How to deal with young children in a car with no air con?

[Bumperliouzzzzzz]

Neither of our 11 year old rust buckets have air conditioning. I was wondering how other people deal with driving young children (DD is nearly 3) in a car with no air con. After an hour or so driving yesterday DD was red and soaked with sweat. Driving with the window open on the motorway is not ideal and DD doesn't like it either. What are your suggestions for keeping LOs cool?

i think my parents used the " shout at them"
method
opend th bloody window

Try to keep journeys to a minimum, if you need to do a long journey, try and travel at night.

Open the window, even if it is noisy/blowy - you can always open the two windows furthest away from your DD just a little bit.

Also those window sock blind things. (google "window socks")

Plenty of water - if she's in a seat with a 5-point harness attach the bottle or cup to her seat or clothing so she can't drop it.

Don't - that's just given me flashbacks of my parents old Cortina with PVC seats - urgh, sticky legs!

Open the windows.

Sorry.

We don't have air con, either. Our car's 14 years old.

It beats the hell out of public transport even on the hottest day.

The window sox look good but I've just remembered that both the cars only have 3 doors so no good

Take a small cooler with ice and ice packs with you in the car. Let dc hold/lean against ice packs (maybe positioned behind them in the car seat) or use ice in a freezer bag?

I used to put dd to sleep with an ice pack wrapped in a tea towel on hot summer nights when a fan in her room wasn't enough.

Can you get some window sox things/buggy shade/other blinds/any uv blocking material anyway and stick them up over the windows? Perhaps with duct tape or something?

The blinds really do make a lot of difference.

my air con is broken and not worth fixing
we wind windows down
is vari exhilerating

We've got a blind that goes over her window which shields her from the sun, but when we get in the car, especially when it has been sat in the car park with no shade, it is roasting. Every year I threaten to get a window screen shield and never do, but will have to bite the bullet this year. I don't know how much that will help though. I don't know how I am going to manage in the heat either, I'm due DC2 in September, and I am huge already!

Bumper those windscreen shields are good, my mum used to have one when we were younger, I used to hate getting in the car on hot days and that made it bearable. We didn't have individual window shields in the back then, but I used to sometimes rig a blanket up to cover it and give me some shade.

Not helpful, I know, but after our first long journey with DS when he was a baby we traded up for a car with air con. He was so wet with sweat after several hours in the car we could have wrung him out

The windscreen protectors do help, though.

I would love trade in for a new car with air con and 5 doors, especially with no.2 on the way, but screen shields are going to be cheaper!

We can't afford another car, either. I think I might go for some of those window blind things, too.

I wanna get one of those ironic ones with a massive picture of sunglasses! Our car will be soooo cool

Take the fridge - these days you can plug them into the lighter thing, leave the door open and hey presto! Aircon.

LOL Hully!

Makes me feel better that plenty of people have ancient cars. I think we have oldest cars of people that I know! We were really lucky that one was given to us. But the other is about to cost us as much as it's worth to get through an MOT, as the exhaust pipe has gone AWOL. And the one we were given has a steadily increasing crack in the windscreen from a stone that hit the other day. Thankfully it is covered by insurance so only £75 rather than £375!

Window sox are worth every penny of the £27. Completely block out the sun in the back of the car whilst enabling the windows to be opened. Genius. Sorry, I realise that doesn't help the op.

1. take drinks
2. open windows
3. take a route which flows, even if it is a bit slower than one where you may hit traffic.

Magicool is great!

Travelling at night also a good idea. We're the same, I just don't want to pay so much to get ours mended so I swap to DH's car which has A/C thank goodness, but my car is the family wagon so I hate to swap.

Preventing the inside of car over heating while parked up on hot days and no shade.

-A pale towel ( or similar) over the kids car seat while your parked up on hot days helps prevent the dark colour fabric and metal buckles getting so hot.
-Windscreen shades also ,those deeply naff cardboard ones work quite well.
-Opening all the doors and boot when you get back to car for few mins before you get in.

I remember wet sweaty legs in shorts on vinyl seats, then my parents got a car with corduroy seats! they left stripes, but soaked up sweat quite well .

I have never heard of Magicool. Just googled it, that is just what I need! Towel on DD's chair is also a good idea.

Ladyintheradiator, you beat my cars! Is it something study like a Volvo or a Volkswagon, they last forever!

My mum used to stick a battery operated fan on the dashboard with blu tac. It wasn't too bad, actually. You could try that.

i was going to say keep the windows open. all of them, but just a small amount to get the air flowing through

what did you do when you were little??