To wonder about babies in car seats?

[Starryskiesinthesky]

Reading on another thread that a baby shouldn't be in a car seat more than 30 minutes. What are you meant to do then? Am i being thick?!

@paradyning....thank you. My baby cannot swallow his own spit...very complex. Hoping the PEG will really help! (12month waiting list sadly!)
Hope your little one is doing well now 😊

The problem with lie flat seats is they aren't as safe as the usual ones. In a seat that sits up, the impact in a crash is absorbed by pushing the infant's body into the car seat, spreading the load.

In a lie flat seat, all the impact is either absorbed on one side (for side facing lie flat seats) or in their shoulders (for rear facing lie flat seats). God forbid the straps not be tight enough in one of these seats because the infant's head could become where the load of the impact is spread. It's for this reason that ERF seats are safer in the most upright position your child is able to use.

The only reason infant seats are not as upright is because newborns' breathing would be restricted by being too upright (and the risk of head lolling is very high in newborns because they lack the neck strength to keep their own airways unrestricted).

So yes, a baby can breathe more easily lying flat than at an incline, but they would be less safe in the event of a crash, so it's a balancing act. As long as parents are informed of the risks then surely it's a personal choice. Same as almost every other parenting decision really.

Harm coming to your child from being in a car seat too long isn’t a definite, it’s a risk. The advice is to avoid this risk. Just like the advice to put babies to sleep on their backs rather than their fronts, to sterilise bottles that have contained formula milk, to keep the baby in your room until 6 months etc. Most babies will be fine, but there is a risk that they won’t be.

to sterilise bottles that have contained formula milk

Oh, just noticed you specifically say formula milk. I feed ds a lot of expressed milk from a bottle. Do those bottles not have to be sterilised? Sorry to latch on to this teeny comment and hijack. I’m a little desperate for any info which might mean less sterilising !

The only reason I explicitly said formula milk is because formula powder isn’t sterile, hence the advice to make bottles up with water over a particular temperature and to sterilise bottles that have contained formula even after 6 months.
Mine would never ever take a bottle so I’m not 100% on the rules re sterilising, I’ve just seen on here before about formula milk!

Bottle wise a good scrub in hot soapy water is fine for expressed milk.

Have you got any microwave sterilising bags? They're a life saver.

We microwaved DGS' bottles in the vegetable steamer. Now he's started crawling and licking the floor we just wash them with the rest of the crockery.

spanneroo some have a lie flat feature to be used out of the car only which would be the better option for those who want to use a travel system.

Spanneroo that's not correct. The car seat I have has a slatted base designed to absorb the energy to counter the lie flat problem. I'm fairly sure that they have to pass tests in both modes too.

Bottle wise a good scrub in hot soapy water is fine for expressed milk.

Ooooooh this is very exciting news for me!

I don’t have any of those steriliser bags, but I have a steam steriliser, which does the same thing.