What's with carrying your baby in a carseat?

[prancie]

I'm pregnant with my first, and maybe I'm missing something, but everywhere I go I see ladies carrying their babies around in carseats. I can understand a couple of cases where this might be handy, but all to often it seems to be a way to avoid actually holding the baby!

[ayme371]

When ds was very small he would almost always fall asleep in the car seat. I often would leave him in the seat so he could sleep as getting him out of the seat would wake him. It was also handy when I had to go back to work and had to carry him into the sitter and carry all the other stuff.

I cherish every moment I get to hold my ds. Try not to judge when you do not know the whole story.

[Katheda]

I think that for most people, especially new moms, it is just expected that you keep them in the infant seat at all times. I don't know if you have noticed or not but they aren't eve referred to as "car seats" anymore, they are "infant seats" (http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/infantshop.aspx) or even "infant carriers" (http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice...s_infant.html). With the heavy marketing of travel systems, it is no wonder that so many people have bought into this marketing ploy that is designed to keep kids in the car seats for as long as possible. It doesn't matter that a baby who falls asleep in an infant car seat will continue sleeping if taken out of a car seat and put in a sling, or even a stroller, or even held, it is the fact that 95% of what is seen in public is babies confined to infant car seats while not in a car.
It's the same as people who live in a formula bottle-feeding culture, if they aren't exposed to alternatives and only one method is very heavily marketed to them, you can harldy blame someone for following societal's norms and buying into what is being sold them.

[Benji'sMom]

Originally Posted by ayme371

When ds was very small he would almost always fall asleep in the car seat. I often would leave him in the seat so he could sleep as getting him out of the seat would wake him. It was also handy when I had to go back to work and had to carry him into the sitter and carry all the other stuff.

I cherish every moment I get to hold my ds. Try not to judge when you do not know the whole story.

ITA. I think especially with very young babies, the baby is calm and quiet and the parents are afraid of jostling the baby too much and making the baby start screaming and crying, so they try not to disturb Baby too much, and just keep Baby in the seat. Now, my babies screamed in their seats, so I couldn't wait to get where I was going and take them out of the carseat and into the sling ASAP! But if they had been content in the car seat I would have been TERRIFIED to take them out of it, lest they start screaming!

[momuveight2B]

I don't know because I was having babies long before this was ever a trend. I am not strong enough to carry these seats around so I don't use them this way. I also have to hang onto or keep track of other children at the same time. I slip my baby into the sling as we get out of the car and carry them that way. If they are asleep they snuggle in and stay asleep. I have made many trips through stores, back to the car, into the seat and home and the child never knew they had been moved. I think it helps them learn to sleep better. We often have long drives to town, we are seventy miles from the nearest city so I worry about leaving them in the same position for so many hours. Even if they are asleep I think they benefit from getting out of the seat and into the sling for awhile.
I don't like anyone to touch my babies when they are small so I wouldn't feel safe with them in a seat. I would also worry that if I got distracted the seat could fall or the child could be abducted. I am a real worry wort with a new baby.
If they are in the sling it also allows me to bounce around a bit with them if they do fuss or to pop them on the nipple all while unloading the grocery cart or taking a toddler to the potty. What do you do with a baby in a seat if you are in the bathroom?

[nextcommercial]

The people who live across from me recently aquired their infant grand daughter.

They litterally leave her in her carseat 24/7. They even feed her in there. The back of her head is completely bald, and flat. Her forehead is starting to protrude.

She falls asleep in there, so they leave her there. They put the carseat in a stroller to push her around. They put it from the stroller, to the car, to the shopping cart, to the car, back in the stroller.

In all fairness, BOTH grandparents are not at all young, and have bad backs. They switched their work schedules so she is never in daycare, because they can't afford daycare. If I had the space in my daycare, I would keep her for a few hours just so she could see the world from a new position.

But, the whole carseat/stroller contraption thing has gotten a little out of hand with them.

[zinemama]

I don't understand people using them as carriers for babies who are awake. But when an infant has fallen asleep in the car, the baby seat's value as a sleeping-child-transporter cannot be overestimated!

I could rarely get my baby to sleep off of my body, but if he fell asleep in the carseat I could carry him inside and get maybe a whole 45 minutes to myself!

[ani'smommy]

I very very occasionally left Ani in her carseat if she fell asleep in it (which was pretty much never.) But I agree, people used to constantly tell me, oh, we used to go out to eat with our baby, we'd just leave him in his seat and stick him under the table. Ugh.

I saw someone walking around the grocery store yesterday with her baby in an infant carseat and she had some strap designed to go around her back. It looked like a totally rediculous sling.

[JanB]

Originally Posted by ani'smommy

I saw someone walking around the grocery store yesterday with her baby in an infant carseat and she had some strap designed to go around her back. It looked like a totally rediculous sling.

