Car beds, any advice?

Some backround, I had twins on August 17th at 32 weeks. We've been in the NICU in Edmonton and then flown home to our local hospital 3 weeks ago. We were told that our boys would both have to pass car seat tests in order to go home as one of the hospitals stipulations. Our little twin failed his first car seat test and will have his second one tonight. If he doesn't pass again, they told me they will send him home in a car bed. Before this site, I would have been ok with that, but since we spent the money to have really good car seats for them and I have seen the busted ass car bed they want to send him home in, I am not ok with that. When I questioned the nurses, I got ripped a new one about how expensive it was to have my boys there and how it was terrible that I wouldn't just take them home in this random seat. I told them that since they couldn't guarentee the safety of the seat I didn't think I was being unresonable at all. I asked who certified the seat as safe, the nurses do. I askd how old the seat was, unknown. I asked how they knew the people before me didn't leave the seat sitting outside, or allowed their kids to ride it down the stairs for fun, they couldn't tell me anything.

My dh has looked up on transport Canada a bunch of stuff, but I don't know if it's going to make a difference. What's the point in having that rule if they aren't going to uphold it? No one wants me to bring my babies home more than me, but I can't sit around for 2 weeks in the house to wait for him to be able to pass his car seat test. I'm just so frustrated with their double standards. Does anyone have any advice??

Tara

Make sure that your little one is being tested at a 45 degree angle, firstly.. I suppose you could make the parental decision to increase the angle somewhat, if you're more comfortable doing so versus using the provided car bed. Only you can decide that, and I'm not officially suggesting it ... Another option would be to take public transit with your baby, just to get home.

-Nicole.

Thank you. I guess I am just neurotic, no one around this town I live in seems to give a rats behind about car seats and everytime I try and talk about it, I get shut down. Even my kids Dr doesn't see what the big deal is. So frustrating. At least I know I'm doing the best I can to keep my kids safe.

Staying away from at car bad is a good advice but sometimes there are special situations or emergencies when we have to do things which are less safe than preferred.

There is a huge difference in safety between a car bed and a rear facing car seat.

Good luck!

Hi,

A few things here...

What seats are they doing the test in?

Are you sure the level indicator on the base of the seat is at 45 degrees?

What do your sons weigh at the moment?



My dd was born at the Alex in Edmonton and spent 10 days in the NICU. At discharge she weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces. PM me if you want more info on how I got her out of there in an infant seat.

Hugs to you.

I'm also very interested in hearing the brand of the seat. Some seats fit small babies better than others.

I'm sorry that you're being stone walled. I have seen one car bed in use and I think until I asked the parents to see it and how their baby was buckled in to it, that they had never even buckled the baby up since being released...

Here in Edmonton they rent car beds - there is one company in the city who rents them when provided with a prescription. And the company is expensive from what I've been told and I'm not sure that the history of the seat is any better kept. Though the one that I saw was a 2007 DOM, so not that old anyways.

How long are they doing the carseat test for? And how long will the drive home from the hospital be? At what point in the test is the twin failing? How long has it been since the first test? They're supposed to wait a minimum of 3 days since the last A or B episode, so they shouldn't be doing the test any sooner than 3 days since the last trial. Depending on the length of the test they are doing, and the length of your drive home - and the dr's your dealing with, you may be able to work something out in terms of breaking up the drive in to small chunks.. sitting in the backseat with baby, stopping every 30mins and taking him out - that kind of thing. I'd also question if he's spontaneously recovering from whatever event is causing him to fail, or if he requires assistance.

Car beds aren't optimal protection, but they do serve a purpose. And to be honest, I'm more concerned about you being able to transport both twins home at the same time and still monitor them closely... A car bed takes up 2 seating positions in the back seat, so there would be no way for an adult to monitor the babies... (And another thing - do they have the instruction for the carbed? If they don't, email me at snowbird25ca AT car-seat DOT org with the model of the carbed and I should be able to get a copy of the manual to email to you.)

