Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Something Scary!

There was an article in today's paper about children suffocating in their car seats. It's a little scary since car seats are so convenient with small babies. You strap them in get them in the car, and then they can stay in the car seat when you're running errands or even after you get home if they've fallen asleep- which is pretty common.

The article suggests only using the car seat in the car, even if it means waking a baby that is napping.

My second son sat in his car seat a lot. I was busy with his older brother, and he was a really mellow baby. He would just sit there looking around, so until he got fussy, I let him stay there. I guess I won't be doing that again. It's a good thing for another reason too, son #2 has a flat spot on the back of his head. The dr. kept saying it would pop out, but it hasn't. Maybe less time in a car seat is beneficial for head shape too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are good alternatives for baby portability and storage? maybe it's just better to walk and push them in a buggy like the old days.

I know it was probably terribly dangerous but I'm happy I grew up in the era before car seats. Better to have a carpeted van floor to roll around on.

Alice said...

The nearly-three-year-old has a flat spot on the back of his head. I blame the car seat. (Or myself for leaving him in the car seat so much.)

He was so happy to just sit, and his brother was always running, so he sat a lot.

I think the main point of the article is to leave the car seat in the car and not use it as baby storage. It's awfully convenient though.

I'm glad my kids get strapped in, it would be a pain to have them climbing around in the car getting into things when we're traveling. It's nice to have them stuck in one spot (not so nice for them though).