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Car Seat for too long - what should I do?

16 replies

GMumma · 11/07/2021 02:42

Hi lovelies
My in laws had DD (5 weeks) for a few hours yesterday and left her in car seat for 2 hours twice. We did tell them to take her out if it had been more than an hour “but she was sleeping” HmmConfused
I’m worried about it but don’t know what to do. Should I ring the doctors? Is it urgent? Any experience with this would be so helpful.
As the in laws said, we were in car seats much longer than an hour at a time and “turned out just fine” HmmConfused

OP posts:
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Jaguarana · 11/07/2021 02:46

Relax. It's fine. Your child has come to no harm and you are overreacting.

What your inlaws said is quite right.

tofuschnitzel · 11/07/2021 02:53

I wouldn't be happy with this either, OP. As it is, I only have my twins in their car seats for a max of 30mins at a time as they are so young. We will slowly increase the time as they get older. I don't think you need to do anything now, if your little one seems ok and is behaving as they normally would. It doesn't matter if other people don't see a problem with your PILs doing this. The point is that you asked them not to and they didn't respect your wishes. I think that needs to be addressed as it's not on for them to undermine you.

ivfgottwins · 11/07/2021 03:00

You're over reacting

The guidance states 2 hours is fine

Better to let a newborn sleep at that age rather than wake them prising them in and out of a car seat

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GAW19 · 11/07/2021 03:04

We were going to see my parents when DD was 3 weeks old, our health visitor said to just make sure she wasn't hot and stop every 2 hours. She said if I was sat with her then we could maybe do a little longer but defo no longer than 3 hours at a time.
I would say they're fine op, as long as they were keeping an eye Thanks

Letsallscreamatthesistene · 11/07/2021 03:27

Ring the doctors? No, its ok. You're over reacting. It'll be fine.

user1471499545 · 11/07/2021 03:37

Wow, where I live we travel huge distances on driving holidays etc, i did not even know there are guidelines
about how long children can stay in car seats. We've certainly gone more than 2 hours numerous times. Pretty sure most people here do too.
I am off to google. Think you are over reacting too OP.

orangejuicer · 11/07/2021 03:49

@ivfgottwins

You're over reacting

The guidance states 2 hours is fine

Better to let a newborn sleep at that age rather than wake them prising them in and out of a car seat

Not for that age. OP is right to be upset.
orangejuicer · 11/07/2021 03:50

I should add - if I am remembering correctly!

supersonicginandtonic · 11/07/2021 03:55

@orangejuicer the guidance does say 30 minutes but the baby was not left unattended. Plenty people leave babies in car seats but check they are ok. I've done the same with mine, it's enabled me to have a shower in the past, without them waking.
I do think the OP is massively over reacting thought.

orangejuicer · 11/07/2021 04:00

See what you're saying supersonic but we don't actually know that, plus any internal damage wouldn't be obvious.

I'm not scaremongering and baby is obviously ok but I would not be happy with this at all.

EssentialHummus · 11/07/2021 04:28

Ask them not to do it again and explain the risks. Buy a Snugglbundl or similar so they can shift baby without waking.

GMumma · 11/07/2021 05:09

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it. I blame the overreacting on being a first time mum and, can I still get away with using breastfeeding hormones as an excuse? GrinGrin
Thanks again xx

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 11/07/2021 05:37

You don't need to do anything :)

First of all the guidance increases to 2 hour sessions once they are over 4 weeks old, so they haven't actually gone over guidance. It's only up to 30 minutes for the first 4 weeks. And that is probably quite conservative if your baby was full term, healthy and not a low birth weight (under 5lbs 8oz), especially if you have a car seat which has some kind of padding or feature to flatten out the curve of it for newborns, which most modern car seats do have. These guidelines are also approximate - it's not like it's safe up to the 119th minute and then suddenly becomes risky at the 120th. Around 2 hours is unlikely to pose a risk to a healthy 5 week old.

Secondly if it had caused her any harm it would be immediately obvious. The risk of being in a car seat too long is that they can place babies in a position where it's hard for them to get enough oxygen in through normal breathing. This over time reduces oxygen saturation levels. That isn't harmful in itself. It's OK to have slightly lower oxygen sats than normal. The problem comes when it happens over a prolonged time and they drop too much, as then oxygen flow is being reduced to the brain etc. If this had happened it would have been immediately apparent when they took her out of the seat. The fact that she was fine when they did take her out means that no harm was done and you don't need to get her checked over. As soon as she is out of the seat her oxygen saturation levels (if they were compromised, which they might not have been at all) will return to normal in a very short space of time, seconds or minutes.

It's not overreacting to be aware of these guidelines, but it is helpful to understand why they exist and put the risk into perspective. Car seats are designed for crash safety, they aren't general seats designed for babies to lounge and sleep in, although they are sometimes marketed for this purpose. It isn't a problem to let a baby sleep in a car seat occasionally but it is a good idea to keep these time guidelines in mind. Babies have sadly died or had adverse experiences from being left in their car seats for too long. It's rare - it has to be the "perfect storm" of circumstances but keeping the time limited to 2 hours (30 minutes under 4 weeks) minimises this risk and means that you can use the car seat to prolong a nap or easily transfer between car and stroller etc without worrying about it.

It's OK that it happened twice in one day. In terms of oxygen saturation, you could put them in the seat for 2 hours, out for 5 minutes, in for 2 hours, out for 5 minutes all day. This wouldn't be recommended because babies need to lie flat in order to stretch and practice rolling and moving around, plus of course you'd need to feed and change them, but in terms of oxygen saturation that would be fine. So one off long journeys for example are fine, but using the car seat every day as a replacement for a pram and also a seat at home and never holding them would be damaging (in a different way).

These risks don't apply only to car seats but to any product where the baby is placed in a curved position. But car seats are unique with the 30 minute first 4 weeks rule - this is because of the very upright position within the car and the movement in the car and is a relatively recent discovery based on research done in 2016.

SD1978 · 11/07/2021 05:42

You're utterly over reacting, and that's fine. You had rules you gave them and they didn't stick to them- I wouldn't necessarily therefore allow them to babysit for suck a long period again until you can get assurance that they will follow your rules- lots of things that were fine are not not recommended. There is no need to seek any medical help, there's nothing to assess

GMumma · 11/07/2021 06:30

This is so helpful. I was worried that there would be negative effects that we wouldn’t notice (hence wondering about calling the doctor). Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!!

OP posts:
Bksjshsbbev2737 · 11/07/2021 06:33

I think with your in laws you need to make the point that if you’ve asked them to do something you don’t expect them just to ignore it because they don’t agree.

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