Why do people use car seats as baby carriers?

[Polestar50]

Genuine question.
I have fairly recently has a baby and have only just noticed that most parents use their car seats to carry their babies if walking a short distance (in and out of baby classes etc.)

It hadn’t occurred to me to do that. I just get my baby out and carry him in my arms, which seems much easier to me. He normally stays asleep snuggled up to me.
I find it much more comfortable to have him in my arms than to carry a bulky heavy car seat around and it’s not as though you can leave them in the car seat for any length of time once inside so what is the benefit?

AIBU to think that faffing around with a car seat is much more difficult and uncomfortable, for both parents and baby, or is there some advantage that I’m not seeing here ?

‘I really needed 2 hands for something I'd put them on the floor on top of my coat or ask someone to hold them.’

A woman at the doctors did this and everyone was mortified as she almost forgot her baby and somebody almost caught the baby whilst walking swiftly past! I think this is quite dangerous... maybe she should have just taken the car seat. Car seats are great if used as they’re intended and baby is not left in it for too long which I don’t think anybody is saying that they do. For instance somebody commented on a baby group. Well they are relatively short and most people do get the baby out whilst there.

Different car seats are different weights. I used to wonder how on earth people lugged them all over then I got a new pram which came with a different car seat and i couldn’t believe the difference. The new car seat was so lovely and light and then I understood. Maybe the people who don’t like their car seats possibly hace heavier types like I had....just a thought.

I had twins so I had to carry them in their car seats! Two wrIGGLy babies was not an option! Two heavy car seats was a great workout too!:)

The 0-3 month car seat was very good and safe. As long as baby is checked and made comfortable.

I never carried my dc from a to b. I think I always took car seat or pram. Plus mine were close together so it was probably safer

I know of a teacher who says she can identify which children have spent long periods of time in car seats as babies, by their posture

What utter bollocks.

Sometimes I took the car seat. Sometimes I took the pram. Sometimes I took the carrier. Sometimes I carried. 🤷‍♀️

Dd (3 months) has a lay flat car seat so I use that as a pram. It means she can stay asleep, can manage doors, walking, etc and there is less risk of her being dropped etc. She will soon shout if she wants to get out (and stand).
Holding a wiggly baby for any length of time gets awkward!
I use a sling if needed too.

I purposely refused to buy a car seat as I hated the thought of carrying a huge seat around. I too never understood why people would carry around a car seat. Although the hospital were horrified when I told them we didn’t have a carry car seat and we had to walk out with our LG. Xxx

I have to say circumstances for me were the same as a pp .. I'm short and every single car seat was too heavy empty and grazing on the carpet in Mothercare! Also, to all the people who are in the "baby's asleep i'll take the whole carseat out" brigade - you do know babies go back to sleep don't you?!!!!

I purposely refused to buy a car seat as I hated the thought of carrying a huge seat around

Well obviously that’s fine if you don’t use a car . We rarely did either with DD1 as we lived in a city. We now live semi rurally with 3 buses a day to the nearest town, we need a car (and therefore a car seat).

"baby's asleep i'll take the whole carseat out" brigade - you do know babies go back to sleep don't you?!!!!grin

Mine didn’t. Not for a few hours (mainly spent either attached to my boob or screaming) anyway. Once she woke up that was it. And for a baby who only ever slept in half hour blocks, that half hour was precious!

I would say most babies wouldn't go back to sleep until their next naptime and many would be in a grump until then having been woken prematurely.

Especially good for traipsing round the supermarket, i swear there even used to be trollies designed to put your car seat on (although i havent seen one lately, and my children are in their teens now )

My local Sainsburys has 4 of them. 1 is really old and the baby ends up really high up the other 3 are much lower and easier to use.
Brilliant when your baby is too wee to sit in a standard trolley.

I'd also agree that neither of my babies would go back to sleep if disturbed. DC1 was a tired crank for much of babyhood.
DC2 taught me what a nontired baby is like.

"baby's asleep i'll take the whole carseat out" brigade - you do know babies go back to sleep don't you?!!!!grin

No. She did not go back to sleep.

Gosh, I never actually thought that would explaining to anyone. Only on mumsnet.

@stupomax out of 10 babies only 1 actually wouldn't go straight back off! Did you ever actually try? My first niece was left in her carseat a lot and at the geriatric age of 23 has a bad back!

Did you ever actually try?

Oh dear lord. The stupid on here is astonishing.

But to reassure you, she's now 17, she's 6'1 and she has beautiful posture. She also doesn't cry 24 hours a day any more either. Which is nice.

baby's asleep i'll take the whole carseat out" brigade - you do know babies go back to sleep don't you?

I wish I had had one of those magic babies that went back to sleep when woken.

Me too sparkling lol no two babies are the same. When ds was a newborn my dm who said she’d ‘had three dc before and would find it no problem and wouldn’t listen to my instructions ’ babysat once and never again. She remarked afterwards ‘all babies really are different aren’t they?’

Yes I remember putting a car seat across the trolley

You were so grateful if they were asleep in my experience so yes to leaving in car seat for a little while but the car journey was never very far normally.

My ed was in a baby walker w d a bouncer hung for. the door, probably worse for posture

I carry my babies everywhere I've never carried them round in a car seat, they're too heavy!

Exactly Woodall and you’re right bouncers and walkers are terrible for babies pelvis and not advised by the nhs. They don’t even help the baby walk or anything ans infact can delay movement. I’m surprised they’re still allowed to sell them. Maybe some of the posters who mentioned adults with bad backs may have used those as they did used to be very popular back in the day.

are*

For me its:

1. So as not to wake them up
2. Easier to strap in/unstrap when facing me
3. In cold weather they cannot wear coats/thick jackets in car seats so you can pop a blanket on them to keep them warm rather than exposing them to the cold and putting coats on/off a wriggling baby while standing next to the car.
4. Somewhere safe to put them down.