How to survive summer with your baby intact

The title of this post may be a little misleading.

It should be called 'how to help you baby stay cool when it's stupidly hot'.

When we lived in Taiwan last year it was rather warm. I struggled to keep my baby comfortable in the sometimes stifling heat. One of the best things I did was make him a pram liner, and I absolutely swear by its effectiveness in keeping a baby cooler.

Modern prams are made from amazing engineered synthetic fabrics that keep them looking pretty great for years but the downside is that they can be rather hot. They don't breathe the way a cotton or linen fabric would.

We had purchased a car seat liner that was cotton but it was filled with polyester stuffing, so it was hot. I knew from the car seat liner experience that padding wasn't the way to go for a pram liner. I wanted it to be cool, padded and absorbent. The solution? A colourful cotton bath towel from ikea and some lovely heavy Japanese cotton fabric. Just the two layers.

To make one, all you have to do is remove your seat fabric from your pram as though you are going to wash it, trace the shape directly onto the towel, marking all the seat belt holes as you go. Cut it out, cut out your top fabric to match and then sew them 95% up with right sides facing one another. Turn it right way out, sew up the last 5% and then sew giant button holes for each of the belt holes. Cut them open, fit it to your pram and voila! You have made a unique, absorbent and cool pram liner to keep your little one smiling through summer.

It's colourful, it keeps the pram clean (an added bonus) and most importantly it keeps baby cool on hot days.

(The other bonus is that you can easily spot your own pram amongst the sea of bugaboos when leaving a shop, cafe or mothers group.)