What is the car seat test?

WannaBAmama

Someone mentioned the car seat test to my husband today and I just saw it again in a post. My LO is still probably a few weeks away from coming home but I've never heard of this. 

LauraSmarterSpam

strudel82:

You strap LO into a car seat for a while?for us it was 90 mins?and they can't desat or brady while in it.

Yep!  They want to make sure LO can make the trip home safely.  

WannaBAmama

strudel82:

You strap LO into a car seat for a while?for us it was 90 mins?and they can't desat or brady while in it.

Is that a good sign that my LO has been in nicu for 5 days and we haven't heard any of those terms brought up yet? 

rels09

WannaBAmama:

strudel82:

You strap LO into a car seat for a while?for us it was 90 mins?and they can't desat or brady while in it.

Is that a good sign that my LO has been in nicu for 5 days and we haven't heard any of those terms brought up yet? 

Yes. My DD is a 34 weeker and didn't have any episodes of concern. She had a couple very minor heart rate dips when eating (not even true bradies by the numbers) and maybe 1 minor desat. They wouldn't have necessarily told us about these had we not been there/looked at her chart since they were not a concern for the doctors. Since we did know about them, I asked the doctor to alleviate my concern, and she said that even full term babies would have these minor, minor things if they were monitored 24-7. Your baby will likely have to do the challenge anyway since it's standard procedure, but DD had to problem passing and hopefully your son won't either since he hasn't had any prior issues.

alileecam

PP have answered pretty completely, but I did want to mention that while our car seat test ended up being 90 minutes too, it had been twice the length of the car ride home prior to that. The 90-minute test standard was so recent that one doctor mentioned the old standard during rounds.

So if your LO is in a hospital more than 45 minutes away from where you live, they may have a longer test depending on their policy.  

cjdaisy

They do the test if a baby is born before37 weeks or in nicu 2 of my boys had it with no nicu stay my 34 weeker also had it. they do it when the baby "is close to relese day" they also have the parents put the child in to make sure you know how to safly strap baby in (at my hospital atleast)