Why don't car seat come with regulation's

[SeaNanners]

Hi all been wondering since LO was born, why don't car seats come with some sort of back support or a physicians approval ? in all the years baby car seat's have been around it doesn't seem as if they have improved or advanced at all well apart from in price that is, people always say never leave babies in car seat's for more than 2 hour's etc but it's impossible if your on a long journey down the motorway to see relatives even with breaks my friends have told me there LO's back seem sore and stiff and no amount of rubbing help them its really sad that manufacturer's deem this acceptable car seats should be made laying down or with memory foam or something
i own a Jane Matrix that converts from flat and sits up it cost £260 which is ridiculous for a bit or plastic in my opinion
manufacturers really need to stop taking parents for a ride with the prices they charge for things we cant do without and have no choice to buy :( rant over

[littleredsquirrel]

OP has disappeared.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Which reports have had a strong influence over the car seats that we have chosen for our ds's.

Safety rating first, then check car compatibility and finally a bonus if the first stage ones were compatible with a travel system that would also fit in the car.

Things have changes a fair bit since our ds's wer born, so always check for the most up to date reviews.

YABU OP.

[Armadale]

OP trust me, you really, really need to read the Which guide. You can join for £1 for the first month and then cancel to read it.

I am thinking about which to buy at the moment and this scared the daylights out of me.

Manufacturers are only required to test front and back crash impact for baby seats, not side impact, as cars are never hit from the side, are they?

The which tests also look at side impact, and some of the most expensive and exclusive car seats offered basically no protection at all in the event of a side impact, and in some of the videos you can actually see the test dummy babies heads being thrown forward and to the side clear of the seat protection so that they hit the hard metal side of the car's interior.

The car seat that you think makes babies looks comfier is not one you'd contemplate for a second if you read that report. I'd get shut of it today, if I were you.

[Permanentlyexhausted]

There are two different AIBUs in your post.

Firstly, should car seats be more comfortable? Well, as plenty of other posters have said, they aren't designed with comfort foremost. They are designed for safety. I suspect, going by my 'mother's instinct', that when my children were whingy during or after long journeys, they were in fact bored and fed up of not being able to move much. That is not the same as being stiff and sore.

Secondly, car seats cost a lot of money for a bit of plastic. Again YABU. You aren't paying simply for the materials, or even the materials and labour. You are paying for the research, development, and testing as well. The work that goes into making sure that your car seat will protect your baby should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident. That is a constant process. New things are discovered and new improvements made. As a previous poster said, you probably spend more on things that are really just luxury items which don't protect your baby in any sense.

[mummytime]

"Do you even have a child ?"

OP Did you mean to be so rude?

You will discover that however thoroughly you have researched, however you think you are the first person to have a baby, and however much people pre-baby seemed to think you were wonderful - that people will disagree with you.

Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean you are right and they are idiots.

If the Car seat you love is a "Don't buy" from Which, I wouldn't buy it.
My DC spent a lot of time in car seats, they got no more uncomfortable than anyone would having sat in one position for a long time. 2 hour brief breaks are prefectly do-able. They are advisable for the driver anyway.
On a recent trip to Yorkshire from London we stopped at about that for loo breaks and to swap drivers (and my kids are mainly teenager).
My kids didn't spend all day in their car seats as small children, nut did find them very comfortable as judged by how quickly they went to sleep in them.

[BertieBotts]

This is an old thread but the seat has not changed (in 7 years!) It has the full text of the Which? report on it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/292985-anyone-seen-the-which-car-seat-report/AllOnOnePage

[Nocomet]

Most children over about 10 probably younger, spent all day in their car seats, many of them napped in them, they attached to their pushchair frames and no one in their right mind woke a baby on a long car journey.

Did we ever hear of any ill effects, of course we didn't.

Personally I'd take the new advice with a pinch of common sense.

[BertieBotts]

Did you know BTW that the Jane Matrix gets a "Don't Buy" from Which?

They deemed it unsafe in the lie flat position. Whereas the Cabriofix gets one of the best ratings out of all the baby car seats currently on sale for safety.

[littleredsquirrel]

And memory foam is never recommended for babies. Apart from the fact that it is full of chemicals it can cause suffocation and overheating.

