Draping sheets etc over child’s pushchair

[notedbiscuits]

A bit of warm weather and seen my pet hate - parents who drape a towel, sheet, muslim cloth over their child’s pushchair.

Don’t they realise that this makes the area under the covering warmer? Plus babies can’t regulate temperature well.

They are better off with a clip on parasol. Then the air circulates.

Why do parents still do this habit of draping material over the pushchair?

https://www.snoozeshade.com/
Fab product

A Muslim cloth? 🤣

I used to think that nearly thirty years ago.

A nice day doesn't need a blanket , coverall, a fleece or a muslin.

Oh, is that what it is? I was rather worried that they were baby ghosts being wheeled about. 👻

Muslin. Muslims don't have special cloths.

It’s handy when you need the baby to sleep. We live in the U.K. so regulating body temperature isn’t difficult.

It’s dangerous and people don’t realise. They think they’re keeping the sun off the baby, but in fact they’re cooking them. It’s surprising how hot it can get inside a covered pram! What is needed is more education around safe parenting.

It's rampant in my bit of Australia and it's not about the sun, either. Any weather. So many parents do it despite the danger warnings:

https://rednose.org.au/article/the-dangers-of-covering-your-pram

If you go back to the original research on this, the results were engineered and ensuing advice overblown. I find this subject an excuse to be judgemental of mothers, who are capable of making their own risk assessments. You may not agree with what they're doing but that doesn't make it completely inadvisable.

Do you have link to the original research?

Do you also think that putting babies to sleep on their backs rather than their front and not using cot bumpers is just “being judgmental of mothers capable of making their own risk assessments”?

Don't be stupid.

Things like safe sleeping guidance came about because mothers don't always know best/ not always capable of doing their own research.

Some tragic cases of babies being injured and killed stick in my mind and one really can't imagine why the carers had such a lack of common sense 😥

Having said that, usually when I see fabric draped over a pram or pushchair, it is very fine, lightweight and breathable.

I think it's not for you to judge unless the baby is clearly in distress.
I think most mothers have heard that draping things over the pram can make the temperature in the pram rise but they make their own risk assessments.
I myself have done it. With all 3 kids at least once. Tbh unless it's a proper heatwave in the UK 30 degrees plus.. draping a muslin over part of the pram is not going to harm your baby...
When I've done it I've made sure there's a big gap for air to circulate. I've just positioned it to try and keep direct sunlight off babies skin.
Those parasols are useless pieces of crap imo you just end up repositioning them ever five minutes then they eventually snap.
I was thinking today with the sun that I wish there were just extentions of pram hoods you could buy that made the pram hood stick out much longer straight ahead.. and sort of arched at the sides..
Someone should get on inventing those!!

Someone has invented it already. I have an uppababy, which has it built in, but you can also buy ones like this if your pram doesn't have one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Sunshade-Foldable-Pushchair-Breathable/dp/B0BX8KJTQ6

I think it's not for you to judge unless the baby is clearly in distress

How do you tell a baby is in distress when it is hidden under a blanket and slowly cooking to death? Are you presuming a baby would cry in that situation?

The advice from actual scientific studies is one thing...
But unsolicited advice from random judgemental strangers is another..
Sometimes babies do have to sleep on their fronts and mums need to weigh things up using all the info available to them
For instance some babies with very bad reflux you may have a risk of them choking if placed flat on their back.. so then you need to weigh up which is the biggest risk.

It's the same with any of these things.. women should make what they think is the best choice for their baby.
They should weigh up risks.
Obviously there are some things that you absolutely would step in with judgement about.
But there are other things where its a grey area and you should mind your own business if someone is doing something you wouldn't personally choose to do.
Muslins over prams are a grey area especially in the UK... there is a risk associated with them but look at actual statistics regarding how many babies have died this way... it's incredibly rare. What's more common is your baby getting sunburnt.
So personally I can see why someone might drape a muslin over a pram to protect baby from direct sunlight. A lightweight muslin with gaps for air to circulate, in uk climate... it's not really that risky is it?

Ooh I'm going to buy that thanks!

This horrifies me every time I see it.

I think you can tell and there is a difference between someone draping a muslin over a pram on a slightly sunny day in the UK
And someone completely covering the pram with no gaps with a blanket in very high temperatures...
I'd probably say something about it myself if I saw that second one!
but i havent ever seen that tbh...
whenever ive seen people cover prams its been a lightweight muslin partially draped so theres a gap. In which case i think thats up to them.
but yeah if i could see through the gap that the baby looked ill and I was worried I would say something...
But just if I saw someone with a muslin draped loosely over a pram, no. I'd mind my own business.
I do think people have got a bit hysterical and judgemental about it tbh... I had a comment about it once with my second.
And honestly her temperature was absolutely fine.. the pram wasn't remotely fully covered either. I am aware that it could have the potential to heat up the pram but in my opinion the direct sunlight was a bigger risk.

I still do it, I just make sure there is a decent gap and I check a lot, and edited to add I use netting or a voile curtain.

I’ve managed to keep 8 kids alive so trust my own judgement and risk assessments.

My dd has a very fragile 9 week old , he had open heart surgery at 2 days old and she is very concerned about him over heating . We were having this conversation earlier today about how to keep the sun off of him when he's in his pram, so thank you to @Abigaillovesholidays for the sunshade link.

I always pinned a muslin across for shade on the side where the sun was beaming in. The other side left open. Air circulated just fine and baby was happy.

Slowlly cooking to death?????
Get a grip or at least give us links to the peer-reviewed research to support the arguement.
Oh. and the actual numbers of babies who have cooked to death in the last 100 years, how those stats compare to using a parasol and/or to not having a cloth.
Then eliminate and variables which may have contributed to the cooking (too many clothes, existin fever, etc)
Then let's take a look at the meta-analysis of the available reseach and see how many of the articles were sufficiently powered, were fully randomised, had limitations addressed....
Then we can talk cooked babies

You could have just saved us both the time and responded “yes” 🙄