13 year old watching newborn

[Newmum99653]

Am I being unreasonable?

I am not comfortable with our 13 year old DSD watching our newborn whilst we do jobs around the house. Personally my priority is the safety of the newborn and anything can happen quickly (choking, falling, suffocating) if not being watched properly. E.g. I came down and DSD was on phone whilst “watching” newborn whilst I was upstairs and DP was in the kitchen.

My DP on the other hand doesn’t see the problem in this at all.

My view is DSD can hold feed cuddle newborn as much as she wants but whilst we are supervising.
Am I being unreasonable?

I dont have a clue. All I know is that you werent meant to leave babies in car seats for more than. 2 hours

It's currently 30 minutes

The "30-minute rule" for newborns in car seats is not a formal law, but rather a clinical guideline that has evolved in response to emerging research, particularly from the 2015–2020 period onward.
🕰️ Timeline of Development:
📍Before 2010:

• The general advice was the "2-hour rule" for all infants.
• Car seats were commonly used for long periods, even for sleep and feeding.

📍2010–2015:

• Increased focus on positional asphyxia and SIDS risk led to scrutiny of car seat usage.
• Studies started identifying problems with oxygen saturation in car seats during prolonged use.

📍2015–2017:

• UK-based studies (e.g., by the University of Bristol & Great Western Hospitals NHS) found that infants under 4 weeks showed signs of oxygen desaturation and bradycardia after just 30 minutes in a car seat.
• These findings led several NHS Trusts to revise their discharge and travel advice for newborns.

📍2017–2020:

• Hospitals began issuing newborn discharge instructions limiting car seat use to 30 minutes at a time.
• The Lullaby Trust and similar organizations began referencing shorter timeframes for very young babies.
• Some car seat manufacturers started including similar warnings in their product manuals.

📍2020–Present:

• The 30-minute guideline is now commonly included in:
• UK NHS hospital policies
• NICU discharge protocols
• Public health campaigns about safe infant travel
• It’s increasingly acknowledged across Europe and North America, especially for infants under 4 weeks or preemies

So very recently really this 30 mins advice. Wasn't give when my DGS was born 8 years ago

This is ridiculous. I was on my phone sometimes while baby was on the floor playing with toys.

My eldest is 7 so this makes sense

However the ops baby is a newborn so if I had this advice 7 and 4 yes ago surely she knows it now?

Most likely as I said my DD didn't get given it for her 8 year old.

But it was more in reply to the " shock horror" reaction of my earlier post that the advice used to be 2 hours

Yeah but 8 hrs is a long time. I am horrified that op who says she worked with babies isn't more up to date. Especially when anxious generally.

@Newmum99653

surely that’s ok though in OP’s view though? She’s not saying you need your eyes glued on baby when you’re in same room as them

@Barnbrack @RubySquid
well what was just shared regarding the times is not what lullaby trust/NHS share.

see link below

https://www.mkuh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Car-Seat-Factsheet.pdf

@RubySquid you are sharing incorrect information on this thread, so I would check the sources you are using.

@Barnbrack I worked on a nursery/baby department either way 15 years ago but it looks like the guidance has not changed. Never the less I’d suggest you fact check beforehand trying to shoot people down on forums

@Barnbrack @RubySquid id also like to mention if you kept track of the post, I’m not even referring to a car seat… so the above chain of conversation is completely irrelevant to what I was discussing. I was simply explaining what I understood to be the limit on car seat timings, to which i was correct

@Cherrytree86 thank you for actually taking the time to understand what i had explained in the post. I’m not suggesting anyone have their eyes glued onto my child 24/7 but a teenager who’s main interest is their friends and social media is likely to be engrossed by their phone rather than just lightly scrolling. For the 50th time for the others that aren’t reading through my comments 😂 I’m very aware this is NORMAL teenage behaviour, I am simply stating my worry was that DSD is likely to not actively check on child or have much awareness to their surrounding when glued to phone.

surely those with teenagers will understand, it’s bloody impossible to get a conversation out of them let alone anything else if phone is involved