Saftey Guidelines

DuchessOfCambridge

A place for sharing info on safety guidelines in terms of baby gear, sleep, food, etc.

eatinwatermelonseeds

Most infant car seats (if not all) are not made to be put in the front seat of a shopping cart. This can damage the mechanism that clicks into your car seat base, and since it doesn't fully click in, could fall or fly off of the cart and injure baby. 

eatinwatermelonseeds

DuchessOfCambridge

Baby walkers are not recommended. I recently read this and was surprised there are injuries outside of babies getting to staircases. We never used one with DS because his PT advised against it since they are bad for their hips but I didn't know the AAP is trying to get them banned or that they're already banned in Canada.

https://www.popsci.com/baby-walkers-dangerous

brie_and_almonds

@DuchessOfCambridge DH and I call walkers "rolling deathtraps." I definitely fell down the stairs in my walker as a baby.

chloe97

I wanted to share the HealthyChildren website which is the AAP's parent education website. If you are looking for specific safety of health guidelines, this should be your first stop. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/Pages/default.aspx.

It is not the MOST user-friendly website, but I know that they are working on making it better. If anyone has any questions about specific AAP guidelines and can't find them on here, let me know and I can find them for you.

chloe97

DuchessOfCambridge said:

Baby walkers are not recommended. I recently read this and was surprised there are injuries outside of babies getting to staircases. We never used one with DS because his PT advised against it since they are bad for their hips but I didn't know the AAP is trying to get them banned or that they're already banned in Canada.

https://www.popsci.com/baby-walkers-dangerous

Yep- the AAP is working on getting them banned. Unfortunately, this administration is not particularly fond of increased regulation, so we are not expecting to get too far with the CPSC on this or banning window blinds with cords- which are 2 big issues. We are also trying to get crib bumpers banned, but so far we have only had success at the state and local level in a few states. 

Just FYI- I had a major freakout b/c DD had this walker below and my coworker who is the expert on all things injury prevention let me know that these standing walkers are not the type of walkers that the studies refer to (also on this particular model, the wheels lock). 

DuchessOfCambridge

@chloe97 yes we have that one as well! I hate it with a passion but it's safe DS currently can't walk well with it, it rolls too fast for him. He's not steady enough on his feet yet, even with the wheels locked. Bummer.

babynurse1114

Some people don’t know that Rock N Plays are not meant to be used as a bassinet or permanent sleep space, the fact that they’re advertised as “newborn sleepers” is purely for marketing purposes. The only safe sleep space for baby is on a firm flat surface. I do admit I love the rock n play to have in the living room when I’m able to supervise baby, but definitely shouldn’t be used as a nightly sleeper 😊

DuchessOfCambridge

I can't STAND that crib bumpers are sold, I absolutely cannot. It makes me furious and I want to shake people. Is money literally worth more to you than the life of an infant? Shame on them. And shame on those marketing mesh and braided bumpers as "breathable and safe". So breathable that a woman in a FB group I'm in almost lost her 1 year old due to mesh bumper suffocation! She was blue! Thankfully they realized in time but it makes me SO ANGRY you guys!

mrskoz428

@DuchessOfCambridge honestly, most infant bedding sets drive me insane. All they need is a fitted sheet. Everything else is just for aesthetics. We only registered for fitted sheets, swaddle blankets, and one fleece blanket. 

knarlytaurus

One thing DH and I just purchased today is the new owlet sock 2.0 that now comes with a video monitor, too. We may not have normally purchased it  but we had $400+ to spend in his FSA before midnight tonight, and that was something we had been looking at (we weren't sure when we would get pregnant, and you have to set your limit in November of the previous year). They just came out with a video monitor added to the sock and sell it all as one system. And the best part is that it's all FSA eligible!
Thanks to warnings from @DuchessOfCambridge, we made sure the camera was to be used on a secure wifi network to reduce chances of hacking the video feed.This system seems pretty cool, although the constant oxygen sensor readings for a (FX) healthy baby may be overkill. Many reviews said the sensor was very accurate and many parents said they slept better having it. Did anyone purchase the owlet for a previous baby, or consider it for this one? 

Since we just found out about the combo system (glad we waited till the last minute!) I wanted to share that this system is now available and fully FSA eligible. It maybe a possibility for anyone who needs to spend down an FSA balance! 

DuchessOfCambridge

@knarlytaurus I'm going to tell you my thoughts but know I'm not trying to sway you in any way, just sharing my experience. I'll also preface with I know many parents who have used an apnea monitor like the Owlet/AngelCare etc and LOVE them. They've provided those parents with a lot of relief.

As a NICU parent, I can't ever have one. I know other NICU parents feel differently, but while DS was in the NICU, his monitor would go off CONSTANTLY due to a wire getting disconnected or him moving a certain way, etc - and those are medical grade! The first time it happened when I was holding him by myself and his nurse went to go get something, I flat out panicked and was crying/yelling for anyone to help. It looked like the monitor said he wasn't breathing. The whole reason he was in the NICU was because he was having spells where he would stop breathing, which we later learned were seizures, and that's what I thought was happening. A nurse walked over and calmed me down, saying it was fine and he was okay and the monitors tend to go off because they're very sensitive. For me, monitors are a PTSD trigger and I can't use them. Even writing this out is making me cry. Our NICU was also VERY adamant about NOT having one precisely because they can either cause unnecessary panic, or they can make you think everything is okay when it's not. A home apnea monitor does not work for our family, but I understand others find it comforting. We chose instead to follow safe sleep guidelines as best we could - he was in a bassinet by himself with a swaddle sack or sleep sack once the swaddle sack was no longer safe, when he moved to his crib it was the same, nothing at all in there with him. Before our building kicked on the air conditioning, I brought him back into our room in the pack n play during a particularly hot night because I was so worried - H went out and got a fan for our room and he slept in just a onesie next to our bed. He's now over a year and I've just started giving him a stuffed animal (which he has absolutely no interest in) for naps only, and I keep the video monitor with me to make sure he's okay with it. 

knarlytaurus

@DuchessOfCambridge - I completely understand that point of view! In researching it, I have read some reviews of NICU parents who felt the same as you, and others who said this monitor was better bc it just played a song rather than sound an alarm if the sensor fell off, etc., so they felt less triggered by the noise. I've heard some non-NICU parents also say that too much data overloaded them, rather than give peace of mind. I figure that if it's too much for us for some reason, we can always stop using it.
Since we'd have lost the FSA $ after today if we didn't spend it (we can only roll over $500 each year), I figured it's either helpful, or a crazy expensive video monitor! 

DuchessOfCambridge

@knarlytaurus I'm glad you were able to use the FSA $ and I hope you love it!

chloe97

@knarlytaurus adding my thoughts here on owlet socks- DD has had bad bronchiolitis. All 7 times that we have been seen in the pediatricians office by trained professionals, we have never once gotten a reading on a medical grade pulse ox machine designed for infants that was anywhere near accurate or DD would not be alive. It would have been such a waste of money not to mention anxiety- producing. It’s notoriously hard to get a good pulse ox on a healthy infant.