I saw someone with one of those too! It is the craziest thing ever -- if you are going to carry a baby in a sling, why in the world would you want to be hauling around the weight of the infant carseat also? Those things are not lightweight.

[nextcommercial]

When I took my dd to a restaraunt, I kinda loved those little baby seats! It was nice to put her on the table, and finish my meal in peace and quiet. She liked to look all around this new nifty place, so she was content.

BUT, that was before carriers (other than over the shoulder baby holders) and it was shortly after infant carseats became a big deal. It was also before they started putting handles on infant car seats, so you had to cradle carry those darn things into the store or restaraunt.

Come to think of it, it was also before they started putting infant seats on shopping carts.

What did OUR parents do with us when we were infants?

[Thalia the Muse]

I used it to carry the baby around after she fell asleep in the car (which she inevitably did). She had reflux, so we also used it for her naps at home during the early months, because she was more comfortable in it.

When she was awake and alert, there was no WAY she wanted to sit in a carseat! Or a sling or carrier, sadly. It was human arms all the time.

[LoveBaby]

I think that they, like strollers, have a time and a place. What is sad that most mom's don't know any differently and for them lugging that seat around is the only option. If only they knew how easy a sling/pouch/mei tai was!!

I'm taking my sling w/ me to the hospital when DD is born so I can carry her out of the hospital in that, instead of the car seat. Hopefully, some other young mama's will see me and think "oh, what a neat idea!". I just think educating the general public about babywearing is what is needed to really make a difference.

[AlbertaJes]

My DD would wake up when I moved her from the carseat to the sling, so if she was asleep, I left her in there to go in the store. She'd usually wake up when the car turned off as well, though, so that didn't happen often.

[FiddleMama]

I tried to avoid dragging the entire carseat around but I did find our travel system to be handy- the carseat that would click into the stroller. This was mostly when he was asleep and I didn't want to jostle him or if it was cold outside and I wanted to quickly get him from car to shopping cart, etc.

This stage didn't last long as my son was too big for the infant carseat sooner than most and WAY too heavy to lug around in it.

[FreeThinkinMama]

Originally Posted by prancie

I'm pregnant with my first, and maybe I'm missing something, but everywhere I go I see ladies carrying their babies around in carseats. I can understand a couple of cases where this might be handy, but all to often it seems to be a way to avoid actually holding the baby!

I usually carry my baby in the mei tai or sling, especially for long periods like walking around a grocery store. He takes all of his naps in my arms. But sometimes I leave him in the carseat if we're just going to pop in and out of someplace, like the other day when I went to the PUD office to pay the bill. It was just faster that way. I don't like lugging around a heavy carseat and ds wont sleep in it for any length of time anyway so I usually don't carry him in it. But another example is from the house to the car. I usually have my hands full trying to get my toddler to cooperate and get into the car, it's just much easier to have him in the carseat ready to go and I can just pop him in and get her situated so we can be off. But I wear and hold my baby for most of the day. I think it's so unfair of you to assume that just because you see a baby in a car seat that means the mom doesn't want to hold them! I love holding my baby but even I need a break sometimes sheez

I also *gasp* use a stroller sometimes with my oldest.

[bellymama]

i know i always want to ask people if they have heard of slings or carriers...it seems like such a pain to drag them around with you. i love all my carriers, i have slings and wraps and ergos i am addicted to babywearing. plus my son hates the car seat with a burning passion. not to mention i decided to not get an "infant carrier" and i got a convertible car seat that does rear facing all the way to a toddler booster. i really like it, and you can't take it out of the car so that solves that!

[Frisha]

We only use it when we are goign to go eat or soemthing out somewhere and I always have either my wrap or sling on hand if he decides that he doesn't want to sit in it anymore. But I do enjoy the time to eat without having him grabbing at me and my food, he normaly just watches everything going on while playing with a couple toy's.

[littlemizflava]

my son hates his seat as soon as his ass hit the seat he started to sream and turn red so once he was calm and sleeping there was no way in hell was i going to wake him up and do it all over again just to go in one store i never walked around a mall with him in it but did have the seat in the snap and go stroller #1 warm seat no cold winter baby #2 good place to shove all the stuff i bought #3 didnt have to hold bags and baby just baby

[kkar]

My kids never minded their car seats - but I did! I couldn't stand carrying them around in those big and awkward buckets. Instead, I always just slipped them into a carrier of some sort straight out of the car and we went about our business in comfort and style!

[moonfirefaery]

Women are actually told it's safer, because if they drop them, they are somehow "protected" by the carseat. I was told that as I left the hospital. Some people do it because it's hot or sunny, and the carseat has a canopy. If my child was sleeping in his carseat I wouldn't take him out. I hated carrying him in it too often though. That thing was heavy with him in it and so bulky.