[BertieBotts]

In prams, not in car seats. It's the same in the UK, it's just that little old ladies are a bit more forward about giving actual advice rather than passively aggressively tutting.

[littleredsquirrel]

I'm not a strange person at all and I didn't just pop up, I have been on here for many many years.

I didn't say you were starting a row I said I didn't need a row with you. I simply believe you just want to feel like your purchasing decision was better than hers and you are both inventing strange baby stiffness issues that don't seem to exist amongst the rest of the population.

[AnythingNotEverything]

I'm sorry OP, I'm struggling to follow your point due to the lack of punctuation in your posts.

A comma or full stop occasionally help the reader break up the information into chunks and take a much needed breath.

I was discharged by the midwife fairly recently and current guidelines give no strict time limit, but do advise you to be sensible about breaks when baby is in a car seat.

[littleredsquirrel]

Of course she should get the same as you. Then your purchasing decision has been validated.

[SeaNanners]

who said i was starting a row where did you even pop up from ?? strange person

[SeaNanners]

She has a maxi cosi cabrofix recommended to her by countless people i have told her to ditch it and get the same as mine where baby can lay flat
www.thelocal.de/20111104/38647
i came across this when i was pregnant about the german love of babies been laid flat

[BertieBotts]

I have never ever heard of a baby with stiff limbs. Sorry.

[littleredsquirrel]

Yes I do have children and they were cared for very well as babies thank you very much. I'm not a doctor though, presumably you are?

Anyway I'm off I don't need a row first thing in the morning.

[BertieBotts]

I live in Germany and that is bollocks, everyone uses maxi cosi type car seats, same as in Britain.

If you don't like it then don't take your baby on long journeys? I don't see what the issue is. The car seats have to be the way they are because that's what's safest in a crash. It's nothing to do with backs, anyway, it's to do with oxygen saturations. It's hard to breathe with your chin pushed onto your chest, try it. If a baby is in a seat for more than 2 hours at a time their oxygen sats can drop to dangerous levels, which is why you need to take them out. However you only have to take them out for a few seconds to let their oxygen sats go back up to normal levels, so it's not inconvenient at all.

The back thing is more to do with babies being left in car seats all day and never holding them. It doesn't mean you can't ever do long journeys.

[littleredsquirrel]

Definitely projection.

Tell you what. Buy your friend an expensive Jane system just like you have and then you'll both be happy.

[SeaNanners]

Do you even have a child ? a baby doesn't need to talk to tell you when something is wrong they cry and they grizzle and are generally un co-operative then that means they are saying "mummy i am not feeling well it hurts" only they cant say where but by feeling the LO'S joints and how stiff and un-moving they were we could tell his limbs were stiff and hurting him it isn't rocket science

[littleredsquirrel]

Crossed posts.

Well then she needs to get a new car seat but frankly this seems weird. How can she possibly know its back pain and not something else. If she does know its back pain then why on earth not get another seat.

[ilovepowerhoop]

sounds like a bit of projection to me. My 2 loved their car seats and would go to sleep if we went on a long drive. You can get car seat liners, maybe they would help with comfort

[SeaNanners]

I chose the jane MuuM travel system to go with the carseat carrycot as it has a nice padded deep seat that is high up a pram is just as important as a car seat and they are made from metal not plastic

[littleredsquirrel]

Seriously if you think your baby's back is sore and stiff and no amount of rubbing helps it you break up your journey more and give them a break out of the car seat.

But I doubt your baby's back is stiff and sore with no amount of rubbing helping it. Thats just a bit odd unless your baby is old enough to tell you that.

[SeaNanners]

Because i have witnessed them in their seats and when they are taken out they are always they stiff to move i felt my best friends LO's limbs and he was all bent up where as he was they floppy and content before he went in the seat for 3 hours with 5 breaks on the way he was also very grizzly and looked a bit peaky my friend was certain he had sore limbs a mother knows through instinct when he baby is hurt or un-comfy the poor little mite didn't settle or eat properly for the rest of the day and usually he is very easy to settle and feed he is a pleasure to babysit i'm always telling my friend how lucky she is my LO is very hard to feed and settle sometimes