Teach me babies

My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few short months, and I don't have the foggiest about baby seats. I know you are supposed to do the rear-facing for the first year.

We currently have two vehicles for baby-portering duties, a Honda Fit and an Element. Both would work fine, except the Element has rear seats that are about a mile behind the driver, way out of reach. Do you find yourself reaching back there often?

I've thought of selling my motorcycle and funding an older Volvo wagon or something. Is it tough to strap a rear-facing child seat in an older car, like say an 80s 240 wagon, or even an older car like a Volvo 145?

Oh, I was going to school you, but apparently you already know about that part...

Congrats! With a rear-facing seat you're not reaching back for any reason while you're driving, so the Element's rear seat being way back there isn't a big deal. Besides, have you seen a modern rear-facing child seat installed in a car? The baby won't be nearly as far away as you're thinking. I would not go with an old Volvo - they may have been ultra-safe for the era, but the current cars you have are likely much much safer.

Get a mirror you can mount somewhere on or near the rear seat back to be able to see the baby while strapped into the rear facing seat, that way you can see what junior or sally is doing (not that the volume and character of the noise won't tell you everything you need to know after a few weeks anyway).

pigeon wrote: Congrats! With a rear-facing seat you're not reaching back for any reason while you're driving, so the Element's rear seat being way back there isn't a big deal. Besides, have you seen a modern rear-facing child seat installed in a car? The baby won't be nearly as far away as you're thinking. I would not go with an old Volvo - they may have been ultra-safe for the era, but the current cars you have are likely much much safer. Get a mirror you can mount somewhere on or near the rear seat back to be able to see the baby while strapped into the rear facing seat, that way you can see what junior or sally is doing (not that the volume and character of the noise won't tell you everything you need to know after a few weeks anyway).

That is it. The one thing I would add it put the baby seat in the middle of the car. Its safer there and its easier for the person that is not driving to reach back if need be.

N Sperlo wrote: Oh, I was going to school you, but apparently you already know about that part...

I LOL'd.

Recaro makes great kids seats - we've owned three examples so far. Not cheap, but pretty much the best-engineered carseats on the market.

Simpson makes seats for once the flip around and face forward.

http://www.saferacer.com/simpson-gavin-child-safety-seat.html?productid=2100

I reach back there all of the time for my youngest, now at five months old. Just a word, the advice is not two years, but most car seats are way too small for kids older than one. We flipped ours around before a year with the older two based on feet hitting seats. That can't be comfortable and isn't safe either, so I threw out the experts' advice at that point.

Reverse facing car seats are huge. Test fit them. It will surprise you. Definitely use the center seat for only one kid. It doesn't matter how much you spend in terms of safety, the last consumer reports testing of safety seats that I remember had the Graco Snugride as one of the best and they were under $100. I would make sure that you get one with a removable base.

Safer is better. We did for a while in a 91 Volvo wagon, but it was only OK for space. In the PT Cruiser, in the behind-passenger-seat config, the passenger barely has any legroom at all.

Congratulations!

feed in one end, poop out the other

thas all I know

n congrats to you n SWMBO

I see these people with cars packed to the roof with E36 M3 and a kid strapped into a seat that would have survived a meteor the size of an aircraft carrier slamming into north america. To take a 2yr old somewhere? WTF are they are thinking. The flying stroller perched up on top of all that E36 M3 is going to hit the little berkeleyer in the face in a crash while he is all strapped into the super-duper rear facing safety chair.

Babies... they don't need nearly as much E36 M3 as you think. Don't get caught up in the ground-swell to sell a perfectly good automobile to buy a barge. You can fit a stroller, food and diapers in ANYTHING. I managed to get two boys everywhere they needed to go with an M3 coupe and later when they were 3 and 5 and could walk for themselves... a 911 C2. My wife had an Outback, then a 325 XiT. You know why we needed the wagons? The berkeleying DOG.

Don't freak out over safety either - the car seats today are berkeleying ridiculous. If the only humans that survive the meteor hit are babies strapped in car seats, they are too berkeleying stupid to feed themselves and will suffer long before they expire. The sound of them all crying for food will make any adults who survive kill themselves too. They need to die with everyone else in the car and almost any family sedan made since 1990 is good enough unless you pack it to the ceiling with baby accouterments / projectiles that will pulverize everyone from behind in a crash.

Oh... and as a rule... try to avoid dropping, throwing or shaking babies. It never shuts them up and can even cause them to be dead which is hard to explain to meddling law enforcement officers.

ST_ZX2 wrote: Simpson makes seats for once the flip around and face forward. http://www.saferacer.com/simpson-gavin-child-safety-seat.html?productid=2100

That one can't face backward.

The best thing to do would be to buy a car seat now and see how it works in the vehicles you have. I had to get rid of a perfectly good Mazda3 because I simply could not drive it with a rear facing child seat behind the driver's seat.

You shouldn't reach into the backseat from the front seat. I'm not going to say I never did it, but it isn't a good idea.

The LATCH system makes car seats much easier. That said, if you don't plan on moving the car seats very often, they work just fine in older cars.

