Tuesday, 12 June 2012
-
Beating the Heat With Babies
As some of you know, I live in North Pole, Alaska. Most people expect it to be cold here, but they don't expect for it to be hot. Summer temperatures normally range between 70 and 90 degrees, which feels really hot after a long winter of below 0 temperatures! On top of that, it is usually dry, so there are days when we can't go outside with kids due to wildfire smoke.Here are some of the things we do to stay cool:
-Open the windows in the morning and shut them before it warms up in the afternoon
-Lots and lots of frozen teethers
-Sippy cups with refrigerated formula, juice, or water
-Cold snacks like blueberries or frozen bananas
-Cheap little outdoor pool filled with cold water and toys (when we can go outside)
-Frequent clothing changes (nothing is worse than being hot and wet!)I know that other people in the country live in these types of conditions, so what are your tips for staying cool with your babies?
RecommendRelated Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to momaroo's Momaroo Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in momaroo's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: LupusInvictus@xanga
- About Me: I live in North Pole Alaska. I garden and cook. I am not good at either.
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 9 Views: 0 21448 Comments: 0 151 View all posts by LupusInvictus@xanga
Comments (7)
Let them play with spray bottles (preferrably the ones that mist more than spray so you do not have dripping water everywhere) which does wonders when the house is 87 degrees because the AC ALWAYS breaks right before a heat wave... or you forget to check the breaker box first...
When my youngest was six months old during said incident, I dampened a flat diaper and put it in the freezer for several minutes. I wrapped it around him and plopped him in front of the fan on the floor.
I also run away to the mall if I feel up to taking the twenty-minute walk with the children in 110 degree weather with humidity and the traffic is not too terrible so I can cross the road more easily.
im thankful for my central air (but we don't turn it on until its really hot).. and a big shaded back yard..
we bought a big kiddie pool a couple weeks ago.. and a sprinkler..
one thing I found helps keep the house cool is white curtains.. we keep all our windows open but i shut the curtains.. this way the cool breeze comes in, but the white reflects the sun away from the house..
I bought some inexpensive sippy cups, filled them about 1/3 with water and freeze them.. then add juice. My kids love it!
I also just let them run around in a diaper (or underwear for our son)... keeps them cool and they think its fun.
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - lol, we have bad mosquitoes, too. My baby has so many bites that I actually thought he had chicken pox one morning! But at least they tend to die down during the hottest part of the day!
@snarkius@xanga - The mall! Great idea, only we don't have a mall here! But the grocery store is ACed....maybe we should go shopping a few times a week :)
@LadyGwenivere@xanga - You know, I've been avoiding buying curtains for over a year now...at first I said, well it's dark all the time anyway, then I said, we're putting a new door in so I'll wait, then I said maybe we'll move...But maybe it is time to finally accept the truth and buy some.
@LupusInvictus@xanga - Aww man when my son was a few months old one morning I got him out his crib and thought he had somehow broken his wrist in the middle of the night. I took him to the dr and it turned out his wrist was swollen from edema due to a reaction to several mosquito bites he had acquired during the night (apparently a few mosquitoes got in the house that day and went right for him). I bought a freaking mosquito net for his crib that day. Never again.
Here in sunny So Cal we don't have the humidity and mosquitoes (yikes!) as bad, so we do a lot of outdoor water play (though a bathtub indoors subs rather well, too), including going to local parks with water features. We also start frequenting air conditioned places that are kid-friendly-- the mall, play places in the mall or fast food chains, indoor playgrounds, the library, public pools (not air-conditioned, obviously!), etc.
I think if we did have mosquitoes, I would invent in one of those mesh canopy tents meant for camping. That would be a safer way to play outdoors in the water and such.
We get nasty heat as well. In my grandmother's time, before air conditioning, they'd open their windows at night and let in the cool air, and in the morning close them. The houses would stay pretty much cool through out the day. I think they would now too, but we don't live in the same time, as we all know, safety is more of an issue. When it hits 100 degrees, I can feel the difference than when it's in the 90's. But then winter comes, and I start griping about how cold it is!!! I should be grateful for the seasons, especially the fall, with the glorious colors, and stop complaining at all. My kids are half filipino, and heat to them is nothing. They hate air conditioning, and I remember when my son had a job four miles from where he was working, he rode his bike to work and back in the summer heat. Never bothered him a bit.