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?

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

"In 2014, a Swedish newspaper published an article stating that covering a pram with anything, even a thin muslin, could be dangerous to babies, even mentioning the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
The newspaper journalist put a stationary pram in the midday sun, put a thick blanket on it and measured the temperature inside. Unsurprisingly, the temperature rose.
This 'experiment' failed to consider what every sensible parent would do – walk about with the pram to create breeze, move it into the shade or simply go indoors when it was too hot to be outside.
As a result, in subsequent years, national newspapers and websites have carried scare stories called something like "Prams can be dangerous if you do THIS" and they have quoted “a Swedish study” or “research” – yes, you’ve guessed it, the piece from the newspaper in Sweden. There is no reputable scientific Swedish study just this one report."

From the manufacturerers of something designed to cover your pram..

Absolutely!

That week then. Or previous experience.

I think you just need to accept she wasn't out to get you she was trying to look after your child from danger. Like if I saw a kid running towards the road I'd intervene first.

YANBU
The "study" that spawned a million headlines about the dangers wasn't a study

snoozeshadeusa.com/blogs/news/please-dont-be-scared-by-the-its-dangerous-to-cover-your-pram-story

Pretty sure snoozeshade was around 15-20 years ago now.
People definitely used muslins prior to that.
My mum tells a story of my feet being burnt as a baby because the parasol and muslin combo didn't fully cover them.

Common sense is needed...don't put your baby in the hot sun and think a muslin will be enough....but inside with you right there will be fine

"Your bedside manor is terrible. You are a total stranger and have no position to talk through my baby. Next time you attempt to touch my items or talk to my baby without talking to me, I'll have your managers name and will be making a formal complaint"
It's not what she's said, it's how she's not said it.

@fairyfluf I haven't said she was out to get me?

There is a lot of guidance for babies and children and many other things in life.

Lots of parents co-sleep and always have (believe the guidance on this has recently changed), feed their babies before the 6 month guidance etc etc.

I just felt the way she went about it was wrong, intrusive to grab the muslin and pull it up without even speaking to me or looking at me. She then disturbed my baby who was almost asleep after being upset for a long period of time. And then being passive aggressive while speaking to my baby?

I have common sense, I was watching my baby, it wasn't hot in the room, it was on for 5 mins as I was attempting a different tactic to settle my grizzly baby in a strange environment. Putting a muslin over my baby's pram for 10 mins indoors while I rock her pram and watch her isn't going to harm her.

Once she did actually speak to me she seemed satisfied and left me to it. If she'd done that in the first place I wouldn't have been bothered.

She was astoundingly rude and I'd have been furious. I'd be tempted to complain if I were you. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of covering with a muslin, she should have put across her concerns to you directly. I suspect she felt very strongly that your baby was in danger but was scared of confrontation, so decided to act in that bizarre way, perhaps finding it easier than challenging you directly.

Personally I think in the circumstances you've described it sounds like your baby was safe. Guidance is given in a way to be easily understood by everyone, so usually nuance is left out. Obviously there's a difference between a fully covered buggy outdoors in glaring sunlight, and a partially covered one indoors.

What's the point of asking if you're unreasonable when you're so convinced you aren't?

Covering the pram with a muslin /designed shade (that we call a “pram curtain” in Finland) is very very common in Scandinavian countries. But obviously you should use common sense regarding direct sun and other conditions. I don’t know why is it so frowned upon in the UK 🤷🏼‍♀️

A nurse seeing behaviour in a hospital where she is on duty which she believes is putting the life of a baby at imminent risk will have a legal duty of care to intervene.

If she had spotted that you were about to give your older child a potentially lethal dose of painkiller would you also expect that she should just walk past without comment because you hadn’t asked for advice and your child wasn’t her patient?

YABU. But complain about her and let the hospital tell you that direct.

Ah it's the classic

OP: AIBU?
MN: Yes!
OP: NO I'M NOT!!! 😠

There's a certain kind of stupid. I have just seen a great example.
As for covering prams look on the Lullaby Trust .

I agree...

I'm actually not from the UK originally. I'm from a very, very hot country.

When I had my first two children who are 10 and 12 (the others are born here), I'd say most prams sold had a "snooze shade" type cover. There were also many "universal" type shade/mesh/uv covers for prams on the market.

If you were taking your baby/child outside without one of these on, it would definitely get a tut-tut from others. I did a lot of baby groups and everyone used these.

I remember when my eldest was born my mum telling me "you never cover the baby with a blanket" which seemed like silly advice to me because I thought who would do this anyway, it's common sense!

It seems from this thread even the snooze-shade covers are frowned upon here? I don't know what's used in my home country now as I've been away for some years so advice could have moved on?

@fairyfluf I'm not adamant I'm right. My point was that it's not the item that causes harm, it's the use of it. I was using my common sense, and I appreciate the nurse didn't know why/for how long etc that I'd had that muslin there. She could have spoke to me politely and had the conversation.

I think the blanket approach to guidance is because they cannot trust people to use common sense. I don't think there are any parents that set out to do something to hard their baby, it mostly starts with good intentions without realising the danger.

I haven't said anywhere that I was going to complain about the nurse

Yeah you know your own baby BUT it is dangerous, so whilst you know your own baby you don’t know if they are overheating when covered. Get a parasol or a sunshade but don’t cover the pram, it’s deadly.

the nurse was abrupt but she was right

I've used both a snooze shade and a muslin as you described (ie draped over with the sides open) and a muslin definitely allows more air in. Yanbu op I'd be bloody furious if I were you! My baby fights sleep a ridiculous amount so I've had to do similar and I'd be so pissed off if she'd just got to sleep and someone whipped the muslin off her pram!

At least you seem to have a mature attitude about it and are willing to learn from what you’re being told. OP just seems determined to be right!

It's very unsafe. Please don't do it especially in this heat

I took my DD to an adventure playground with us last weekend and she napped under the snooze shade for a good few hours. When I put my hand in to check she was okay, it was cooler in there than out in the sun even though it's black. Blows my mind but I'm glad it works! I wanted to climb in with her 🤣

YABU.

Seriously.

No point in comparing it to a raincover,or breastfeeding a baby.

It's been really warm the last few days. So even where you were was slightly cooler than other places it was still warm.

Unless it was winter or I was trying keep my kid warm because it was cold. A muslin covering the pram is dangerous.

The Muslim traps the heat and puts baby at risk of over heating

Nurse was clumsy on her approach

OP, I'm not really sure what you want from this thread. You say you don't mind being told you were unreasonable but have continued to be defensive with 'what about rain covers', 'what about breastfeeding under muslins', 'other people do it'...

The study I linked to earlier was one of many which you say isn't relevant as it wasn't for 30 mins (you don't mention a time in your OP) and there were fans and gaps.

You were inside in a warm room with fans but no air conditioning (I'm sure you'll now say there was air conditioning) where it was warmer than average but 'not sweltering'

So were you unreasonable to restrict the airflow around baby in any way in these conditions? In my opinion yes

Was the nurse also unreasonable in her approach? Also yes

But from your responses I reckon you would have posted about this even if she had approached you directly rather than pulling it off the pram

She would have loved the mozzy nets then! Guidance isn't law.