Hack your routine to stay cool when it’s hot

Trying to parent through a very hot day is hard, especially if your home becomes too warm and uncomfortable. You need to manage the everyday routine tasks of napping, eating and staying busy while also dealing with the heat for yourself and your child.

Parenting is a big mental load at the best of times, and research shows us that hot weather (and especially heatwaves) can make complex thinking harder than usual.

That brain fuzz you feel as the temperature rises has been noted and studied by scientists who found that ‘heat stress’ caused by an increase in temperature affects areas of the brain that handle complex tasks.[1] So, don’t beat yourself up if things feel a bit more difficult over the next few days.

Here at My First Five Years, we have been sharing lots of ideas for keeping cool, no matter your plans, in our app. One of the things we know is that routines are important for some children, but they can be so hard to keep to on days that feel different to normal.

It’s easy to feel stressed or worried when your child’s routine goes out the window, but don’t let this make you feel like you have failed in any way. It’s only temporary, and we all need to make adjustments for the heat.

If you’re feeling like you need to mix it up a bit to get through the day, do it! Sometimes it is actually easier to keep parts of your usual routine in the mix, but you can tailor it to the circumstances.

Some simple ways to change it up that might help you all keep your cool in the heat include:

• Take naptime outside. Find a shaded space, under some trees is perfect, and set up some blankets to create a cool nap space for your baby or child. Take a book or your phone, or do nothing at all, and enjoy the break in nature. This is also an ideal way to spend longer out and about in shaded spaces, without feeling you have to rush home to sleep.
• Have a picnic instead of cooking. Embrace the summer feeling and have picnic-style meals which don’t require lots of cooking. It will be an exciting twist on lunch and dinner for your child and means you don’t have to turn the oven on once.
• Have a bath or shower in the day! A cool-ish bath or shower will make everyone feel better, and there is no reason baths have to be exclusive to bedtime. Pop in some fun toys, put on some music, take a drink with you or even some frozen fruit lollies, and enjoy a chance to splash around indoors. (It is important not to make the bath cold, or add any ice, as dropping your child’s body temperature drastically can be dangerous. Keep the bath just a little cooler than you would on a usual day.)
  
  Reference:
  [1] Taylor, L., Watkins, Samuel L., Marshall, H., Dascombe, Ben J., Foster, J. (2016) ‘The Impact of Different Environmental Conditions on Cognitive Function: A Focused Review’ in Frontiers in Physiology. Available online: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2015.00372