To think everyone needs to know that covering the front of a buggy in this heat is unsafe?

[readingmakesmehappy]

I've seen so many buggies and prams out this week with muslins and cloths clipped to the front. Why doesn't everyone know this is unsafe?
It's slightly better if it's a wet muslin, but only slightly.
NHS, for those who want citations: https://www.nhs.uk/baby/first-aid-and-safety/safety/safety-in-the-sun/
And Which? https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1D6id4EG4u/

Why do you think that? Whats basic to you won’t be to other people

So I saw a mum with a muslin pegged to the front of her buggy outside school and said "Excuse me, did you know that it can be really dangerous to cover the front of a buggy when it's this hot?" I got an extremely chilly "I thought we didn't tell each other what to do." I must have missed the Motherhood Memo where we don't share useful/important/lifesaving advice with other mothers who evidently haven't heard it. But that's me put back in my box.

Old fashioned pram parasols are the best answer here - shade without restricting air. The ones from my childhood clipped on and had a bendy section in the stem so you could change the angle according to where the sun was. I’ll bet they’re still made.

I think some people just focus on the sunburn risk, rather than the overheating risk. They are trying to protect their baby from the thing that is most loudly drummed in to us about the danger of the sun, they aren’t wilfully stupid.

no. You use a parasol.

Is nobody these days expected to use their bloody common sense?
The notion that people only know stuff that someone else has taken pains to inform them about is honestly bizarre.

Omg that other mother was so rude. You were just being helpful.
I didn’t know this with my first baby I thought it was ok to clip muslins over the pram. I wish someone like you had told me. Now on my third baby I always use my parasol which allows free circulation of air.

The parasol didn’t actually shade the front of the bassinet.

Bigger issue is that babies shouldn't be in a car seat outside a car. It's also mad that lots of parents don't seem to know that.

YANBU but it's not something that gets pushed a lot, probably as this weather is unusual here. Snooze Shades are fine as they're tested and have air flow

Yeah I use a snooze shade very useful for going from A to B when you can’t avoid the sun. I have checked and it doesn’t get hotter than the outside temperature. As soon as we’re somewhere fully shaded I open it up

I had a shade-a-babe 20+ years ago, are they still made?

This advice wasn’t around 20+ years ago when I had my DC and I did it.

Lots of people don't have common sense, though. There's no IQ test needed to become a parent either, so lots of people aren't going to have the sense and intelligence that you do.

I had no idea you weren't supposed to, but then Dd is 25 and I never did that, she was born at the end of August so wouldn't have been relevant either.
You could definitely get parasols then though, also irrelevant to me in Scotland!

I think calling people low IQ over this is bizarre, I’ve seen loads of people doing the peg on muslin, friends that are teachers, etc, I’ve done it before too until I saw the issues highlighted. Muslins are very thin so you just think it’s keeping the baby out the sun.

Honestly 16 years ago when I had my first baby it was really typical to see people clipping muslins onto prams to provide shade, I don't think (at the time) I ever thought it would make the inside hot.

I’m glad people have clip-on parasols that work, the one I had 16 years ago was really impractical. Every time you turned a corner you needed to change its position, it got in the way and sometimes the sun just went underneath it.

Angle- poise umbrellas are much better to keep the sun off and the breeze flowing.

I remember being so neurotic and first time mum about this that I put a thermometer in the pram and kept checking it. That said are there many deaths from hot prams?

This is what I had 20ish years ago. DS1 never touched it but was terrified of the clip on fan we'd also bought.

The parasol was great when DS2 was a baby, but as soon as he was old enough to have opinions he used to move it out of the way . He also used to pull the rain cover off if it wasn't attached fully and eventually ripped holes in it.

I also used a large bulldog clip on the pram hood that helped to change the angles and hold the parasol where it needed to be.

As an aside, am I the only person to have had two babies without ever owning a single muslin? 🤷‍♀️😱😂

I had some, but never used them!

So did I. You don't seem to see these about anymore. I had one for a pram and pushchair for all my 4. I also hate seeing babies out in their carseats in pushchair frames around the shops all the time. They should be lying flat.