2 random curious questions - Graco Travel System and US carseat chest straps

[vallinnapod]

Just trying to satisfy my own curiosity really!

If babies are not meant to be in car seats for more than 2 hours at a go, how do those Graco type travel systems work? The ones that have the car seat in the forward facing pushchair, IYSWIM?

Also, why do car seats in the US have those chest straps?

Don't know the answer to the second question, but in answer to the first: they don't. IMO.

Okay, i googled it chest straps eek!

eek indeed...surely if the straps are tight enough they won't slip?

vallinnapod that can depend on the build of your child, if they are a very narrow frame and slim (ie not chubby) they have this amazing ability to get out of them sideways...

Oh and the travel system question, I used it for quick trips, so when I had to collect an older dc from preschool at lunchtime, 10 mins in car, 10 mins in pushchair, 10 mins back in care without all that strapping them in and out of the car seat and pushchair. Anything more than that then I would either walk and use pushchair or do the whole strapping in and out performance.

TBH the no more than 2 hours rule has been around for ages, but only really followed as advice for the last few years in the UK, its not so much followed or acknowledged in other countries

Then the chest clip is as you see for holding the harness, its not something that we feel the need for in Europe, and there have also been issues where cheap chest clips can break and pierce the chest of a child.

I had a chest clip to stop ds2 trying to escape. She would wriggle her arms out of the straps. And yes, that was with them pulled as tight as dh and I could do.

I have a beanpole...and a devious beanpole at that...he is yet to discover Houdini skills but I can foresee it in his future!

If you're fortunate he may be broad shouldered enough to be foiled