Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Elizabeth
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Posted: Feb 18 2007 at 10:16am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Karoline is 4 months old and 19 pounds . I can barely fasten the straps on her infant seat (an older Graco). She is also pulling to sit up. The thing is, she often falls asleep in the carseat and I can carry her inside to places like church and basketball where she'll sleep right through what we're doing. I hate the thought of giving this up. Is there a carseat with portability for a bigger baby? Maybe? Please?

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Maria B.
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Posted: Feb 18 2007 at 10:32am | IP Logged Quote Maria B.

I have the same question Elizabeth. My Lucy (almost six months) is sixteen pounds and the straps are very tights on her carseat as well. She too is trying to situp. I don't mind going into the next carseat stage, but need to have something to carry her in without having to haul out the stroller. Can't wait to hear of some ideas.

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Posted: Feb 18 2007 at 11:48am | IP Logged Quote CatholicMommy

Here's one that I think is rather pricey, but does work for heavier and longer babies. Infant seat for heavier/longer babies

I was just looking up new infant and toddler seats for my friends who were in a car accident last week (everyone is fine - the mom is just sore, the baby was perfect - they were the only ones in the car, which is totalled), so I had this sitting on my computer already.

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Posted: Feb 18 2007 at 1:41pm | IP Logged Quote JodieLyn

they do make some of the infant seats to 30 lbs now.. so you should be able to find something.

I hate carrying the infant seat myself so tend to just slip baby out and sling her and she'll go right back to sleep that way.. though I do use one of the carriers so that I can bring the seat into the house instead of having it be so cold left in the car.

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Posted: Feb 18 2007 at 1:55pm | IP Logged Quote Kathryn UK

Hey Elizabeth, perhaps we should swap babies . I have a petite 8 month old who has only just made it to 15lbs. At this rate she will be running up to the car and climbing into the infant seat long before she is big enough to be safe forward facing! Poor little mite is going to look ridiculous

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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 10:54am | IP Logged Quote Matilda

We have struggled with this too since our babies and toddlers are usually in the 97th percentile. We just recently had to purchase this car seat. It is the only one that has a harness rating for up to 65 pounds. All of the others stop at 40. Based on the manufacturing recommendations, our BigBoy should be using a booster seat with a seatbelt even though he is only 2!

Regarding Elizabeth's concern for a portable car seat have you seen this one?
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Cindy Mac
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 10:59am | IP Logged Quote Cindy Mac

This is the EXACT booster that I looked at yesterday! I really want to make sure my 3yo is in a 5-pt harness for as long as possible. My other 2 boys were out of their infant carriers around 4 months, so I've only got about another month before my baby is ready for the convertible car seat...where has the time gone?

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Elizabeth
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 11:04am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Cindy,
I'm confused. I thought your infant carrier was good up to thirty pounds. And Colin is a little guy. Why would you move him to a convertible carseat at 4 months?

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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 11:35am | IP Logged Quote Matilda

Cindy Mac wrote:
I really want to make sure my 3yo is in a 5-pt harness for as long as possible.


Cindy,
This was exactly our concern. Our youngest will not be 3 until May and yet he was already too tall for the highest strap setting in his convertible car seat and 2 pounds away from the weight limit. We have had the Apex booster for about a month and he loves it. He has more room and we don't have to fight to get him under the straps. The only caution we saw from reviewers was to make sure that the straps have enough slack otherwise, a tight fit could mean a pinched inner thigh when you go to buckle it down. We always release the straps all the way, buckle him and then tighten them. It was worth the extra money to know that he is secure.
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Cindy Mac
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 12:11pm | IP Logged Quote Cindy Mac

Elizabeth -

I've had to move all the boys (so far) for their length, not their weight. They've all been skinny but long.

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Elizabeth
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 12:31pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Cindy Mac wrote:
Elizabeth -

I've had to move all the boys (so far) for their length, not their weight. They've all been skinny but long.


Wow! They must be really long. It says it works up to 32 inches. Does it? At a year, my biggest baby, Christian was in the 97+ percentile and he was 31 1/2 inches and 27 pounds. I can't imagine Karoline being bigger than that... If I get it now, I can get another 7+ months out of it and a trip to New York this summer. That would be a good thing...