My son is due in oh...14 days. Nothing that I used for my Daughter (now 12) is legal, so I had to start all over again. The only thing that I can suggest is that you carry the kid around in the car seat A LOT. They basically have a handle for the first few months, so make sure you get a good handle. I test-carried every model out there, with weight in it, with both hands, slipped over my arm (elbow carry) and so on. The only design that I could tolerate in every position and grip was this one:

The rubberized triangle handle is really a revolution in car seat technology. (did I really just write that?) Plus it has cool racing stripes and is the Grand Prix model!

We've got a Recaro!

I'm going to warn you about something though... I don't know if anyone's told you yet. The babie's first poop is Road Tar. Just be prepared. No one told me, but as a guy, I am just giving you a heads up.

Conquest351 wrote: We've got a Recaro! I'm going to warn you about something though... I don't know if anyone's told you yet. The babie's first poop is Road Tar. Just be prepared. No one told me, but as a guy, I am just giving you a heads up.

Oh yeah. This is a biggie. The first four or five sometimes. If your wife ends up having to have C section (unplanned sometimes happens for various reasons, my first two were) you end up doing them all because she can't get up. It's nasty.

+1 on all those who said not to upgrade/change vehicles. We sold our WRX and bought an '06 Pathfinder (to fit kid and dog). Big mistake, less than 2 years later the Pathfinder was gone and replaced by an '01 Forester. We just didn't need the space and got tired of paying for the gas.

As far as the seat goes -- we bought the Recaro Signo for our little guy and it fits kids from newborn to 70-ish pounds. It faces rear when they are little and turns forward and grows around them until they're big enough to ride in the regular seat like a normal human. My thought process was that if a full-size homo sapiens can slam into a tire wall at 100+ mph and survive while strapped into one, then they can make one that's probably good enough for my kid (not to mention the cool factor when you tell other dads that your kid rides in a Recaro). It was spendy ($200+), but it's the only car seat we'll ever have to own. Plus when the kid barfs all over it (which WILL happen), or the dog drools on it from the back cargo area, the cover is easy to take off and machine wash.

Other than that, congratulations! Parenthood is one of the greatest, most fun adventures evar!

/thread

And just in case...

captainzib wrote: /thread

That book isn't worth the money. It is ok for maintenance stuff but the specs were all wrong for assembly and dis- assembly. You still need a professional for stuff like circumcision and spleen removal.

First, congrats!! Tuna is right on, don't equate more expensive with "better" when it comes to car seats. Some of the best rated ones are the least expensive. Also, you'll find that a lot of them are made by the same manufacturer, just sold under a different label. IIRC, the Simpson Racing ones were nothing but Graco (or some other baby product company) with a Simpson label on them.

Your two current vehicles should do fine. As has been said, but the baby in the middle of the car. How often you reach back there will truly depend on the personality of the baby. We've got 3 kids, and each one was different. Actually, now that my kids are 4,4 and 7, I find myself reaching back more often now than I did when they were babies. "Dad, I need a tissue". "Dad, I dropped...". My poor 7 year old sits in the 3rd row of the minivan, so he's left to his own, unless I throw something back at him.

tuna55 wrote:

Conquest351 wrote: We've got a Recaro! I'm going to warn you about something though... I don't know if anyone's told you yet. The babie's first poop is Road Tar. Just be prepared. No one told me, but as a guy, I am just giving you a heads up.

Oh yeah. This is a biggie. The first four or five sometimes. If your wife ends up having to have C section (unplanned sometimes happens for various reasons, my first two were) you end up doing them all because she can't get up. It's nasty.

Thanks, I won't be needing lunch now.

We went to Toys 'R Us and asked if we could fit the seats in the car before purchase - it wasn't a problem, and could save a LOT of headache. A few friends weren't so forward thinking, and ended up with unusable front passenger seats because the rear facing seat was monstrous and didn't fit their car. without moving the pass seat way up.

We found our E30 just fine with one rear facing seat in the middle (though we had to be selective with what seat we purchased), and love our 325it as the current family hauler.

By the way, depending on how many kids you have, you may end up needing that 'more space' that some folks here don't seem to think you need. Bringing three kids to a destination (hotel, grandmas, etc) where there is an overnight demands a lot of stuff, like it or not. That baby is going to want something to sleep in, he/she is going to need diapers and wipes and clothes. For convenience sake, we brought along a walker for our middle kid so he could get around, and they all have a comfort thingie (blankie, puppy, etc) so it can add up fast, especially if a three place stroller gets involved. Then, if you're driving a long time (we have a 12-13 hour drive for the grandparents without stops) you'll need snacks and/or meals.

Anyway, just a counterpoint. One kid shouldn't burned the cargo carrying capacity of the average car, though.

captainzib wrote: /thread And just in case...

Step 1: disconnect battery ?

ThePhranc wrote:

captainzib wrote: /thread And just in case...

Step 1: disconnect battery ?

Of coarse assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

Be careful with installing the car seat in the middle position. It didn't work in my car ('07 335i). The seat would wiggle around way too much. I installed it in the back passenger side and the seat fits much better and belts in firmly now. I wish the center position would've worked but the movement and play in that arrangement was just too much.