to leave my child in the car with a travel monitor.

[Libra1975]

The car sends my 16week old LO to sleep, am I being unreasonable to want to buy a travel monitor so when I get home and he is fast asleep in his carseat I can leave the monitor with him and go into the house to get things done rather than wake him up?

yes a bit! can't you just take the whole car seat out?

Better to get in the habit of taking him out, and putting him to bed indoors. he'll get used to being moved pretty quickly, and then resettle himself in bed - useful for settling himself in bed generally.

sounds fine to me, if mine fell asleep in the car I left them there and checked regularly, laterly realised that the child unit of our never used monitor took batteries and started using that.
You need to be happy with the surroundings of the car though, our's is on the drive off a quiet road.

Personally, I would never do this but I have known lots of mums who have left the baby in the car without any kind of monitor.

I just couldn't relax so there would be no point. But then I'm a fanatical grape cutter which lots of my friends think is mental so who am I to judge.

We park literally under the window and I have always taken the children out if they were sleeping - baby in carseat or toddlers put sleeping on the settee.

Me too. We have a private drive on a quiet cul de sac, not sure I'd've done it on a busy street, but I often left him sleeping. Must remember travel moniter idea for next one!

Sounda absolutely fine as long as he's not in there too long ( I think they recommend 2.5 hour limit in car seats at a stretch?).

well if he's in the drive and you can see the car from the house I don't see the problem
we did/do this a lot without a monitor
when dd (2) falls asleep in the car we leave her in the drive and watch her from the lounge window

lol at myredcardi! I would want them to get used to the to-bed tranfer and usually did this, but if you are going through a particularly fractious period and you know that any movement will just wake them and subject you to an hour of screaming, then I'd leave them in peace!

Lots of people will tell you this is the most irresponsible parenting in the world. They will tell you tales of friends of friends whose cars blew-up/were stolen/froze solid while their child slumbered. Blah, blah, blah.

IMO it is fine. DD often falls a sleep in the car and I leave her there and go inside. Admittedly I keep the car in my sights so I can see when she wakes etc.

Take him out, for no other reason than car seats are not designed to be slept in. I never had a removeable car seat amd can still trasnfer 2.8 yr old DD into the house asleep as she is used to it.

I think it's fine. I've done it with mine. Still do (and without a travel monitor) but I can see him. Only caveat is that cars can get pretty cold pretty quickly in winter so I wouldn't leave him long unless he's well-wrapped up.

my ds1 transferred fine, no problem.
ds2 - no no no, I tried and tried - then gave up and left him in the car. The only times he fell asleep in the first year were either in the car, or on me feeding (and he woke if I tried to put him down).
You take the breaks where you can find them.

If on your drive/somewhere quiet I'm sure he will be fine

What JustKeepSwimming said.

Anyway, I thought you weren't supposed to leave babies in car seats for long periods in case they overheat/damage their backs, but my youngest is 10 so maybe that's old-fashioned advice.

Perhaps someone with a "newer" baby than me can enlighten us with current practice.

I wouldnt, just as easy to bring them in and lay them on their beds/sofa.

I know a lady who did this and had the police at the door after a neighbour complained. Social services got involved IIRC.

Mine won't transfer (and never has) if he's been asleep for longer than 10 minutes max. So it's either leave him or wake him up.

I did have one of those pull out carseats when he was really little though

it ISN'T always just as easy to bring them in though. If you have a child/children who transferred well - then great for you. I had one, I wondered why people would leave them in the car. Then I had ds2.

If you were on a 3 hour journey and your baby was asleep you would leave them in there wouldn't you? As long as its not for hours and hours on end and you are confident of the safety factor, then use your common sense. Use the time when you can, that is the SENSIBLE thing to do.

I have never managed once to transfer DD asleep(now 18 months). If she needs more sleep I park the car somewhere quiet with a nice view (by the river or under a tree in the park) and sit listening to R4 or reading until she wakes up.

This is interesting, I thought I was being reasonable in WANTING to do it but I would be found unreasonable if I actually did it. We live on a private road which is a cul-de-sac so no traffic.

If I unclip the carseat he wakes up, if I bring him indoors he wakes up. Personally I think the carseat looks uncomfortable but he seems to like it!

I do find it odd that people say lay him on the sofa, I thought that would be even more dangerous than leaving him in the car!

Also - what is a fanatical grape cutter ?