My hospital sends preemies(NICU) home before 5lbs

In whatever their parents bring in for a car seat. They have to pass a car seat test, which means they have to sit in the seat for 1.5 hours without having any dips in O2 sats or heart rates, but if they can do that, they are allowed to leave. We questioned the nurse about it and she was adamant about the babies being safe in the seat, since there were rolls etc around them. When we were first in this NICU one nurse told me they had sent a 1500 gram baby home in a car seat, not a car bed. Is this ok for them to be doing??

Tara

It's only okay if the seat has a low minimum weight. Most seats start at 5 pounds but there are some with 4 pound minimums. The US has a couple rated "from birth" but I am not aware of any CA seats with no minimum.

It's the current recommendation among both health professionals and carseat techs to avoid using carbeds if at all possible. The only time you would want to use a carbed is if it's unavoidable to send a child home before they can use a carseat. This would happen when they repeatedly fail the carseat test, or they have other health issues that do not allow them to use a regular carseat.

Otherwise--carseat it is. We have seats that go down to a 4lb starting weight, although this is still pretty recent. Until recently, the best you'd find is a 5lb starting weight.. and I believe every or almost every infant seat will just flat out say that the child needs to be at or above those bottom slots. That's not reality, and nor is all children meeting that 4 or 5lb minimum weight before they're released from hospital.

Yes, it's illegal...if the harness doesn't tighten fully, it's dangerous.. However, if the harness tightens and the child is well secured, I suppose I would rather see parents making the parental decision to use a carseat with their 3.5lber rather htan using a carbed. There's really no inbetween option.

Sometimes you just do the best you can with what you have.

-Nicole.

We brought dd home at 3lbs 10oz in a rear adjust Evenflo Embrace. It was that or a used/rented/bleached/mystery car bed that I knew provided less protection for her in a crash. She passed her car seat challenge test, and was perfectly healthy, just three sizes too small. We had originally planned to bring our baby home in a front adjust Snugride, but she simply didn't fit (harness too loose). Knowing about the Embrace's harness geometry allowed me to send dh to the store for a seat that would fit her, and we were then able to get her home where she was (IMHO) better off. None of us needed to be at the hospital, and none of us were thriving while there.

These days parents are far more lucky with no fewer than three infant seats on the Canadian market allowing for use from 4lbs and up. :thumbsup:

I was taught that as long as the slots are low enough and harness tightens enough to get a tight fit, while it would be preferable to have a seat with a low weight rating, as long as the baby fits okay it's still safer for them to go home in a car seat than a car bed unless they have breathing problems or etc. that necessitate lying flat.