To cover babies pram with a muslin?

[onebadmum]

My child had an appt today in a hospital clinic. I had my 6 month old baby with us too.

There were delays and we ended up in the clinic for 4+ hours, waiting for the plaster, then x-ray and consultant.

Anyway- baby was getting exceptionally fed up after all this time. I'd tried feeding the sleep, rocking, popping her in her pram and rocking but all the lights/noise/people and she was just far too distracted. She was overtired due to the wait.

I decided to try putting her down in her pram again, popped my phone on with white noise and put a muslin over the top to block out the lights/distractions while I rocked the pram.

There were gaps on both sides so I could see her. I could see she was finally nodding off when a nurse appeared and pulled the muslin off without even looking at me or addressing me (I think I was quite taken aback and thinking "oi you've just woke my baby up")

She started talking to my baby and making a fuss of her (without so much as looking at me)... and said to baby "we don't have this over you do you, you'll be far too hot"... before walking off.

I realised then that she clearly had an issue with the muslin. But as it had been working to get my baby to sleep before the nurse had come over, I just pulled it back over and continued as I was before.

A short time later the nurse reappeared and spoke directly to me this time, and told me off and how dangerous having blankets over babies are.

I'm prepared to be told I was unreasonable to do so... however we were inside, with plenty of fans and the temperature while warmer then average for this time of year was far from sweltering?

I would never cover my baby out in the hot sun. I've had four children so like to think of myself as fairly experienced, but was I wrong?

I like to think I do have some common sense and tbh.

My baby had been crying for what seemed like hours at that point. She was far hotter with me holding her and trying to rock her/feed her etc against my body.

She didn't make me feel like a bad mum because I know I am a very good one.

I just thought this an interesting topic given the weather!

@madeleine85 and I totally agree. I'm sorry about your friends baby.

My point was I bet if I was sitting there in the same room feeding my baby under a Muslim blanket nothing would have been said about it to me... because that is deemed acceptable by society, if not polite by quite a lot of people who don't feel women should feed uncovered.

Common sense is needed here.

I can't be the only mum on here who thinks that a lot of advice about babies and children is taken by health professionals to be absolute when it is actually situational. When it is hot don't cover your baby's pram, but in a cool space a partial light covering to reduce light is totally fine.

As for the nurse's behaviour - how rude! Sadly I suspect most of us have experienced such high-handed behaviour from health professionals when we had babies. I know I did.

My toes curl when I see a pram covered by a muslin.... even worse when it's a blanket!

I used a Muslin it's fine. It's blocks the sun out. I was always present pushing my pram. I bought this other thing too to clip onto the pram. I would know if my baby was distressed.

My understanding is that covering babies is dangerous in pretty much any circumstances and I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think the breastfeeding covered by a muslin analogy works as in that circumstance you’d be more conscious of a change in the baby’s breathing/behaviour.

However, I wouldn’t have approached it the way the nurse did. Talking to the baby about it rather than you is unnecessarily passive aggressive and taking the muslin off without your consent is intrusive.

Interestingly this blog post from snoozeshade claims a loosely draped muslin is ok:

“Muslins are generally made of thin cotton which, although not as air permeable as synthetic mesh, have air-permeable qualities.

A loosely draped muslin will not trap heat and will give around 80% UV protection (which is better than none). The key thing is to never use anything that stops air from circulating as per The Lullaby Trust guidelines.”

https://www.snoozeshade.com/blogs/news/please-dont-be-scared-by-the-its-dangerous-to-cover-your-pram-story

Me too. Ridiculous and brainless thing to do. Makes my blood boil and I wouldn't be afraid to say something. I'd rather have an offended adult on my conscience than a dead or very unwell baby.

No it wouldn't be, because you'd be able to feel the baby overheating and also being next to your body helps them regulate their own.

Babies struggle to regulate their own temperature and can easily overheat. In this heatwave covering the pram, even with gaps in the sides can be fatal.

Well, they would, wouldn't they? Their entire business model is dependent upon convincing parents to cover their children in the heat.

I’ve never understood the fixation of covering prams with cloths of any description. Twenty odd years ago you’d never have seen this. We used parasols that attached to the pram or just pulled the hood of the pram up.

Exactly who knows how many overheated babies she'd seen that day

No one had told me. I'd have been glad if they did. First time mum, no one around to guide me. Health visitor literally phoned me and that was it. I was lucky I thought about it after a couple of trips and baby was ok. They drill it into you ro keep baby out the sun.

I didn't have a parasol with me as I was inside and had no plans to be outside today.

She's usually not that bad to get to sleep when out and about, but I suppose I'm walking around with the pram as opposed to being stuck in a room with bright lights/lots of noise/comings and goings and nowhere to go.

At home I put her down in my room in her crib with the curtains shut so it's dim, I think this was my thought with blocking out the light I was feeling desperate.

Can anyone tell me what I should do next time if I'm in this situation given the muslin is a no-no?

@fairyfluf none- it was a fracture clinic.

Prams get hot. Take a temperature - they’re often up to 5 degrees warmer inside than outside. If you were covering the baby up it’s even warmer. She was 100% right to remove it

It is surprising how quickly heat can build up in covered prams, it sounds like a muslin with gaps at the sides to let air circulate isn't as risky but generally covering them with anything when it's warm is a no no. The nurse should have absolutely spoken to you though instead of whipping it off and berating you. Its tricky as wouldn't recommend anything to be honest beyond popping the hood down when they move into a pushchair!

I use a snoozeshade to block the sun but don’t pull it down fully over the pram so it’s just a flat canopy over the top with air flowing through fully either side and I can see her through the zip. I wouldn’t cover the whole pram personally with anything as I think it would get too hot.
The pram hood doesn’t come far enough to shade her arms and legs and I don’t find that parasols do either, and I feel I need to shade her rather than risk her getting burnt.

You were NOT being unreasonable.
You were with her and monitoring her for a start but most importantly that thing about covering prams and being hot refers to being outside in sunlight
AND it's been debunked!
It's not hotter under a muslin than being in full sun. And you prevent sunburn.
The single experiment on muslins was (iirc) done by a magazine? And was seriously flawed and not robust.

Whether the baby gets too hot is more about what they are wearing.
If nurses can wear masks (which I fully support) covering a pram with a light muslin while you are there is fine.

You shouldn't leave them as they could pull it down over their face and head, but that's very different.

From what I understand she’s right about not covering over the pram hood incase the baby overheats. It’s not usually obvious with babies when they’re too hot straight away either. But fuck me, if she truly went about this the way you say she did, she’s very much in the wrong for that. There are definitely better ways to get the message across about the issue at hand without being so rude/passive aggressive.

Muslin cloth is breathable (assuming it was one of the thin squares) and nothing like a flipping blanket! It will not be able to hold heat in the way OP described draped over a pram hood.

The nurse was extremely rude to grab it off the pram and behave as she did. I wonder if she’d have done that if the OP was a man? Totally unprofessional.

if she had concerns, she should have spoken to you directly and made you aware of them.

Absolutely no excuse for that behaviour.

You shouldn't cover babies prams with Muslims or blankets. I've always thought it's daft.

The woman that invented snoozeshades has a blog post on this.
Snooze shades are safer because they are fitted and designed to block more heat/light and allow more air.....but she says the '"research" that says muslins are dangerous is regularly misquoted.