Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Car Seats as Cribs


FROM NBC: Moms and dads -- you'll want to hear this story if you allow your babies to sleep for long periods of time in their car seats. A new study finds sitting upright in car safety seats can partially compress the chest wall.

That reduces the amount of oxygen babies are able to breathe in. Researchers compared the oxygen levels among healthy, full-term infants when they were in cribs and car seats. In cribs -- oxygen saturation levels were at nearly 98-percent.

But that percentage fell to 95.7-percent when they were in a car seat. This does not mean infants should ever be in a moving vehicle without being strapped into a car seat -- it's the safest way to travel and, of course, the law.

Researchers say the car seat should not be a substitute for a crib. This study used 200 healthy, full-term infants. The study also looked at infant car beds, and found the oxygen saturation level was at 96.3%. It's used for premature babies, low-birth weight babies and babies who need to lie down for medical reasons when traveling.

Oh man, I admit I have used the infant car seat as a crib before. My second son had horrible reflux and if he wasn't sleeping at an angle, he just cried and cried. It was much easier to put him in the car seat and rock him to sleep. He also slept in the bouncy seat-which I highly discourage. He got a flat head and had to wear a helmet because of that!
I am going to try using the baby sleep positioner for the first few months. My mother-in-law bought me one that has a tab on the bottom. It helps you keep track of which way the baby's head is turned when he sleeps. Then the next time you lay him down, you turn his head the other way. I hope it works!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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