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?

@Hollyisalrightactuallysorry I accept I was unreasonable, I was asking questions as I'm trying to understand the difference...

Surely it's not wrong to ask how plastic covers with a few holes in are deemed to be okay, how covering a babies head and sometimes whole body with a blanket while breastfeeding is socially acceptable, but how a muslin cloth partially covering a pram indoors is not?

You've provided your evidence. I was unreasonable.

I never said there was air conditioning. But there were fans coming from every direction (at least 4 along every wall- it wasn't a massive room either). Never seen anything like it, impressive for the NHS the temperature as I said was warmer than normal for this time of year (clearly!) but it was actually rather pleasant in there.

I'm sure I'm not the other one who understood the guidance to mean outside in the hot sun.

@onebadmum it's the material that holds the air in so it can't circulate

Complete rubbish. A study to challenge critics with zero scientific background with the snooze hood and shows the temperature was lower than an outside temperature.

Suggest OP invests in one - but a muslin is absolutely fine. What a rude nurse and completely out of order

@TiredMummma You know they’re just trying to sell their products, yes? 😂

Thank you for being the voice of reason! The guidance refers to people leaving their babies in unsafe places. There is clearly just as much misinformation out there about this as cosleeping and expressing. I personally would have put a formal complaint in about the nurse!

You know it was an independent study yes?

Yabu

Most people, when told "This thing will kill your baby" try to avoid it. Interesting that you're not...

It is really useful but it has to be done properly, as cloth does trap heat.

What I do is clip the muslin blanket to the lowered hood of the pram and only have the blanket hang down long enough to hide her face and upper chest.

I recline the seat as well so she's quite far from the blanket itself, there's plenty of airflow all round and the sides of the pram have mesh walls when in the reclined position.

If we're somewhere hot then I clip a child-safe electric fan to her pram, and I might also tie an ice pack inside a fabric pouch to the pram straps keep her cool. I check on her from time to time as well to see if she's hot or cold.

Exact same as co-sleeping used to be, which many parents did but just didn't admit it. Now the guidance has changed.

Out of interest because I'm actually enjoying all the info and view points and this may be helpful to people in future.

Was out with a friend this morning, she had a bugaboo (turtle?) car seat. It has a sort of extendable hood which comes over and some bits that attach to the bottom of the seat that are made of mesh.

Does this not trap the heat any more than what a loosely draped muslin would?

There was certainly more space and bigger gaps on both sides.

Actually as long as you’re following the Safe Sleep 7 there is no higher risk of infant death with cosleeping.

@TheBarbieEffect

From what I understand co-sleeping guidance changed as it's not actually the practice which makes it unsafe, it was the way in which some people were doing it which made it unsafe.

I feel the same with this muslin, it's the way in which it could be used wrongly or dangerously, rather than a blanket approach of "put a muslin over the pram and your baby will die"... was my point.

I think it’s worse and TiredMama is trying to sell products - her link redirects to a site called “paid on results” before redirecting back to Snooze shade.

Paid on Results is an affiliate marketing network.