When Eliza was 2-3 weeks old, I met Becky at a holistic mom's meeting and I was surprised that she had Ardun in a sling rather than his car seat. I used the car seat, but I generally took her out of it when we got where we were going. She looked surprisingly confident and Ardun slept like an angel. Later that day, one of the moms at the group said "our society views children as luggage" and that just hit me... I lugged her around in a carseat praying that she would sleep the entire time I was out, as a convenience to myself. I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing, because we all need our own time, but I actually enjoy the company of my baby, and I have no qualms about waking her up to go in to a store.
I read this article in Mothering; Car seats are for Cars and it really made sense. The article talks about flat-head syndrome which has become rampant in this generation.
"Timothy R. Littlefield, MS, is affiliated with an Arizona clinic that treats plagiocephaly. In an article in the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, he notes that 28.6 percent of infants who attended the clinic between 1998 and 2000 spent 1.5 to 4 hours daily in car seats or swings, and nearly 15 percent were in them for more than four hours per day. Another 5.7 percent of infants were allowed to sleep in these devices.Littlefield observes that cranial distortion resulting from overuse of car seats and swings is more severe and complex than in children who develop plagiocephaly from back-lying on a mattress. Consequently, he recommends reducing the time spent in car seats and swings, if possible"
They also talk about the lack of touch. The authors talk about parents who leave children in the seats for extended amounts of time. "In a Columbia University study, researchers gave either a baby seat or a soft, wearable infant carrier to mothers of low socioeconomic status who had recently given birth. After 13 months, the researchers found that the babies who had been transported in wearable carriers were significantly more likely to demonstrate a strong attachment to their mothers."
Now that Eliza is much more interactive, we felt that even though its a lot harder to hold her when we go to stores or out to eat, at least we're interacting with her. The car seat is safer in the car anyway! A new study in the journal Pediatrics reports that " almost 9,000 infants go to the emergency room (ER) every year for car seat-related injuries that happen outside the car." As reported by MSNBC.
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