Newborn on busy road - scared about pollution

[newmum234]

I regularly have to walk down a busy A road where I live in London. There’s no avoiding it as it’s the only way to get to the Tube, bus stops and other shops/services that I use. Yesterday I took my newborn down the road and felt so stressed and sad that his pram was literally feet away from dozens of cars, lorries and buses belching out fumes. What an environment for a tiny six week old baby I know some on here say that London is a fantastic place to bring up a child, but I’m struggling to appreciate that right now.

Pollution sucks. I don't live in London but my 3 year old daughter and soon 1 year old son will be attending a nursery that's at a busy junction with traffic lights where the pollution is bad. I just hope the shift to electric cars comes soon and they don't breath in enough to be harmed.

I guess, short of moving all you can do is powerwalk past the bad bit, walk on the pavement as far from the traffic as possible and maybe avoid times you notice it being particularly bad - if possible, and try not to worry.

It's really not great, but I don't really see what you can do about it. There's supposedly an invention coming to the market in the next few months: jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/meet-dragon-slaying-inventor-working-to-clean-our-air-protect-young-lives/ but who knows, these things often take longer than expected even without Covid, and there are no guarantees to how well it actually works. You could use a rain cover on the buggy on the main road but as it'll have ventilation holes I'm not sure it'll really make a lot of difference.

It’s so depressing that our LOs have to be subjected to this isn’t it? Just feels so wrong

Could you use a sling from time to time? I heard that pollution is unfortunately worse at pram level. Also if you’re that worried then I would avoid the tube when possible - the air down there is worse than on the streets. I don’t think it’s anything to get overly anxious about, partly because there’s not much you can do about it.

I lived in Fulham for 3 years and ive always thought its a terrible place to raise children. Its one of the reasons I moved to be honest.

Theres not much you can do about it though. You have my sympathies though

Im very much of the mantra 'cities are for commerce, not people' though, so that colours my opinion slightly!