WWYD in a long trip situation?????

[leebeeag]

My sister is about to go on a trip up the coast next wednesday with her DH and DD 20 months, 22 pounds.. she has asked to borrow my in-car portable dvd player and ive just remembered it needs to be attached to a headrest(...she will certainly push the buttons if she holds it)..she is RF and there is no headrest in my sisters car(Australian Toyota Camary sedan mid-late 90's i think)
My sister and her DH want to turn my niece around to ff for the LONG 6 hour trip...you can imagine what i said and finally i said i'd get online and ask everyone's advise..
WWYD???????

how can they keep her RF but still able to watch the DVD player without her holding it????

MODS if this is in the wrong section could you please adjust .thanks.

 

[QuassEE]

A few options..

First of all, and perhaps best--she COULD look out the window, interact with her parents, listen to music, and play with toys instead... We used to do 16 hour drives with the kids all the time, and rarely used the DVD player. In fact, in the 3.5 years I've had my Sienna we only used it around 10 hours in total. Six hours should be a breeze, and certainly nothing to risk a child's safety over.

Secondly, because she's rear-facing and the majority of collisions are frontal, the DVD player does pose a risk to her in a collision as it could come loose and would be directly in line to her head. And..because most collisions are frontal, turning her forward facing to watch a DVD player also puts her at a greater risk of being hurt in a crash. I personally would not place a DVD player in front of a RF child, nor do I believe an infant/toddler watching a DVD player is so important it's worth a step down in safety in the car.

Third possible option here--mount the DVD player behind her (towards the front of the vehicle, between the two seats at front), and affix reflective sheeting to the seat she's on. It doesn't weigh anything, and you can get sheeting that's almost mirror clear. You just need to rig it at an angle with something that has no significant weight. Usually the angle to the side bolster of the seat will be good for this. I played around with this on our infant seat base and it worked, but we ended up never actually using it.

-N.

 

[aisraeltax]

ill tell you what i did a few weeks ago.

my DVD isnt portable..its on the front seat headrests...but my 27 month old is still RF'ing. we drove from Ga. to NY and then home to NH.

I bought a mirror and attached it to his headrest....angled it so he could see the DVD.

I was alone. I did my best to talk with him, sing w/ him, etc. etc. but after so long, i got tired....we had some great DVDs with singing and dancing and music that wasnt going to kill me....he had fun (for the most part).

i totally agree not to mount it on the kids headrest though...that doesnt sound safe at all (not thats what they were going to do...but just thought id throw in that i agree w/ that recommendation completely).

good luck!

 

[TechnoGranola]

Any chance they can drive at night while she's sleeping? I'd leave before bedtime, have one adult sit in the back with her while the other drives. The adult can talk to her, sing, etc. for the first hour or so, then hopefully fall asleep for the rest of the trip.

 

[leebeeag]

they are leaving at about 4 in the morning.so hopefully she will stay asleep when they place her in the car. it not just for the drive to their holiday they are looking for a new place to work and live so alot of driving will be involved..RF is definatly the safest option...their DD loves her dvds and sometimes it will be the only thing to keep them sane.!! it wont be a option for either one of then to sit in the back as they will have things in the car beside her..soft thing that wont harm anyone if in a crash all the other things will be in a trailer or in the boot.they really want to turn her around but keep her safe aswell without her screaming the whole time.weve look for the reflctive sheeting you sugested but cant find anything similar here in AU..

any other suggestions???? remembering that their car doesnt have headrests to attach a mirror to.

 

[QuassEE]

Welllll.. we do let the kids have our iPhones/DS' iPod Touch while we're in the car. They're fairly tiny, and they're usually close to their heads while they're watching.. so in a collision, they might hurt a RF'er but probably wouldn't be able to gather as much speed or strike with as much force.

-Nicole.

 

[TechnoGranola]

it wont be a option for either one of then to sit in the back as they will have things in the car beside her..soft thing that wont harm anyone if in a crash all the other things will be in a trailer or in the boot.

This one is easily solvable. Instead of putting the soft items in the back beside the baby, put them in the front seat and have an adult sit in the back with the baby. With an adult in the back, it's likely that a DVD player won't even be needed.

Really, this issue isn't as complicated as your sister is making it. She's the adult and adult and should do everything in her power to keep baby happy. On our 7 hour trip we spent 3 days driving around while at our destination, for up to 5 hours per day and I never once considered flipping DD FF so she could watch DVD's. I sat in the back with her, we took breaks when she needed to nurse and to stop for lunch. I played games, read books to her and watched her nap.

If the DVD player is 100% a must, can she get one that opens like a clamshell? She could sit it at the baby's feet, between her legs and then strap around the base of the DVD player and through the belt path of the child restraint. It wouldn't be a projectile because it would be held tight with the strap, it wouldn't be a risk for hitting during rebound because it's at baby's feet, and it shouldn't interfere with a seat belt install as the strap would be on the top of the belt path (not the bottom where the seat belt runs). I really can't how this would interfere with the crash dynamics of the seat RF (seems safer than hard toys strapped to an infant carrier), BUT if someone here has a reason why it would, please point it out! I wouldn't normally advise strapping something to the car seat, but in this case, I think it's far safer than turning her FF.