We have Peg Perego's to bring them home in. I bought those ones specifically for the SIP. Both of my babies are over 5lbs so I'm not worried about that end of things. The car seat test he has to pass is 1.5 hours long. They do it in the middle of the night so that we don't 'worry' about it. Our drive home would be about 10 minutes, if we got stopped at every light on the way. We have a 2004 Kia Sedona with middle bucket seats which is where they'd be sitting should they go home in their car seats. The back bench seat is where my 4.5 year, 65lbs son sits in his SK Monteray. He was tested on Sunday, no idea specifics on his failing other than that he did. I know that if he drops his O2 or has any decelerations in heart rate more than once, it's considered a fail. The Dr ordered a retest in 48 hours. The nurse I spoke with was quite rude and told me that you could still pick up a car seat at a garage sale and use it, if wasn't more than 10 years old.

I don't know the brand of seat they are offering me, but will check. I told her if the car bed could pass a saftey inspection, I'd gladly take my son home in it.

TaraisEvansMom said:

We have Peg Perego's to bring them home in. I bought those ones specifically for the SIP. Both of my babies are over 5lbs so I'm not worried about that end of things. The car seat test he has to pass is 1.5 hours long. They do it in the middle of the night so that we don't 'worry' about it. Our drive home would be about 10 minutes, if we got stopped at every light on the way. We have a 2004 Kia Sedona with middle bucket seats which is where they'd be sitting should they go home in their car seats. The back bench seat is where my 4.5 year, 65lbs son sits in his SK Monteray. He was tested on Sunday, no idea specifics on his failing other than that he did. I know that if he drops his O2 or has any decelerations in heart rate more than once, it's considered a fail. The Dr ordered a retest in 48 hours. The nurse I spoke with was quite rude and told me that you could still pick up a car seat at a garage sale and use it, if wasn't more than 10 years old.

I don't know the brand of seat they are offering me, but will check. I told her if the car bed could pass a saftey inspection, I'd gladly take my son home in it.

Click to expand...

A few things...

The Peg seats tend to push a baby's head forward a bit due to the headwings. That alone could be causing a drop in O2 (due to a slightly closed off airway). You could try a seat with no headwings and see if there's an improvement... though it's hard to say if in 48hrs he might have passed the test anyway (because he's had a few additional days of development).

I'm not sure what else to offer. I know that many people think the Peg seat fits smaller babies well, but it's been my experience that this isn't always the case. I think it might be a misconception about having an infant insert (which does in fact make a smaller baby look cozy), but having put a just barely 5lb baby into a Peg seat a few weeks back and then trying that same baby in the KeyFit, I can say with certainty that the KF fit *that* baby much much better (chest clip smaller, harness tighter in all 5 points of restraint, and head not pushed forward).


Keep us posted, and let us know what happens in 48hrs.

BTW, if you do end up getting different seats, you ought not worry too much about having SIP wings on an infant seat. An infant seat provides inherent side impact protection because during a crash the baby's head is fully contained within the seat itself. Headwings might reduce some lateral head movement, but with infant seats being so narrow to start with this isn't much of a concern providing the seat itself has side impact foam.

I hope that makes sense.

I agree with Angie. The Peg seats tend to not fit small babies well at all. You'll have a much better fit with a seat like the Keyfit or Chaperone (if you're able to find a Chaperone, they're hard to find right now... then again, if you're rural, you won't be able to easily get a Keyfit either.) You may consider trying a different seat from a very trusted friend?

What is their gestational age right now?

Being that you are so close to the hospital, I would really push the dr.'s to find out more about the test... Find out at what time he failed. Talk to the dr. and tell him you're going to be on a 10min trip home at the absolute most - so unless he's failing the test right away, he's not going to be in the seat for 1.5hrs at any time.

The other factor is, depending on the weight of the twin, car beds only go to 10lbs anyways, so a car bed is only meant as a short term solution. You can expect once the twins are home they will grow much faster and gain weight much faster than in hospital... a hospital is a stressful environment and my son went from gaining just enough to be satisfactory, to gaining almost a lb a week when we were released.

And really, 48hrs is too soon to have a proper re-test. When my ds was in hospital my roommate in the hostel at the hospital had a baby who had been born at 28wks. She failed her carseat test a number of times and each time they had to wait another 3 days. After the 2nd failure, they sent her for a sleep study, and planned to do a 3rd test after that. If she failed the 3rd test, she'd have gone home in a car bed. My ds was released before her, so I'm not sure what ended up happening with her, but it gives you an idea of the procedures that the hospitals in Edmonton follow...

