Mum warns against covering your baby’s pram with a muslin cloth in the heatwave… after experiment proved temperature inside soared 13 degrees in seven minutes
PARENT bloggers tested just how dangerous shielding babies in prams during hot weather was... and the results are set to shock you.
Parents-of-two JK and Charlie carried out two controlled tests over two seven-minute time spans.
On one occasion the pram, which contained a doll, was covered by a muslin cloth and on one occasion it was not.
They then posted the results of their experiment on the channel.
The experiment showed the pram heat up significantly more when covered by the muslin.
JK and Charlie placed a toy doll in a pram in direct sunlight in their back garden on a day on which temperatures reached 30 degrees.
Over a period of seven minutes, when left open and uncovered, the pram heated up from 23.3 degrees to 29.9 degrees - an increase of just over 6.5 degrees.
But over the same amount of time, when covered by a muslin cloth, the pram heated up from 22.0 degrees to a sweltering 35.1 degrees - heating up by 13 degrees.
The video has already been watched more than 1,000 times on the Channel Mum YouTube channel.
Is it safe to cover your baby's pram in the heatwave?
Some parents fear their baby will overheat and suffocate if they cover the pram.
While others think they are doing the right thing by shielding them from harmful UV rays.
The sweltering temperatures have left many parents wondering how best to protect their baby from the heat.
We spoke to Dr Rahul Chodhari, from the Royal College of Paediatrics to find out the truth...and offer advice to worried parents.
"It is OK to cover them because most prams have enough ventilation," he said.
"The highest risk of overheating is between 11am and 3pm, which is when the sun is at it's strongest.
"When NHS England has declared a heat wave warning, and there are three levels of this, a level three warning is when we expect significant dehydration.
"That is the time I would say parents need to be careful and avoid going out between 11am and 3pm."
Dr Chodhari said the key is to consider what you're covering the pram with.
Opting for thick, woollen blankets can cause the pram to become "considerably warm".
He added: "Generally a cover isn't a risk if it's thin, mesh material."
Mum Charlie said: "That is a good five degrees hotter with the muslin cloth on than without it - and we only did that for seven minutes.
"If we had left that going for another 10 minutes, or 15 minutes, God knows how hot it would have got in there."
She added: "It's a mistake that lots of parents make. 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 pram."
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