long journeys with car seats.

[noodleysoup]

DH and I are planning on visiting friends/family to show off the LO when he or she arrives, i've been reading that you shouldn't leave babies in car seats for longer than 2 hours at a time, but what do you do for long car journeys? have a break for maybe half an hour and put the baby flat in its pram? sorry if this is a silly question, I'm a first timer so haven't got a clue about travelling with babies. Thanks!

Yes have a break, but the baby doesn't need to be flat in a pram, he/she will be fine being held in your arms - it's just to give them a break from the carseat where they can be chin to chest which isn't a good position to be in.

You will need to break at least every couple of hours to feed and change a newborn anyway, so it's not a big deal You just find that your focus shifts from getting there as fast as possible to getting there as comfortably as possible (for everyone).

For a start if you are bf on demand then if your lo is anything like my ds then regardless of the car seat issue you will need to stop at least every 2 hrs (and probably more often) for a bf which in the early days will last about 30-40mins... So I always found that actually it wasn't an issue because I was always stopping often anyway! Again if your lo is anything like my ds when taken out of the car seat s/he will probably want to be held not laid down in a pram. So I'd say plan at least an hour break every 2 hrs and allow enough time for it to be more frequent. By the time ds was about 3mo I had perfected the art of bfing while going along (with him still in his car seat and me with my seat belt on - though I did need to be a bit of a contortionist !).

Sorry that was a long answer to your question - yes they shouldn't stay in car seats for a long time and yes you need to plan long regular breaks on a long journey

good luck

Thanks Bertie & cassell, hadn't actually considered feeding and changing!

cassell - I'm very impressed, will definately work on perfecting your technique!

No-one should drive for more than two hours without a break for safety reasons anyway. Particularly when you've got a very young baby keeping you awake at night. (I read one study that said very new parents were as impaired as drunk drivers by their tiredness).

As a new mother you will probably need comfort breaks as much as your baby anyway.