Need Advice on Car Seat

[FirstTimeDadNoLie]

Hey All,

We are a couple looking at buying a pram and car seat, now we have come across some bundles.

I have found the following:
Mamas & Papas Ocarro 8-Piece Aton Bundle - Cashmere | Winstanleys Pramworld
Mamas & Papas Ocarro 8-Piece i-Level Bundle - Cashmere | Winstanleys Pramworld
Mamas & Papas Ocarro 8-Piece Cabriofix i-Size Bundle - Cashmere | Winstanleys Pramworld

Now I am trying my best to understand the car seat situation, we will possibly looking at doing a travel of 4.5 hours after two weeks the baby is born to spend time with the baby with immediate family members.

I have read that lie flat is the best possible car seat but for the life of me I am struggling to get finer details on what lie flat is and whether the seats are truly lie flat. I have read under 4 weeks baby needs to have break every 30 minutes to avoid any potential harm to the baby.

Could someone please advise, a lot of websites are vague and say "recline function" or "lie flat on travel system only".

Lie flat car seats don't negate the need to stop so to be honest, I'd look at buying the travel system without a car seat bundled in, and buy the best car seat you can separately (which isnt necessarily lie flat).

For very young babies, you are also supposed to only travel for a max of 2hrs per day, even with breaks. Are you planning on stopping overnight halfway? I regularly did a 200mile journey with my eldest when she was very young to visit grandparents and we would go on the train. Book first class with the two together railcard and try to book seats in the carriage with the disabled space. If no wheelchair user is using it, they usually let you leave the pram stood up, easier to feed on demand, walk around if baby needs settling etc.

There is a fb group called Car Seat Safety UK - warning, it can get quite heated in there, but if you join and just look at their advice, they have good lists of really excellent car seats, and they will have advice on lie flat options as well. The avianaut pixel pro always seems to be the best recommended and most supportive seat. Also worth looking to see if you have an independent car seat retailer near you - they have a list of some of them in the fb group or you can Google, but usually an independent retailer will provide better advice than the high street retailers and will fit it into your car. Avoid Halfords.

Of the ones you've linked, the cabriofix is a good seat but if you have a long baby, they will outgrow it very quickly. You can get better seats with a longer length limit.

Generally though, I think you should plan not to make the journey at 2weeks post partum. At that stage, my eldest was still in hospital, and with my youngest, I was still bleeding heavily, cluster feeding, getting to grips with parenthood etc. Plus mum and baby will be having midwife and health visitor appointments. I would strongly recommend asking people to come to you or waiting until 6 weeks ish when everything has settled down.

First babies are often overdue. As PP says, a 4.5 hour car journey at less than 2 weeks postpartum is likely to be extremely uncomfortable and potentially risky (thrombosis) for your partner as well as for baby, particularly if she has a c-section - the seatbelt goes right over where the incision is. Babies of that age also need to feed frequently, often every couple of hours during the day and if your partner is breastfeeding she will probably still be getting to grips with it, which usually means that doing it in public is awkward and stressful, let alone a series of uncomfortable motorway service stations which might also not feel that clean. Feeding can also take a very long time while mum & baby are learning what to do. And some babies are refluxy and need to be held upright for ~30 mins after feeding or they vomit everywhere. Neither of you are likely to be sleeping very well. If there are any complications with either mum or baby, you might still be in hospital.

Could the visit be postponed or family come to you?

Anyway if you want more opinions on that you will probably find them if you post that specific question in Parenting, Pregnancy, Travel, Chat, or AIBU.

For the car seat question - the only true lie flat ones, negating time limits, are carrycots. None of those seats are a carrycot, and carrycots have disadvantages in the car (less crash safety and take up more space, don't last as long.)

The i-Level is the one of the three which lies flattest, but it's not a carrycot (not sure why the listing says you don't need a carrycot - it's not suitable for overnight sleep).

It does lie flatter than a standard car seat but there aren't any studies saying how long is reasonable in a seat like that, so the standard guidance still applies. It is approximately a 23 degree incline, plus whatever the incline of your rear car seats is (usually somewhere between 5-15 degrees). The Fisher Price Rock n Play, which was recalled in the US a couple of years ago due to causing deaths, was a 30 degree incline. Advice is that safe sleep is less than a 10 degree incline.

Out of the three seats personally I would go for the Aton B2. It has a good base with adjustable isofix to counteract an inclined seat, it's easy to use, will last a decent amount of time and it's not overpriced.

But I'd rethink the drive if possible. First few weeks you want to stay close to home.

You will need plenty of stops but I would not overly worry about traveling if your baby is born at term without health issues. Babies were regularly kept in car seats for hours a day in the past and problems were rare. Reducing risks are important but don't let people tell you you are wrong to travel - I did 3.5 hours at 11 days old with dd and it was fine with one stop