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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 3:10pm | IP Logged Quote SuzanneG

Kathryn UK wrote:
Hey Elizabeth, perhaps we should swap babies . I have a petite 8 month old who has only just made it to 15lbs. At this rate she will be running up to the car and climbing into the infant seat long before she is big enough to be safe forward facing! Poor little mite is going to look ridiculous

Glad to know I'm not the only one!! My 11-month-old is only 16 lbs! All my kids have been rear-facing until at least 18 months.       

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Posted: March 03 2007 at 11:39pm | IP Logged Quote insegnante

Not to be alarmist, because obviously a lot of people (including myself) have done this many times to no obvious ill effect, but did you ladies see the stories about babies sleeping in car seats (not just in the car) being a serious risk to their ability to breathe?

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCall/story?id=2709135&page=1

Our younger son had reflux problems and we ended up with him sleeping at night strapped into his carseat on the floor of our bedroom for probably most of his newborn period. The pediatrician didn't say anything against that when we told her so I guess the risk really is newly known. It apparently has to do with the position they end up in: according to the link above, "all nine of the babies had been sitting with their heads flexed forward and their jaws pressed against their chests." I'm sure you all do your homework and check on the babies a lot but I just wanted to mention it because with our extensive history of carseat-sleeping babies the story struck me and it's not a warning that has become widespread yet AFAIK.

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Posted: March 04 2007 at 9:23am | IP Logged Quote LisaD

We have the Sunshine Kids Radian and love it more than our old Britax.   It is great if you have to have several car seats next to each other in your vehicle-it fits really well. They also make a version that is good up to 80 lbs. in the five-point harness. The one I linked to is good up to 33 lbs. rear-facing and 65 lbs. forward-facing. It also has side impact protection, which many carseats, including some Britax, do not have.

We used to have an Opus 35 infant seat, by Cosco, which was good up to 35 lbs. and 35 inches, but unfortunately Cosco no longer makes it and ours got too old. Fortunately my babies don't wake up taking them in and out of the carseat, if I slide them right into the sling, so the Radian has worked great for us.

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Posted: March 04 2007 at 12:44pm | IP Logged Quote Bookswithtea

Just thought I'd add that I talked with my pediatrician about our babies who are both long and 20 lbs well before the one year mark. He said to not even consider moving them to any kind of forward facing carseat under a year old (because of neck strength). He's a great doctor and not an alarmist. I'm sure most of y'all know this already, but just in case, I thought I'd mention it.

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Posted: March 04 2007 at 6:31pm | IP Logged Quote JodieLyn

That's a very good point Books... and it's not just neck strength.. I know some people start figuring if baby can hold their head well and all that they're strong enough.. it's that the connective tissue is so stretchable until they're over 1 year old.. that the connective tissue (ligaments, tendons, muscles) can stretch out so far that the spinal cord itself will be pulled by the weight of the head and can break.

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Posted: March 19 2007 at 1:54pm | IP Logged Quote SaraP

Quote:
Just thought I'd add that I talked with my pediatrician about our babies who are both long and 20 lbs well before the one year mark. He said to not even consider moving them to any kind of forward facing carseat under a year old (because of neck strength).


Yes, yes! I had to opportunity to learn all about this when my DD weighed in at 37lbs at her 9 month check-up.

There are NO carseats sold in the US that are designed to to be used rear-facing with a child who weighs more than 35lbs (there is one that can be imported from Sweden, but you need special permission to get it through customs ).

I called several different carseat gurus and all of them agreed that a child under a year old should never, EVER be turned forward facing and that it would be safer for DD to continue to ride rear-facing even though she exceeded the rear-facing weight limit for the seat and has been able to hold her head steady since birth (one also said that if I could brace her seat against the front row passenger seat that would make it safer . . . just in case anyone else has a sumo baby).

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Posted: March 19 2007 at 4:47pm | IP Logged Quote Jen L.

I read an article awhile back that said that if your child isn't walking by one year old (which NONE of mine were - Mary was 17 months!), then you should STILL have them rear facing as this is where much of the neck-strength comes from. The only danger from being longer than the seat while rear-facing is a possible broken leg -- MUCH better than a head injury!!!

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Posted: March 19 2007 at 5:31pm | IP Logged Quote JodieLyn

But do watch out.. if you're talking the infant carriers.. the child can get so long that their head can be high enough that in a crash their head can extend over the top of the seat causing the same problems as being forward facing.

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