Unrestrained Infant in an Emergency?

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wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
A good friend of mine has. She lives in a mobile home on a hill in rural NY. There was a random tornado nearly right above them, basically, they heard it on the radio and TV and heard it coming. They did the same thing you did. Jumped in the car with their three/four/five however month old daughter on her lap and just sped the mile to her mom's and ran into their basement.

She caught massive flack for it from the (then) carseat nuts on our board where we post. Was it unsafe? Yes, highly. Was the tornado unsafe? Yes, highly. Parental choice, and I can't say that even now I would do something differently than that in that situation.

I think that if in either of your cases the drive had been long that hopping in the car and going, moving on the mother's instinct, is fine, but then get everyone safe on the way. There really are some times in life when seconds do count, even thirty seconds can mean something big. For instance for my friend. Thirty seconds can mean the difference of a tornado jumping half a mile right to her house. You get out of the way of a tornado, fast. If the trip had been more than 30 seconds I'm sure she would have buckled her daughter in on the way over, but you move then and fast and worry about other things later.

Piper's ridden restrained only by a sling several times. Most of those were short-ish trips in English taxis, which have weird setups in the back, I don't think seatbelts are an option (we were in Edinburgh, I don't think there was a subway, and I don't know what our bus options were at that time of night). But another time was for her grandfather's funeral. We rode in the limo (over my protests because 1) no carseat, she was 15 months old then, not even FFing, and 2) in all the Jewish funerals I'd been to only the immediate family sat in the limo, no spouses, no grandkids, so I hadn't been expecting it (I would have taken the time before we left to install a seat)). She's never been completely unrestrained, though. She's ridden in NYC taxis with just a lap belt a few times (scares the crap out of me, and only once has it been since I've known better), she rode once a half mile through our subdivision in either a lap belt or a shoulder belt with me holding her (we went walking and I took a wrong turn and ended up walking for five hours and so when I saw Nathan in a rented truck on his way home I let him give us a lift the last half mile completely within our subdivision).

I would think most of us have stories like yours, mostly from BWKB (before we knew better), though I wouldn't be surprised if there were smatterings too like mine where we knew better and just situations dictated that it had to be, at the time. Well, situations where it's easy to say that it had to be done because we needed to make a train, but the same situation could easily have been, "I should have waited for the subway and missed the train, it wasn't worth the cost."

Wendy
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
When CJ was three years old he broke his collarbone. When we called the ER they told us to absolutely NOT strap him into his carseat for the trip to the ER because we could injure the shoulder further.

Knowing what I know now I would have risked it anyway(it was about 5 miles and the roads were icy) but at the time we figured the ER staff knew best. :eek:
 

Simplysomething

New member
There are emergencies and true emergencies. Emergencies where you have more people than space to go to the mall, not gonna get a pass from me. Emegencies where it is (or could be) a life or death matter, sometimes you have to make hard choices. Wendy's example of her friend in the tornado, well, that would IMO, be a true emergency.

Now, if they were evacuating a hurricane, which gives more notice, maybe not so much. Unless of couse, they were doing the mass evacs and iddn't have their own vehical. Sometimes you have to do things you normally wouldn't do in order to keep yourself alive.

It happens.

Wendy's point about 30 seconds made me think of the videos we'd watched of children unrestrained or restrained improperly in other countries. I wonder how many of those places have a high incidence of violence, where maybe the benefit of having the baby tightly strapped in is outweighed by the danger of someone possibly setting off a bomb nearby.
 
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stayinhomewithmy6

Senior Community Member
I did, but just once.... There was a tornado in the area, supposedly headed straight for our house, it was about 1:00am, so DH & I hauled the 3 kids out to the van as fast as we could and he drove WHILE I strapped them into their seats. We were going about 4 miles to my in-laws basement, DH was driving so crazy and fast that I was having a hard time not falling over while moving around the back trying to get them strapped in. Of course, we were at least halfway there by the time I was done and crawled up to the front to buckle my own seatbelt. I don't know what I was more scared of - the tornado or my drama king crazy driving hubby getting in an accident on the way there! And of course, the tornado didn't come anywhere close to our house!
 

Yoshi

New member
When DD was a newborn, about 6 weeks old, she awoke one night with a scream, then was gasping for air. She was turning red and not really crying. I had never seen anything like it, and was a bit freaked out. She kept sounding like she was choking- so we decided to take her to the ER- about 8 minutes away. (and it wasn't even my first baby!) Of course, DH asked me if I would put her in her carseat or hold her, and since she wasn't turning blue or anything, we decided to put her in the carseat. Of course, she was fine (asleep, too) by the time we got to the ER, and they couldn't find anything wrong with her....as it turns out, this was her first reflux event. In a real emergency (and I don't know what yours was, since it must have been edited) it would depend on life or death and my snap decision at the moment. If I was being approached in a parking lot and afraid of being carjacked or something, I'd just get us in the car and away as fast as possible. Same thing with a tornado or a disaster of some kind. I guess as soon as I could, I (or someone else in the car) could climb in the back and buckle DD in.
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Wendy's point about 30 seconds made me think of the videos we'd watched of children unrestrained or restrained improperly in other countries. I wonder how many of those places have a high incidence of violence, where maybe the benefit of having the baby tightly strapped in is outweighed by the danger of someone possibly setting off a bomb nearby.

I have a friend who lives in South Africa and she shared with us a while ago something they have there on instructions for how to strap your child into their carseat. Because while you're doing that your car door is open and your back to the world, prime danger for carjackings and kidnappings, not to mention your more run of the mill robberies and rape. I can't remember exactly what it said now, but it basically said do as little as possible unless you know you're safe.

Wendy
 

tjham

New member
Ackkkk! This thread made me have a bad dream last night. My daughter was driving and I was in the passenger seat. I had a random baby grandchild in my arms in a white blanket. All of a sudden, I realized s/he was not buckled in and was horrified! We couldn't pull over then but my DD said she would at the next turn off. Then we both forgot again until we got to our destination. I woke up exhausted!
 

scatterbunny

New member
No, Hayley's never been completely unrestrained, but I've had to put her in just a seatbelt (lapbelts, even worse) twice now. Once in a taxi and once on a field trip for school. I was a nervous wreck both times.
 

Lea_Ontario

Well-known member
Yes, once. Boo's first episode of anaphylaxis came on while we were out of the house - and the thought of putting ANYTHING on the chest or an infant who was just barely breathing already was a worse thought for me than the slim possibility that we would be in an accident on our way to hospital. I did have him sitting in his seat, and was holding his head up more than normal, because every time his head dropped forward at all, his breathing got worse.

The second time he had an anaphylactic reaction, he was in MUCH better shape going to the hospital (thank you EpiPen !), and was only restrained in the ambulance by a lap-belt, on a side-ways seat at that !
 
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