Parents are being urged not to drape blankets over their baby’s pram after an experiment showed how rapidly the buggy can heat up.
The experiment, which was captured on film, shows a pram heating up to a sweltering 37C after being left in the sunshine for just 20 minutes.
Blankets are often used by parents to protect their babies from the sun – a practice that experts say could lead to heatstroke and sudden infant death syndrome.
Former paediatrician and now forensic scientist and specialist in child deaths, Torleiv Ole Rognum, told broadcaster TV2: “It gets extremely hot down in the pram, something like a thermos. There is also bad circulation of the air and it is hard to see the baby with a cover over the pram.”
Torleiv added: “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.”
Sudden infant death syndrome, commonly known as cot death, kills almost 300 babies in the UK each year.
Babies in hot conditions are more at risk from the syndrome, as well as heatstroke, because they are unable to regulate their body temperature.
Torleiv said: “We must dare to speak out … in an orderly way when we think someone is doing something completely wrong.”