How do you do a big shop with a baby?

[Toomanyslippers]

I lay awake pondering this one last night! As you can tell I'm pregnant and a FTM!

So I'm wanting my baby to lay flat for the first 6 months as they advise. So how do you navigate a pram & a shopping trolley?! How do you improvise?

The car seat advice is because car seats are particularly upright due to needing to protect babies from an impact in the car. If you are using the car seat on the ground, in a trolley or on a pushchair then it doesn't apply but if you've gone straight from car to one of these settings, it does - because the baby hasn't had chance to "reset" their airways.

BTW it has been updated and is now 30 minutes for newborns (about up to 6 weeks) and then 2 hours for older babies. I've heard 1 hour up to about 3-4 months but I'm not sure that's official.

It doesn't mean that you need to have them flat at all times. It's about the 45 degree angle of an installed car seat which is required for safety.

So they are okay in a sling, in the moulded plastic baby seat on a trolley or in a car seat on a trolley provided you've given them 5 mins out of it between driving and getting into the supermarket.

It also means if you have a buggy with recline you can start putting them into that when it's reclined/sat up a bit once they are a few months old, if you want to.

I did the shop while dh stayed with ds. Gave me time alone whilst I was on Maternity leave.

Ds is 10 months now but as soon as he could sit up I took him with me. He sat in the trolley, kicked his legs and watched everything. He loves the shop. He loves food.

We don’t have the luxury of online shopping here. We have home delivery but you have to go to the shop and pick it out yourself. So sort of defeats the point.

I’d have used online shopping if I could.

OP I'm only little and I only used a sling. I didn't use a buggy at all for the first year, both babies. Please consider researching this, babies love to be close to their mums at all times.

Otherwise, online shopping is your friend 🛒

I’m 5’1” and manage fine with a sling... if you’re worried use one of the shallow trollies.

Online shopping. Regardless of lying flat, feeds and poos always interiot big shops. When DS was 4 months old I naively thought I could do a Christmas food shop with him. About 3 hours and 2 happy changes later, lady behind me in the queue unloaded my shopping onto the conveyor whilst i fed DS.

‘babies love to be close to their mums at all times.’

I don’t agree as not all babies do. Ds absolutely hated being in the sling and was definitely not what you’d call a Velcro baby.

Use the seat on the trolley but bring a blanket and maybe a wipe, you don't know how often they get cleaned so a dettol wipe every once in a while is a good shout.
I think the two hour rule is more of a guideline, them being in it over two hours once or twice isn't going to hurt
It's also a reminder for people who do long car rides, encourages them to take breaks and let baby out to stretch.
My friend is 5ft and she was comfortable with a sling/carrier. All depends on size of baby!

DD2 bloody hated the sling. DD1 loved it. They’re all different.

I’m 5ft 1 and never had an issue with a sling,but like I said I tried a few to get the right one

I'm 5 1 and had four slings/wraps and didn't have a problem with any of them.

Pass - that’s really very unusual. Most babies do love to be close to their mum. Not all babies like slings though (but that’s separate from not wanting mum). I had understood babies who didn’t like being held much were often on the Autistic spectrum later in life? It’s meant be an early warning of it?

Sling/wrap DS2 has only ever been in a wrap. We've never put him in a buggy, DS1 only ever went in a buggy with his grandparents.
It's the easiest thing, both hands free to do everything you need.

@Redteapot67 I was meaning it in relation to slings and not being held

Not all babies like slings

Then - yes - agree with you. Not all babies like slings indeed. Mine always got too hot in them and I always worried they couldn’t breath - if you use a sling you should make sure baby’s nose isn’t pressed up against you

If your baby hates the sling it’s pretty hard to get by without a buggy. I’d have struggled to carry my baby everywhere in my arms for the first 12 months, especially as my sling hater was DD2 and DD1 was only 19 months when she was born.

I kept him in his car seat or used the trolleys with the baby seat so there was a change in position from the car seat.

You could always drive there, take baby to the cafe and have a feed then back in car seat for the shop, back to cafe before the drive home. If you plan on having a long shop.

When I was at ante-natal classes I was told it was 30 mins max in the car seat, you know yourself how long to give the baby, it's about the position they sit in for their breathing, outs was adjustable and I could lie it back slightly so didn't mind longer

Online, you won't look back!

Ds is 17 months old now and wants me to carry him everywhere, today he was a little wriggle worm that didn’t want to sit in his pushchair and wanted carried all of the way back to the car. I think it was easier when he was tiny! He was far too nosey to like the sling and wanted to see out and didn’t like the restriction.

You don't

you either do online shopping or if you really have to go in person then you just take the carseat out of the car and place it in the trolley

@Toomanyslippers we shopped 25 miles away from home with a newborn and as others have said, it's actually fine. Carry child from car to store, have a loo break, change nappy if needed, have a coffee if you want to etc then get on with the shop using the baby seat with a blanket or use a sling.

Some kids hate supermarkets / shopping in general as they get older, others are perfectly amenable to the whole thing (mine is perfectly happy in a supermarket and always has been though I have a friend whose child is a demon in a supermarket and they just cannot take her). You'll figure out what is best for you as things progress.

Trolley with a baby seat! I take a woolly blanket to put on the seat before I move her from car seat to trolley. Go during quieter periods so you can get a parent and child space and therefore get the trolley next to the car. Plan it so it’s half an hour after a feed so baby is happy and content! My four month old loves coming for the big shop with me as there’s lots of lights and things to look at

Sling and a shopping cart. I had a yellow orange one with sun flowers. It was fab for taking to the Shops with DS.

Online shopping. If you forget something and need to pop in the shop, I always would put a bag on the Pram and put the shopping straight in the bag. Made me feel a bit dodgy in case security thought I was robbing but I never got pulled aside so hey ho .