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Preemies
farrellashleigh
member
Broken boob FFing, babywearing, co-sleeping, PPD warrior,colic survivor, proud WAHM!
Momma Maven In The Making!
RP: car seat for baby under 5 lbs?
farrellashleigh
member
in Preemies
Maybe some of you ladies would know since premies are smaller. I'm being induced soon since my LO has fallen off of the growth curve, he's measuring somewhere between 4lbs 0 oz and 4lbs 14 oz. And now I'm wondering if he's born under 5 lbs if I need to have a special carseat for him? Ours is for 5 lbs and up...
Any experience with this? I'll be asking the OB and the hospital but I had never thought of this until now? TIA
Broken boob FFing, babywearing, co-sleeping, PPD warrior,colic survivor, proud WAHM!
Momma Maven In The Making!
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Re: RP: car seat for baby under 5 lbs?
Sean was under 5 lbs when he came home and our hospital required that we have a carseat rated for under 5 lbs before they would discharge him. Because he was in the NICU, he also had to pass the "carseat test" in that carseat (basically a test where they monitor them sitting in the carseat for an hour to see how well their oxygen sat is and make sure they do ok). We had to return the carseat we'd already bought and get a new one. We spent a lot of $ on the infant seat and if I had it to do differently, I'd buy a less expensive infant seat because they grow out of them so quickly (at 6 months he was grown out of it) and spend the left over money getting a good convertible seat at 6 months.
ETA: The hospital required that it be rated for under 5 lbs and even provided us with a list of "acceptable" models with that rating. You might want to check with your specific hospital?
Chicco Key Fit 30.
My daughter was less than 5 lbs when she came home and it fit her nicely....her discharge nurse was quite impressed with it actually. She'll be 10 months next week and she's still in it....last month at her 9 month apt. she was 16 lbs. 6 ounces and 26" long. I bet she'll be in it until her first birthday.....therefore it's totally worth the $$$.
At our car seat class this was dubbed the cadillac of carseats...and ther e was an Evenflo was also rated for under 5lbs...however, we used our snugride and it worked well, both of my babies passed their carseat test in this seat. My first son was 5lb 4oz when he came home and my preemie was over 6 lbs by the time we left the NICU. I would say if you do not have one already, you may want to go with the Chicco, but others work as well too.
We have the Graco Snugride, but it isn't suitable for babies under 5 lbs. My hospital requires a car seat that starts at 4 lbs. so we went and bought the Chicco KeyFit. (our plan was to return the Chicco when Jake reached 5 or 6 lbs. and could move to the Graco.) Well, the nurses conducted the car seat test with Jake in the Chicco and he didn't pass. So...we had to return the Chicco sooner than planned, and buy an Infant Car Bed, which by the way is only available for purchase at a medical supply place. We spent $110 on it, and won't be able to return it. The car bed is pretty cool though and we can keep Jake in it 'till he's 9 lbs if we want!
Definitely check with your hospital...and good luck!
Ditto this! DD had to pass the carseat test, but we were never told that we had to get a different carseat.
We had bought the Snugride prior to DD's birth. DD fit the Snugride fine at 3lb 14oz, but our hospital required us to buy a carseat rated for under 5lbs, so we went and bought the Chicco Keyfit. After she hit 5lbs (took about a 3 weeks), we returned the Keyfit to BRU, no problem. Since we've used both, I'll give you my thoughts:
Keyfit - really great car seat. Feels very sturdy, and fit well in our Camry. The infant insert covers the whole body and seems like it'd be more comfortable than the one for the Snugride. I also really liked the straps, they adjust just by pulling on the strap - super easy, which is nice when you're trying to tighten it just right with the baby howling inside. However, it is VERY heavy. Much heavier than the Snugride. I also didn't care for the canopy, it is attached to the top of the seat with a strong elastic, so you can't just shift it in front of the baby if the sun is in front.
Snugride - doesn't feel quite as durable as the Keyfit. In our car, the installer had to put foam pieces under the base to get it to fit really well. But, I do trust it to keep her safe, so that's certainly not an issue. It's MUCH lighter, which matters even when you have a 4lb baby. The canopy can be rotated 180 degrees, so the sun is never in DD's eyes. This is especially good for the car, where the sun beats in the back window but the car protects her from her back. And, of course, there is a significant price difference. I believe our Snugride was $90 and the Kefit was about $180.
We weren't comfortable with the snugides we had bought and installed - one DD was 3.5 lbs and the other was around 5.5 around discharge. We didn't even bother with the carseat test for these seats because the straps were just too high over both of their shoulders, even with additional padding and stuff to get them to fit better.
We found the evenflo discovery seat to be a better option because it had an additional, lower slot for the shoulder straps. We still needed additional padding for each girl, but we were much more comfortable with them. The seats are relatively inexpensive (and we've retired them to use our original snugrides...), but the Graco snugrides are much easier to use IMO. The handle of the evenflos were nice, but adjusting the straps to get in and out wasn't as nice.