An Adelaide woman who left her sleeping child in a car on a 41.8 degrees Celsius day while she went shopping is a "loving mother" who should not be jailed for an "aberration", her lawyer has told the District Court.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of aggravated creating risk of serious harm.

She left her three-year-old son in a car while she went shopping in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs in February 2014 on an extremely hot day.

The woman claimed she forgot her sleeping son but the prosecution alleged she deliberately left him in the car because she thought he would be in a bad mood if she woke him.

Prosecutor Andrew Fowler-Walker told the court the crime was "sufficiently serious" to warrant a custodial sentence but did not oppose it being suspended.

"Without intervention by other people at the shopping centre it's more than likely this child would have died," he said.

"The accused maintains her not guilty version that she forgot her child thereby not accepting the finding of guilt by the jury."

The woman's lawyer, Adam Gaite, told the court his client was a loving mother who was stressed and grieving the death of her nephew at the time of the offence.

"It's an offence that falls into the lower end of the scale and an offence that was an aberration," Mr Gaite said.

"She's not a person that is a risk to her children."

Mr Gaite said although it was accepted the child was at risk of harm, the boy did not suffer any injuries.

Mother 'affected' by trial and publicity

He said his client had been affected by the publicity surrounding her case.

"[My client] does not at all revel in that," he said.

"It is particularly stressful for her to be having to deal with the trial and the publicity.

"It was perhaps a case of importance because of the necessity to ensure that in Adelaide, or anywhere else, children aren't left in cars on hot days, or left in cars at all really.

"But she's had to bear the brunt of that publicity and there has been unhappy social media activity directed towards her."

Judge Julie McIntyre will sentence the woman next month.