The dr.'s are the ones who ultimately make the decision, so find out what time rounds are, and ask the dr. some very pointed questions. The nurses (and I don't have anything against nurses, but did encounter some "know-it-all snooty" ones when ds was in hospital,) are just messengers and observers that communicate info to the dr. You don't need to tolerate being treated with disrespect.

So far as certifying the seat is safe, nobody can do that. If the nurses aren't carseat techs they won't even have the basics to review the seat and make a basic determination of signs that may make it unsafe. Some things stick out that make a seat obviously unsafe, but it is impossible to state with 100% certainty that a used seat is safe unless you know the full history of it and are able to trust the person giving the history. That being said, if it means the difference between a twin coming home or not, it may be worth using for that one trip home and one trip back to the hospital, and just staying home the rest of the time...

here is a pic of a 4.5 lb preemie in a KeyFit, with and without the insert.

Thanks everyone, well as it turns out, my son passed his test. My dh took note of the car beds DOM and it was 2002. The boys are home now and they both fit pretty well in thier seats so I'm just going to lay low and give my little twin some time to grow more. He's almost 6lbs and his brother is almost 7lbs, won't be long I am sure. Thanks again!

Tara

I didn't actually have net today to respond to this--but the carseat test shouldn't be 1.5 hours. In fact, I would HIGHLY recommend against any newborn spending 1.5 hours in any carseat, premie or otherwise, unless absolutely necessary. We generally advise parents to keep them in their seats only from point A to point B, therefore the test should really only be the amount of time of your longest journey over that first few weeks. For most parents, this is the trip home. Thinking about those little babies in their carseats for one and a half hours makes me feel ill. I absolutely cannot stand seeing parents walking the mall with hours worth of shopping bags strapped to their stroller, baby strapped into their carseat...ugggh.

-Nicole.

QuassEE said:

I didn't actually have net today to respond to this--but the carseat test shouldn't be 1.5 hours. In fact, I would HIGHLY recommend against any newborn spending 1.5 hours in any carseat, premie or otherwise, unless absolutely necessary. We generally advise parents to keep them in their seats only from point A to point B, therefore the test should really only be the amount of time of your longest journey over that first few weeks. For most parents, this is the trip home. Thinking about those little babies in their carseats for one and a half hours makes me feel ill. I absolutely cannot stand seeing parents walking the mall with hours worth of shopping bags strapped to their stroller, baby strapped into their carseat...ugggh.

-Nicole.

Click to expand...

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one. When I read that this baby's O2 levels fell after an 1.5hrs in his car seat my first thought was to wonder if that wouldn't happen with a full term baby.

Soph's challenge test was 30 minutes, and we had a 3 hour drive home.

QuassEE said:

I didn't actually have net today to respond to this--but the carseat test shouldn't be 1.5 hours. In fact, I would HIGHLY recommend against any newborn spending 1.5 hours in any carseat, premie or otherwise, unless absolutely necessary. We generally advise parents to keep them in their seats only from point A to point B, therefore the test should really only be the amount of time of your longest journey over that first few weeks. For most parents, this is the trip home. Thinking about those little babies in their carseats for one and a half hours makes me feel ill. I absolutely cannot stand seeing parents walking the mall with hours worth of shopping bags strapped to their stroller, baby strapped into their carseat...ugggh.

-Nicole.

Click to expand...

At the NICU DD was in, they doubled the time it took for you to get home. If you lived 2 hours away, they did a 4 hour test. DD's was 2 hours, since we live an hour away. Why not just do the amount of time it takes to get home?

Double the time home is pretty common, but let's face it--you have a sick/premie/etc child, you're not going to do a 2-4 hours with them in the carseat straight. Most parents would stop every 30 minutes or so, take the child out of the seat and feed/hold them, or take a break. If there's still a medical problem and your newborn requires a 4 hour test, they can damn well transport via ambulance at that point.

-Nicole.

QuassEE said:

Double the time home is pretty common, but let's face it--you have a sick/premie/etc child, you're not going to do a 2-4 hours with them in the carseat straight. Most parents would stop every 30 minutes or so, take the child out of the seat and feed/hold them, or take a break. If there's still a medical problem and your newborn requires a 4 hour test, they can damn well transport via ambulance at that point.

-Nicole.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat::bow: