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 am quite small and struggled to carry a baby very far in a car seat. However even I would do it if the baby was asleep in it.

My DS was never in his car seat for long but I did carry him into where I was going in his car seat. As PP said its something to put him down in safely. Also my DS would be fine getting clipped into his car seat when I did it inside and carried him out but if I did it in the car he would kick off. He's still a nightmare to clip in his car seat. I do miss his baby seat.

I rarely used mine out of the car to be honest - they're too big and bulky to carry comfortably for me so I used to leave it in the car and take the baby out.

However DD2 has few talents - but sleeping like the dead is one of them and once asleep you could take her out of the car seat, into the pushchair, out of the pushchair, remove her clothing, instigate an apocalypse... and she'd still not wake up. She's still about 75% sloth now.

5000KallaxHoles I’m hoping my DC3 is part sloth . I’ve had 2 DC who think sleep is for the weak so far!

I use mine to carry him into nursery to pick up dd1. I did the sling when popping into the shop at the same time but if I’m literally getting out of car, into nursery and back out into car - the unloading and loading while controlling a toddler in a busy car park isn’t worth it - easier to get a few bruises. I also have to hold dd1s hand and nursery bag and keys so without sling/car seat wouldn’t work.

I'm like you I find it much easier to take baby out and carry in my arms...but ive got a bad back and find the car seat too awkward and heavy. I'm much slower and clumsy with a car seat

They are awkward to carry but if my son was asleep in his I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of lifting him out without waking him so that’s why I’ve carried ours in the past.

I used to take my baby out - the car seat stayed in the car. That said, I used a sling so was mostly hands free even when carrying the baby, plus if she woke up while getting her out of the car she'd soon go back to sleep in the sling. That sling saw nearly 3 years of use all for the grand sum of £30 - I know some babies don't like them so they're not a catch all solution but I certainly did love mine.

I bought a pushchair where the car seat was part of it, you the car seat on the frame and used it as a pram, that been said I had a different car seat for my car, a big bulky one that stays in my car and never gets taken out, this was just useful for if I was in someone else's car as I then had a portable car seat. If I knew it was going to be a long day and my DS would be in it for a long time I put the bassinet attachment on the pushchair instead. It worked well for us. It is all about what works for you, I found that using the portable one as both difficult as I have back problems and having to fasten it in every time I put my DD in the car made it worse, which is why we did it this way round the second time. It is all about what works for you and your baby.

Duskqueen can understand if you are putting on frame so you are not carrying it, it's the carry it around with the baby in especially when they have an older baby.

I never took the car seat out of the car, I don't know if this was because my babies were all 9lb plus baby at birth, having a bad back meant I could carry the 10lb baby plus the 30lb weight of the car seat.

Everyone just needs to do what works for them and their baby. When you have one small to think about yes it probably is easier to carry them esp if u are going straight into a baby class and all your attention is going to be on them. If you are going shopping or errands it's not easy to carry the baby and do multiple other tasks. Taking an older child to a group you need somewhere safe for the baby as you need t concentrate on the older child. Doctors if the appointment is for baby it might be easier to hold the baby, if it's for an older child who needs support and comfort during the appointment you need somewhere safe to keep the baby.

fn.bmj.com/content/early/2016/09/30/archdischild-2016-310730

I used to get DS1 out of his car seat and stick him in the sling, as I had back problems making the seat too heavy to lug around. He'd stay asleep throughout though.

DS2 would wake and scream blue murder if I got him out of his seat. My back was a lot better by then, so he stayed in his seat where possible. Only time I regretted it was when I put his seat down in the carpet in the GPs waiting room and several fleas jumped onto his head off the carpet... That probably a fairly unusual 'con' for the list though.

Babies shouldn't be in their car seat for more than 30 mins and shouldn't really nap in them.

That's why I bought a car seat that stayed in the car as opposed to a carry one and just put my DD in the prom instead when we got out of the car.

