Nursing baby out of carseat

Ok, so I am a member of cafemom in the breastfeeding group. I am also in both carseat safety groups, and an admin in one of them. One of the topics today in the BF group, is about nursing while someone else is driving. People have actually admitted to taking their baby out of the carseat to nurse, while they are still buckled in. One said she even felt safe doing so! Another lady said we were just overly paranoid! I found out that Idaho even has a law stating that it is ok to do so. Why are there even laws on having your child in a carseat, if they will also have laws saying that it is ok to take the baby out? I am going to post a youtube video of what happens to an infant that is being held by a parent that is buckled up, but I doubt that will even help. I am just shocked and don't even know what to say. When it comes to extended harnessing and rearfacing, I have lots of advice. Go read the post.

Here is the link to the post:
http://www.cafemom.com/group/325/boards/read.php?post_id=1164233


TITLE 49 MOTOR VEHICLES CHAPTER 6 RULES OF THE ROAD 49-672. PASSENGER SAFETY FOR CHILDREN. (1) No noncommercial motor vehicleoperator shall transport a child who is six (6) years of age or younger in amotor vehicle manufactured with seat belts after January 1, 1966, unless thechild is properly secured in a child safety restraint that meets therequirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 213. (2) The provisions of this section shall not apply: (a) If all of the motor vehicle's seat belts are in use, but in such an event any unrestrained child to which this section applies shall be placed in the rear seat of the motor vehicle, if it is so equipped; or (b) When the child is removed from the car safety restraint and held by the attendant for the purpose of nursing the child or attending the child's other immediate physiological needs. (3) The failure to use a child safety restraint shall not be consideredunder any circumstances as evidence of contributory negligence, nor shall suchfailure be admissible as evidence in any civil action with regard tonegligence.

That makes me so mad. I KNOW how hard it is to travel with a tiny baby. My DD screamed in the car for her first six months. On long trips I wistfully imagined being able to take her out of her carseat and nurse her to sleep on my lap. But guess what, I didn't BECAUSE SHE COULD HAVE DIED if I did that. To me, that was a pretty persuasive argument against it.

When the baby needs to nurse, STOP THE CAR! It's not rocket science.

I posted.

Aww, thank you so much!

You know, Ive heard that. The woman I was talking with told me that no way would she risk her child, shes unbuckle and lean over him to nurse. I told her thats not safe either.

I would just lean over, not unbuckle myself but lean over. After a few times of doing that I would pump and take a bottle for drives. lol

But yes it is legal... very sad.

Hey Im a part of that board also. LOL. I responded. Wasnt to nice about it though..
That irrated me that girl saying she felt totally safe doing it. @@

North Carolina still allowed this until earlier this year. This has been a topic on a local message board of mine too. We had one or two ladies say they took the babies out to nurse, but the general consensus was, if you have to nurse, PULL OVER. How freaking hard is that?

MI's law is the same! Stupid IMO! The laws in this state need to change fast!

I nurse in the carseat...but my breasts are large enough that I don't really have to lean over the seat, LOL. Seriously, though, I'm quite large...and I can hold my breast, resting my hand on the side of the car seat, within reach of the baby's mouth so she can nurse.

But, yeah, that's with a large 3 mo. OH, and my seatbelt is still buckled as well.

Raechel.

i replied

Momof4Girls said:

I nurse in the carseat...but my breasts are large enough that I don't really have to lean over the seat, LOL. Seriously, though, I'm quite large...and I can hold my breast, resting my hand on the side of the car seat, within reach of the baby's mouth so she can nurse.

But, yeah, that's with a large 3 mo. OH, and my seatbelt is still buckled as well.

Raechel.

Click to expand...

well then the worst you have to fear is your nipple being bitten off in a crash

crunchierthanthou said:

well then the worst you have to fear is your nipple being bitten off in a crash

Click to expand...

No, the worst is the fact that your body (even part of your body) may slam into your baby, possibly injuring him/her. Additionally, the seat is only designed to hold up to 35 lb rear facing (depending on the model), so the added weight of part of your body (say your right arm, shoulder and breast) could bring the weight "in" the seat up way beyond what it is designed to withstand, causing catastrophic failure.

