You’re not going to get out of parenthood without having had a car seat or two! Here is the latest and greatest from Snugli: Their All-in-One, a convertible seat that aims to be your main seat if not your one-and-only. It’s got a couple of new, unique features: First, a temperature-regulating fabric that keeps your babe cool in hot weather and toasty in cold weather. Second, it holds a kid up to 110 pounds when used in booster mode! That means she can sit in it until middle school (not that she would, but you get the idea).
It’s also got all the technology you’d expect such as side-impact protection, a recline option, and a LATCH system for easy installation. By the way, do you need a primer on installing and using a car seat? Roll our video!
Ready to win Snugli’s All in One? For a chance, leave a comment below, up to one a day between now and the end of the day on Wednesday, April 17th. We’ll randomly choose one winner for this $330 car seat! And if you don’t win but want to buy or register for this primo seat, it’s sold at Buy Buy Baby. Check our official rules for all the giveaway details. Goody luck!
When driving your kids, parents know how important car safety, especially car seat safety is for babies and for toddlers. 21st Century Auto Insurance recently created the visual Guide to to Child Car Safety below to offer parents important tips and facts on how to protect kids riding in a car.
The infographic was also created as a part of the 21st Century’s “Baby on Board” contest — parents can show their artistic sides by reimagining and recreating the typical yellow diamond sign. The grand prize winner receives $10,000 for a baby room makeover, and the deadline for submissions is March 15, 2013.
Plus, don’t forget that recent AAP guidelines urge parents to place their kids in rear-facing car seats until they are at least 2-years-old or have reached the maximum height and weight capacity of the current car seat. (You can also view this other Ages and Stages of Car Seat Safety infographic.)
All parents would like to think they”re using a car seat correctly, but would you recognize if you’ve made a mistake? In honor of National Baby Safety Month, we’re sharing the top three car seat mistakes parents make, and how to fix them.
Adam Cohen, a certified passenger safety technician and editor of DaDaRocks.com, says the top three car seat safety mistakes are as follows:
1. The seats are installed incorrectly.
2. The straps are coming from the wrong place.
3. The child is in the wrong type of car seat: Either he’s in the infant car seat too long, or the seat is facing forward too soon.
Watch this video for the safe solutions to these problems:
Welcome to the first of about a month of weekly giveaways tied to our 2012 American Baby Bests Awards! Each year we ask parents on this Web site, and on the American Baby Facebook page, what products they can’t live without. We tally up their votes and run extra polls and come up with 20 award-winners.
I’ve been doing this contest for a dozen years now, and I can tell you, there are some products that just always win. The Graco SnugRide is one of those. This year we tried to poll exactly how many parents are using this gold-standard infant seat, and the number we got is 38 percent. That means that about four out of ten cars traveling around with an infant onboard have a SnugRide in the back seat. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual number is even a little higher!)
The BIG news from Graco is that the SnugRide is now…bigger. They just released the Snugride 40, which can keep your baby rear-facing up to age 2, the age now recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Moms tell us they love Snugride seats because they fit an infant so well (babies don’t look “lost” in one), and it’s also easy to click them in and out of the car-seat base. The car seats also fit onto most strollers, making transporting your baby really easy.
As part of their rollout of the new car seat (full name: SnugRide Click Connect 40), and in celebration of their Bests Award win, Graco is letting us give two seats away! Each car seat is worth about $220, so be sure to leave a comment below, up to one a day, to be eligible. You can leave a daily comment between now and the end of the day on Wednesday, September 26th. We’ll randomly pick a winner on or about September 27th. Read the official rules here.
Check back next Thursday (and the Thursday after that!) for more Bests giveaways! Here I am on the Today Show talking about a few of the winners. I promise I’ll be giving away more of the items you see on this segment. Goody luck!
It’s June and my thoughts are turning to…road trips! My little Brooklynites don’t spend a lot of time in cars like all of their suburban friends. Summer—when we start to drive around on weekends and do some big drives across several states—is always when we reevaluate what they’re sitting in.
