Warm weather
Mesh, a blanket or a rain cover on the stroller
Three things get draped over a stroller hood in summer and only one of them lets air through.
The muslin problem
Draping a cloth over the hood is the oldest trick in the park and it does the opposite of what it looks like. The cloth blocks light and it also blocks the air moving through, so the stroller turns into a small closed box in the sun.
A Swedish newspaper measured this with a thermometer in an empty stroller. In the shade it read about 72 degrees. Half an hour later, with a thin cover over the hood, it read about 93. Nothing about the cloth looked heavy, and the reading still moved.
What open mesh does instead
A net is holes held together by thread. Air goes through it, light is cut by the shade panel rather than by the mesh, and insects stay out because the holes are smaller than they are. The point is not that mesh is cooler than cloth by some amount. The point is that it is not a lid.
The mesh has to be held out, though. A net lying flat on a face is doing a completely different job from a net standing off on a ring, and the difference is the frame, not the fabric.
Checking a net once it is on
Run a finger round the whole rim, especially down at the feet where the gap usually opens up. That is where a mosquito gets in and it is also where a net drags loose and slides inward.
Look at where the mesh sits over the face from the side, not from above. From above every net looks like it is standing clear.
Rain covers are a third thing
A rain cover is deliberately airtight, which is correct for rain and wrong for everything else. It should go on when it starts and come off when it stops, and it should not stay on through a bright afternoon because it might rain later.
If it is raining and warm at once, that is the worst case for a closed cover, and it is worth stopping under a roof rather than walking on with the stroller sealed.
A cooling pad is not a cold pack
Gel pads that work without a freezer feel cold on the first touch and then match the child sitting on them, which is the honest description of contact cooling. They take the sting out of a hot seat liner. They do not air condition a stroller.
Shade, moving air and stopping earlier than planned do more than anything you can lay on the seat, and that is true of ours as much as anyone else.
Open weave, held off the face
Nets and shades with their own ring or frame, so the mesh stays clear of your child.
