then she snapped at us , 'oh can't you see she's cold?'. Actually no, bcos it was SUMMER and she had a blanket lightly over her. Some people will always think they know best!

Salmotrutta · 01/03/2011 17:37

Blimey, My brothers and I were routinely wrapped up warm and popped in the pram outside the kitchen window where Mum could see us. And this was from day one.
The only time she didn't do this was in foggy weather which Docs advised against (60s babies we were).
I followed the same practice with mine - outside come snow or shine and dressed appropriately. They survived. Whereas some other Mums I knew (who adopted the "don't let the wind blow on my precious baby" approach) ended up with children who had pasty faces, constant sniffles and didn't seem very robust.

twopeople · 01/03/2011 17:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Salmotrutta · 01/03/2011 17:40

Actually, thinking about it, there seems to be a trend in recent years to not even take the baby out at all for a few weeks after birth? Or is that just my perception??

Salmotrutta · 01/03/2011 17:43

twopeople Docs used to advise against putting babies out in fog. Possibly due to chilly dampness in atmosphere?
Not sure if it's the same nowadays but someone else may know?

Bucharest · 01/03/2011 17:48

I'm in the south of Italy (ie it's mild) and when dd (born in October, when it was about 27 degrees still and about 300 in the hospital) was 5 months old....a pharmacist friend of mine, came to see me, sniffed the air outside (must have been in the mid 20s)and said, "I think you can start taking her out for about 10 minutes a day now, only in the mornings of course!" (apparently the air "goes off" in the afternoons)

Bless.

Asteria · 01/03/2011 17:54

YANBU - some people are so precious...
I was a January baby and my mother used to park me outside when I was tiny in a massive Silver Cross pram filled with sheepskins and wooly blankets - I have photos of it covered in snow with me snuggled up inside! My DS was also turfed out (in the same pram and many of the same blankets) whatever the temperature - but I drew the line at snow/rain!

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 01/03/2011 17:56

Had a row disagreement with my Nan when I visited with DS before xmas (in the snow) I had walked down with the silver cross pram and she had a right strop, refusing to let me walk home and insisting that Grandad drove us home with no car seat

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 01/03/2011 17:57

feel I should add, I went to get the carseat and left DS with Nan!!

meliesmummy · 01/03/2011 17:58

bucharest that's really funny! I assume your friend didn't have any kids? Altho one of my friends who I met after having my daughter asked me recently how long we stayed in when she was a newborn. Ummm....I didn't. And she was born in feb. Shes now a very robust 3 year old, she's never ill and seems to have no fear of the cold.

hogsback · 01/03/2011 18:04

YANBU. DS goes out twice a day in all weather, and has done every day since day 0. Including in temps down to -10C, driving snow and heavy rain. It's the only time he sleeps during the day frankly. Luckily you don't tend to bump into interfering old baggages in the middle of the woods in mid-winter.

Francagoestohollywood · 01/03/2011 18:06

OP Yanbu
Bucharest that is so quintessentially Italian

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 01/03/2011 18:12

Can I just check, do some of you randomly put your babies outside? Whatever for?
Is this something I should be doing????

hogsback · 01/03/2011 18:18

allsquare: put them outside to sleep, or leave them outside after the walk if they are asleep in the pushchair. They sleep better outside.

Bucharest · 01/03/2011 18:20

I did when she was a newborn (don't tell the pharmacist )because my Mum had done it with me...I think it must have been a 1960s thing, this sticking babies outside in their prams.....so I just shoved her out onto the balcony in her pram for half an hour.

Fresh air and all that!

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 01/03/2011 18:21

Ahh, I see! Cant do that in my area, would find the pram on bricks with no wheels when I went back out

receiverofopiniongiver · 01/03/2011 18:21

Oh the grief I got when I took my four day old baby out - no one had concern for me , but the fact that I was christmas shopping shock horror 2 days before Christmas!!!

Had no choice had older children, husband at home ill with flu, baby was 2 weeks early, and had been in hospital after having a stroke at 34 weeks. Christmas had to happen!!!

Mahraih · 01/03/2011 18:23

What a busybody.

DS is 18 DAYS old and we trundle around outside in the pram. He loves it; especially the bus.

You get all sorts making judgements. As if you have either accidentally or deliberately managed not to feed your baby in the last couple of hours, or secretly have ice packs strapped around his bottom.

The next time someone says, 'Oh, he must be hungry' I will take out a packet of hula hoops, and pretend to be surprised as to why he won't chew.

Mahraih · 01/03/2011 18:24

Actually, I retract: 'He loves it; especially the bus'.

He's 18 days old, it's not like he has hobbies. But he doesn't cry ceaselessly, so I call it a success.

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 01/03/2011 18:26

Speaking of hula hoops, my BILs DS (18 months) gave my DS (5 months) a hula hoop cause he was crying!!!

eden263 · 01/03/2011 18:28

YANBU. I was out walking with DD in her pushchair when she was about 5 months (March) and she kept pulling her hat off, as they do. After about 10 times, I'd just given up and put it in the bag. This older woman walked up to me and barked "put a hat on that baby!" and just walked off again!!! Ffs!

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