Newborn travelling long distance

[MadameJ]

DD2 has just being born and DH would like to go to France in 7 weeks for a family wedding (Ferry/Driving).

I am sure that I have read/heard somewhere that newborns should not be in there carseats for long periods of time but I cant find any definate info on this. Does anyone have any information or know where I would need to look so at least we can make any informed decision.

Many thanks in advance

IIRC the advice is no more than 3hrs at a time, this is probably erring on the very safe side IMO so you don't get numpties keeping babies in there all day. You would probably want/need to stop and stretch, feed/loo break or nappy change at least that often so should be no problem. I think its the continuous thing that is a potential problem. We drove to S of France and back twice with tiny babies and they were much easier then than they are now, slept pretty much the whole time .

It's not more than 2 hours, but ok on one off.

Have you looked at some of the lie flat car seats on the market now?

Personally when we travelled in car with baby we would stop roughly every 90 mins ( apart from if baby was sound asleep)

You stop anyway on ferry/ tunnel so that's a break. Make sure you take baby out then/ pop in sling to carry around .
Then feed baby just before back in car, and then drive first 90 mins or so. Stop, toilet breaks, feed baby, start again.

In 7 weeks time it will quiet warm also so stopping and feeding baby often will keep them hydrated

I had DS2 in England by mistake and had to bring him back to Holland when he was 3 weeks. It was about 5/6 hours in the car (traffic terrible) but as a one-off I wasn't worried.

I often had to do long journeys with a newborn but had the Loola pram's 'Windoo' carrycot which can be affixed to the car seatbelts. Not sure how safe it is but had all the necessary kite marks etc.

Basically their oxygen saturation levels drop the longer they are in a car seat. This isn't dangerous in itself but as it builds up over a length of time it can be. To "reset" their levels you only have to take them out for about five minutes, but you should do this once every 2 hours or so. But it does mean you can literally stop for a toilet break and it will be fine, you don't have to have loads of long breaks.

We went away when ds was a couple of months old and we had to drive. When I planned the trip, i worked out roughly how often I would be stopping to feed him and found suitable stopping places. I made sure that i scheduled in breaks of about 30mins for him to be out of his seat, have a feed and to lay on a rug and have a wriggle.

The hole journey took about an extra 2 hours, but the breaks made it feel quite leisurely and unstressful - especially as it was all planned.

hole? whole!

Honestly it's fine. Sit next to him in the back seat and take him out from time to time onto your seatbelted lap, if you are bfing you will need to anyway.

. I was long hauled around as a new born and did lots of long journeys with mine at 3 weeks. Where needs must, you just have to. Bit the advice here is good.

MrsFred you don't mean take him out onto a 'seatbelted lap' whilst the car is moving do you?