Won't keep hat on - suntan lotion instead?

[Waedigirl]

This may be a daft question, but what do you do when they won't keep their hats on in this heat. Aside from a dab of glue.....

DD has a wispy covering of blonde hair and is pale as a ghost. Can I cover her head in factor 50 like the rest of her? So cool brylcreem effect

What do the rest of you do?

No reason why you can't cover her hair in suncream too - I have done this previously as DD (18 months) is very fair but she has suddenly decided she loves her pink sun hat and is wearing it willingly! Cover her in cream and keep encouraging the hat.

How old is she?

You need to start young and be stronger willed than they are. Honestly if every single time she takes the hat off, you put it back on eventually she will get used to the idea that she has no choice.

If just once, you give in....

But, if you don't it won't take more than a few days before she's just used to the idea that, if she's outside when the sun's shining she wears a hat.

Yes, you can plaster her head and every other inch of her in sunscreen. I have to do this with my little red head.
I am trying to enforce the hat rule and play in the shade, I am also trying to model the hat rule by wearing one myself.
But the most effective thing seems to be to keep my 13-month olds hands occupied with things to suck, bite, chew etc.

I think this is battle you have to win. Get her to choose a special one? Put elastic on it? Say you are not going out without a hat? Bring her in if she takes it off? At nursery or school the children who naturally wear hats have the most fun. Their play isn't constantly being interrupted by 'put your hat back on!'

1. appeal to vanity

every time she has her hat on squeal 'ooh you look so pretty'. enlist grandparents etc

1. peer pressure

make sure you, dh and anyone else in your party wear their hats.

1. hard lines

hat on or stay in the pushchair

How old is she? If a toddler, I loved Libby Purves' advice: making no comment at all, you wander round in her hat for half an hour before going out. She will be desperate to wear it!

with my little ones I told them they had no choice. with my two year old on the first sunny day of the year we had a battle, she kept taking it off and i put it back on...possibly about 60 times on first day but it did the trick! she didn't bother to battle against it after that!

Have you tried wetting the hat? dd1 would not wear her has when we took her to Spain @ 16 months old, unless it was wet. It kept her cooler I think.

When my ds was a toddler he wouldn't wear a hat. I used to tie a scarf on this head (a bandana type one) This would work really well as it would cover the top of his head and forehead and was more difficult for him to remove.

DD is like this too and she wears a kind of floaty gypsy scarf thing. It was mine which makes it most appealing to her. Also has the advantage of being tied on so doesn't even fall off when she hangs upside down on the climbing frame.

Progress Yesterday spent putting the damn thing back on about 80 times. Today no resistance. Yay!

Yeah! Thats great!