Here are the current guidelines. Your baby needs to be in a car seat from birth, and that car seat should stay rear-facing as long as possible, ideally up to the second birthday. At American Baby we generally recommend you begin with an infant car seat, because 1) It’s shaped for a tiny person’s body and 2) It’s so convenient, because you can easily take it in and out of the car. The base stays in the back of your car, but the seat itself snaps out and is easy to tote around.
Newborns can start right out in a convertible car seat, facing the rear. You save money going that route for sure. The new Evenflo Symphony DLX, for instance, is meant to hold a baby from 5 to 40 pounds rear-facing, and a child all the way up to 65 pounds forward-facing. Most of the time, though, we see families switching to these big convertible car seats when their baby has outgrown the infant seat. The convertible seat has to stay installed in the car; you don’t want to be taking it in and out all the time.
Most people, when they ask me about a car seat, want to know which is the safest one. But all the car seats on the market that have a JPMA certification stamp have to pass the same safety tests. Choosing a car seat, then, becomes about ease of use. I like the Symphony because of the infinite-adust harness straps; they’re so easy to move as your baby grows, or even as he comes in and out of bulky winter clothing. It’s easy to recline the seat, and to adjust the headrest as well. Finally, I give Evenflo kudos for having some of the most helpful car-seat installation videos. They don’t replace reading the manual, but watching a video certainly helps when you’re new to the car seat world!
To help kick off road-trip season, Evenflo will give one Symphony DLX away to someone who posts a comment here. It’s worth $229! Tell me where you’re driving your family to this summer. Here’s a picture of the payoff my kids get after I drive them for 8 hours: Sitting on Pap’s tractor in his backyard!
You have until the end of the day on Wednesday, June 13th to comment and can post up to once a day. Read all the official rules here. Goody luck!
Argentine ‘Miracle’ Baby Found Alive After Death Declaration
One-week-old Luz Milagros Veron is Argentina’s miracle baby. Pronounced dead after her premature birth, the baby withstood more than 10 hours in a morgue refrigerator before being found alive.
Are Over-the-Counter Bug Bite Treatments Useless?
The Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) released a report on Wednesday finding that after reviewing the evidence, there was little support for the use of over-the-counter remedies for bug bites.
‘Hunger Games’ Among Books Most Challenged by Parents
The more popular “The Hunger Games” trilogy becomes, the more reasons some parents and educators have found to question whether it belongs on library shelves.
Alicia Silverstone: ‘Very glad’ She Posted Pre-Chewed Food Video
Alicia Silverstone came under fire recently when the actress posted a video of herself feeding her son pre-chewed food directly from her mouth. Yet despite all the attention, the actress stands by her motherly decision.
More Parents Follow Updated Car Seat Guidelines, Survey Finds
A year after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration updated its child-safety seat guidelines recommending that children remain in rear-facing car seats until age 2 and older kids stay in booster seats as long as age 12, AAA has some good news. Its survey has found that 90% of parents with kids younger than 13 know about the changes.
Secondhand Smoke Again Tied to Asthma in Kids
A fresh look at past studies suggests kids who live with a smoker are more likely to wheeze or get asthma, providing more evidence for the link between secondhand smoke and breathing problems.
Prenatal Pollutants Linked to Later Behavioral Ills
Inner-city women who breathe powerful airborne pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons while pregnant are more likely to have children who develop behavioral problems by the time they reach school age, researchers report.
Komen Foundation Continues to See Fallout from Planned Parenthood Controversy
Fallout from the Planned Parenthood controversy continues at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, with several executives at headquarters and affiliates departing, questions arising about fundraising ability, and structural changes underway to give affiliates more influence, officials said Wednesday.
Updated Guidelines for Treating Babies Exposed to Drugs in the Womb
The question of how best to help babies who have been exposed to drugs in the womb — including prescription pain medications, antidepressants and illicit drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine — can be an emotionally charged issue. Bringing science to bear on the issue, the American Academy of Pediatrics has just updated its guidelines on treating these infants.
Blood Found in Home Belongs to Missing Girl
Blood discovered in the home of the father of missing Maine toddler Ayla Reynolds did come from the girl and was “more blood than a small cut would produce,” the girl’s family says investigators told them.