I thought it was 2 hours max?

They shouldn’t nap in them if they’re napping for less than 30 mins?
Newborns shouldn’t be in them for more than 30 mins.

Loads of interesting answers and perspectives!

Agree with everything my2bundles says above, especially that “Everyone just needs to do what works for them and their baby”

Thinking about it a bit more, I had a c section so couldn’t carry the baby and car seat for 6 weeks so I think I just got in the habit of carrying him and never taking the car seat out of the car. Didn’t mean to drip feed btw, just forgot that (admittedly important) detail

I can see that using the car seat would be useful in some circumstances and may well start to do this a bit from now on. Especially appreciated the comments about car seats getting very hot if left in the car and that babies can’t regulate their temp very well. I feel a bit of an arse now for putting my baby in a baking hot car seat unnecessarily and will definitely be taking it in and out on v hot days from now on.

Still don’t think I’ll leave him to sleep in it though.I really don’t like the way his head is squashed down into his chest in the car seat and my instinct is to get him out of that position as quickly as possible. That link is v useful nocoolnamesleft.

To answer a PP’s question, my baby is 10 weeks so still v little and is pretty chilled so I’m lucky I can just chuck him over my shoulder as needed. Also, only having the one, I definitely have the luxury of making him the centre of everything. I can see how this would change if I had a toddler to consider as well.

And finally, I think I just like carrying him and feeling him in my arms and sitting or sleeping in my lap at a group even if it makes things a bit awkward sometimes. But can completely understand the benefits of having your hands free and being able to easily pop to the loo etc so (genuinely) no judgey pants here towards those who do it differently.

Thanks again for all the answers!

Do you have 1 child? Or older kids? Because I had a 17mths and a baby and it was far easier to put baby in carseat!

Car seats are for cars. I've stuck by that after having my preemie.
Yes I took her out the car seat sleeping or not.
I used a sling a lot
I used a lightweight buggy that flipped open with one arm.
We never did more than 1.5-2hr journeys without a good break.

That included going into shops as well! I hate travel systems. Its about convenience without consideration for health

I always found it easier to strap baby into car seat in the house or wherever we were and carry the car seat out to car, it is very time consuming getting to car, taking baby coat/jacket off, putting baby into seat, tightening straps, strapping car seat into car...imagine doing all of this in bucketing rain. At least if you have the baby in the car seat prior to leaving the house then they have their blankets all on and tucked up there for not getting cold in the cooler weather and not getting wet in the rain.

My DD carries her babies and I do as well. I find that some people react with horror at the thought of carrying them, using a sling and picking them up out of the pram etc when they cry, as though they have to be trained out of wanting cuddles.

However, as said, all babies are different.

""my baby is 10 weeks so still v little and is pretty chilled""

That's going to change so much in the next six weeks. For some first time Parents when they 'wake up' they get a bit of a shock and have panic moments about not knowing what to do with them.

I often carry DS around in the carseat because I don't have any other option, ie if we've popped somewhere in a taxi or got a lift. It's not always convenient (or useful!) to take the pram base with us (if I'm going somewhere where there's steps or if its a very short walk, the travel system base is more faff than its worth).

It's interesting, I recently had a baby and the hospital told me the guidelines have changed again and it's now advised baby's spend a max of 30 mins in the seats and then are removed (they didn't state how long the break needed to be) so for most trips a car journey would eat into that 30 mins very quickly.
I actually agree and think babies should be flat or carried so personally have never used a car seat on pushchair and prefer the non 'carrier' style car seats, because I feel newborns are scrunched up in most carrier seats, but I did point out there appears to be nothing to back this advice up. There's no documented spine problems or breathing issues so why exactly are the recommendations changing?
I agree with you OP I prefer to keep mine close to me.

Having said that, he's just about to grow out of his baby carseat (13 months now) so I'll have to trade up to a big and bulky car seat and I am dreading lumbering that around!!