Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Car Seat Flippin' Reminder!


Speaking of car seats, just a quick reminder...


Before you turn your baby front-facing, please be sure he/she is BOTH:

-at LEAST one-year old


AND


-at LEAST 20 pounds


That's AND, people. If you're parenting a micropreemie, I'd be willing to bet you'll hit 1-yr old before you hit 20 lb. And, still, keep 'em rear-facing. It's safer. You don't endure months on end in a hospital to take chances with your precious child...
***Just a quick reminder- as always, ask your pediatrician if you have concerns. I am aware of at least two micropreemies who simply got way too long to be rear-facing anymore. They were well over a year but not quite 20 pounds when they "made the switch". You'll want to act on the advice of an expert in these cases!***

2 comments:

Ryann said...

Thanks so much for this post. I was just getting ready to do the research on when we could turn Addy around. My plan was to do rear facing for as long as possible, but now that she's getting bigger, I'm finding it not so realistic. Addy is way past 1 year but not yet 20 lbs. Looks like we'll be waiting a little while before making the switch. Thanks for the great info!

JessieLeigh said...

You're so welcome!

The general "rule of thumb" that we were given by a car seat specialist at the hospital was to basically delay any switches for as long as possible, i.e. stay rear-facing until it's not feasible, use a car seat rather than a booster for as long as you can, etc.

Of course, just using SOME form of child restraint is better than nothing... I can't begin to express how frustrated I am every time I hear about children killed in car accidents who were not in any kind of child restraint...