Seeing a parent pushing a pushchair with a blanket draped over it is a fairly common sight. However, Dr Svante Norgren, a leading paediatrician at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, has warned it could potentially be fatal.
Speaking to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper he said “It would quickly become uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for the child… if a child gets too hot then the child may think that it is back in the womb, which is why breathing may stop,”
An experiment was conducted by the newspaper to see how hot it could get inside a stroller. The experiment involved leaving the pushchair out in the sun between 11:30 – 1pm on a warm day.
Initially left uncovered the temperature did not rise above 22C. A thin cover was then placed over the pushchair. After 30 minutes the heat inside had risen 34C. An hour after it was a sweltering 37C.
Dr Norgren warned that this method of providing shade was actually increasing the dangers. The risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is dramatically increased when a young baby is exposed to intense heat.
