When the summer sun is out, new parents are of course going to want to take their newborns out for a stroll. But have you ever been the mom who sees her little one squinting from the sun or potentially burning and decided to put an end to their suffering with a muslin cloth? Well, one mom on YouTube is spreading the message that this parenting hack is actually a big no-no. In fact, parents JK and Charlie, from the YouTube channel Channel Mum, proved that putting a cloth or blanket over your baby's stroller to help shield them from the sun can actually be seriously dangerous for your baby. That's because it traps warm air and quickly makes the temperature inside a stroller rise to a potentially dangerous levels.
In their video, the parents warn why covering a stroller or car seat when it's hot out is such a BIG mistake.
The instinct to cover your stroller's hood is normal, Charlie explained in the video, which has been viewed more than 16,000 times. "If it's really hot and you're going for a walk in the park or something and the idea of your baby getting too hot in the [stroller], or perhaps getting burned, or getting the UVA/UVB rays is really scary."
Many parents want to protect their babies from the sun so they grab muslin cloths because they are lightweight and often light-colored, so they seem breezy. But the truth is, they may be doing more harm than good.
They proved their point with an experiment testing just how much of difference the muslin cloth makes.
According to JK, the couple set up a baby doll in their family's stroller with a thermometer at the doll's side and did two trials: one with the muslin and one without. They did both experiments within an hour so that the heat would be the about the same throughout both trials and they placed the stroller in full sun. The starting temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius (or about 86 degrees Fahrenheit), which is a typical hot, summer's day.
They first tested the stroller's temperature without any cover.
"We started with the [stroller] open, just the normal [stroller]," JK explained in the video. They left "Baby James" in the sun for a full seven minutes so that they had their control variable (the temperature outside of the stroller).
Then they measured the temperature again, after seven minutes spent with the muslin cloth on top of the stroller.
After about seven minutes in the sun, the temperature in the stroller was much hotter. The temperature went from 30 degrees Celsius to about 35.1 degrees Celsius (or from about 86 degrees to about a whopping, 95 degrees Fahrenheit), which on a bright and sunny day can make the temperature go from uncomfortable to life-threatening for a baby.
And if that wasn't bad enough, JK and Charlie said they could only imagine what would happen if they ran the experiment for longer.
"If we had left that going or another 10 minutes, 15 minutes … God knows how hot that would have got in there," Charlie wondered. "It just highlights why we should never — don't ever put these [muslin cloths] over your [stroller]," she warned.
According to Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a Seattle pediatrician who runs the blog Seattle Mama Doc, placing a blanket over a stroller creates a greenhouse effect that can cause heatstroke or death. And Dr. Sarah Adams, a pediatrician at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, agreed, adding that a big problem is that parents can't see their babies to monitor their breathing. "You are stopping the circulation of the air," she told The Today Show, "which will impact the baby’s breathing and temperature.”
The doctors warned that there are several ways to best ways to protect your baby during a hot day in the sun, such as:
-Keep the stroller in shade.
-Use an umbrella to protect your baby's eyes from the sun because it won't block the air from ventilation.
-Use a stroller that has a canopy top so air can flow through.
-Don't go outside on extremely hot days.
-And check on your baby every 10 to 15 minutes if you're taking them for a walk or jog.
"Look at your child and their response. … if their cheeks are flushed, if they’re sweating, if they’re warm to the touch, that’s probably too hot," Swanson warned. She also said that irritability or lethargy are also tell-tale signs that baby is too hot and warned that "any change in their breathing, particularly rapid breathing," is a sign that something is wrong.
The video received a lot of positive feedback from parents, who were shocked but thankful to learn the truth about this misconception.
"That's shocking," one user on YouTube wrote.
"It is so dangerous, we have never done it, hope this video stretches far and wide to make people aware," wrote another user.
But for Charlie and JK, they hope that they've proven to parents that putting muslin cloths on the stroller is not a good idea. "It's a mistake that lots of parents make," Charlie said in the video. "We did it with our first baby, because we didn't know any better. But I think this really, really highlights why you should never put these over your [stroller]."
