A paradox

[telerib]

Good advice: "Buy a car seat that fits your baby."

Good law: Thy baby shalt not leave the hospital in a car unless that car have a car seat installed for thy baby.

Resulting problem: Finding a car seat that fits an unborn baby. O.o

Maybe the "fits your baby" advice is for when you're switching from an infant seat to a bigger seat? Most newborns fit into a fairly well-defined size envelope, which the infant seats encompass.

Comments

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to solve your paradox, but I do know that I have LOTS of LJ friends who are parents. In particular, phoenix_glow just had her third baby two months ago, and lesliepear has belonged to a lot of parenting- and baby-related LJ communities since she became a Mom four years ago. I don't know chargirlgenius personally, but she has two little boys.

There are TONS of parenting communities on LJ, too -- even sca_parent! :-)

Good luck in figuring all this out, and I hope to see you next Tuesday!

[edg.livejournal.com]

Newborn babies do generally fit into a standard size of car seat; unless you expect the baby to be premature, you can reasonably assume that he or she will fit into the various newborn seats that are available.

When Alex was born, his mother and I bought a car seat that doubled as a bassinet; it was possibly the single most useful accoutrement we ever acquired.

A tip: when you're looking for car seats, be sure that you know exactly how it fastens to the car, and make sure that you can reach around it (Moe may have to test that part) and fasten it to the seatbelts (or seat attachments) with your eyes closed. An awful lot of these seats look great, but are very difficult to get attached - either because you have to run the seatbelt through holes in the back (which involves reaching around the seat and fishing for the belt clasp) or because the car seat is built for a slightly larger car and you have to strain the belt to its limit to get it around the seat. Just, y'know, a heads-up. :) Car seats are hard at first - I always had to wrestle with Alex's for the first week or so that he visited, and thank goodness he no longer requires one! - but you get used to them quickly.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I definitely recommend starting out with an infant seat and then switching over to a convertible carseat. I know that convertibles say they can be used for babies 5lbs and up, but just looking at how big and how upright they are, I can't see it working.

We have an infant seat you can borrow, if you like. It's a Graco SnugRide, which was the top-rated seat for safety when Alex was born. Makes sense to borrow rather than buy, because you'll probably only be able to use it for a few months. Alex was too tall at 4mos; lots of babies outgrow them by 6mos.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Consumer Reports was also very insistent on getting an infant seat, and then a convertible. After reading some more webpages on car seat safety, I finally got an idea of why - like you said, they're just too big for the wee, wee ones.

The SnugRide is right at the top of my list of seats to try out in the car! It is still getting great marks in safety. Plus, I found a car seat/car compatability database (http://www.carseatdata.org) which, while not definitive by any stretch of the imagination, suggests the SnugRide should fit well in the Saturn. (No one reported on a fit with a Ford Contour.) It is awesomely generous of you to offer the loan of it! Thank you so much!

If curiousangel is coming by on Friday, could be bring it and its manual? We could test it for fit in both cars over the weekend.