UlrikeDG said:

No, the worst is the fact that your body (even part of your body) may slam into your baby, possibly injuring him/her. Additionally, the seat is only designed to hold up to 35 lb rear facing (depending on the model), so the added weight of part of your body (say your right arm, shoulder and breast) could bring the weight "in" the seat up way beyond what it is designed to withstand, causing catastrophic failure.

Click to expand...

yeah, I really should have used the . I went back and forth a few times on that. I didn't want to seem too rude, but I think it's a bad idea for all the reasons you listed. Not that I think your post was rude in any way (on the contrary). I was was trying (unsuccessfully) to convey that I didn't view it as harmless as the pp. No matter the size of your breasts, I have a hard time believing that anyone can remain seated in the proper position while nursing a baby. You're still leaning to the side and in front of the child's seat.

Amazing how umm...(trying to find a nicer word....) ignorant people can be. I would like to have a couple of them in front of me.....

what the heck is so hard abuot # 1 pumping and # 2 if your baby will absolutely will not take a bottle (which is why I feel its important to get babies used to bottles early)then PULL OVER and feed the baby. Wow. Thats hard huh? A whole 20 minutes at most. Thats what I did.

I'm not posting there, but feel free to use my words

Ditto Ulrike. I know that many roads aren't ideal for stopping on, but most are perfectly fine & obviously safer than even leaning over let alone anyone being unbuckled. However, simple planning ahead to add enough time into traveling so that you can stop frequently to nurse before baby freaks out is best! & if baby does cry, parents need to realize that taking a few minutes to find a safe place to park is not the same as CIO (so many parents think CIO is worse than unbuckling but that's just absolutely foolish, especially considering that providing baby with your soothing presence/voice/touch is not CIO anyway)

P.S. I couldn't pump: no matter what what I did, only 1/2 ounce (total) came out ... although Leila got much more than that skin-to-skin (with our family medical history related to the benefits of breastmilk I was not willing to supplement with formula: besides the bottle is a projectile)

I used to nurse DS while he was still in his seat. I found out much later that it wasn't safe so I won't be doing it with this baby. I knew MI law said you could take the baby out to nurse. Remember that story a few years ago where the trucker saw a woman driving WHILE nursing a baby? She was in OH but didn't know the law was different from MI (where she was from). I'm not sure if they changed or re-worded the law since then. They said even though the law didn't specify, that she was only supposed to be nursing a baby if she was a passenger. I think that's how it went anyways.

We always just scheduled more time to get to places since we knew we'd be pulling over to stop to nurse. Pumping wasn't my thing.
MIL didn't understand why I just didn't take her out of the carseat to nurse.

I think I've done just about everything you can possibly try when driving with an infant-- with my first we took her out of the seat and I nursed her while buckled in. It was just what we did. I knew she wasn't as safe as when she was buckled in, but mistakenly believed, as many did back then, that since *I* was buckled, my arms could protect her in an accident. I can only claim youth, ignorance, and a healthy dose of that "impervious to bad stuff happening" mindset.

My 2nd child was tongue-tied, and while he nursed well, bottle-feeding was painful. We did try, mainly so that his grandmothers could give him a bottle (and therefore babysit for an hour or two) while we visited. But his tongue would overstretch and end up bloodied, raw, and painful, which was not a good thing. Subsequent nursings were difficult, to say the least, until his tongue healed. So bottles would not have been an option for him in the car anyway. I discovered the art of leaning over the carseat, and did that for the next several children. We did also try to stop and nurse at rest stops or gas fill-ups when possible, too, but if we weren't anywhere near stopping, "the lean" was the feeding method of choice for a looong time.

I don't think it's fair, though, to imply that all nursing babies should learn to use bottles early on, simply so they can be fed in their carseats while travelling. At different times in my parenting, bottles were NOT an option (3 of my 6 were tongue-tied to some degree), and there are also many parents out there who are determined not to use bottles with their babies, for a multitude of reasons that it would take too long to discuss here in one post. Of course, pulling over should be the option of choice and I'm not condoning taking a baby out of their carseat while the vehicle is moving, or leaning over to feed. Bottlefeeding in the carseat *is* an option for many; I'm just pointing out that it's NOT a one-size-fits-all option. :twocents: