Travelling
 

Also totally opposed, I found the services of one for 30 hours of travel (and that was just the getting-there piece) with my then-4-yr-old to be quite valuable. THere are only so many times singing Baby Beluga is going to please them.

Also, earplugs might be useful.

A portable dvd may be okay for the three year old...but at that age, i found that things like travel aqua doodle, or the doodle pro kept my little ones far more entertained than the dvd player...well my 3 yr ld loved the muppets at that point so for him he could watch 2 dvds, get 6 episodes amd was in heaven..the little one like the music...

Travelling
 

We're making a big car trip soon, too, and I've thought about this. BUT I'm thinking our almost-the-same-age babes might be too young for the movie thing to be really effective. Also, my kids are five years apart and not likely to be interested by the same things. We are planning on dividing the "to" leg of the trip into two more-manageable sections, and only then making our return plans.

Can anyone recommend a good portable DVD? Could we go with a cheapie from, say, Target, and not regret it?

tm

I have arranged to borrow a double dvd thingie. Kid2 doesn't atch tv, so he will not be enthralled with it. Kid1, moreso, esp. since it would be a big treat for him to watch for more time than he's used to.

TMDiva - I don't know about brands, but a GF of mine picked up a double DVD for less than $200 ($180 or so) from Sam's recently and has been thrilled with it - they travel a lot. Does consumerreports.org rate them?

Travelling
 

FTR, I am totally opposed also, but will make an exception for a ~17hr trip. Survival is key here.

Travelling
 

Ipod video.

Travelling
 

Can anyone recommend a good portable DVD? Could we go with a cheapie from, say, Target, and not regret it?


yeah - i am in the fairly immediate market for this too as we have a long airplane trip next friday.....

Travelling
 

I think battery life is one key, at least. Some of the cheapies won't last through a movie. Okay for porn, perhaps, but...

We've had good luck renting at the airport for a couple of long plane trips. Won't help the drivers, but a good option for flying mommylawyer.

Travelling
 

I bought this one http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/ESA-5...oductDetail.do for the Brazenette for plane travel. It's small enough that it fits in her lap, and cheap enough that I don't care if it gets dropped. Battery lasts about 4 hours.

(Shortly after buying one, I dropped it on the garage floor, cracking the screen off. I now have two batteries, after replacing the broken player, which is a great thing.)

Travelling
 

We looked at a lot of them and there didn't seem to be much difference (other than battery life and weight) in the 7" screen models in the $150-250 range and there aren't a lot of options more expensive than that. I think it's because laptops with dvd drives start at about $450-500.

For the drivers, get a 12v adapter to plug into a cigarette lighter/car power outlet. Then the battery life issue is moot.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

A video has been making the rounds about a boy who died when the seat belt holding in his booster seat didn't work. It's a tearjerker but if you want to watch it, here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ

The point of the video is that you don't *have* to switch to a booster seat from the safety of a 5 point harness car seat as early as you may have thought & that some 5 point harness seats go as high as 80 lbs. I called our local car seat safety program and told them I had switched to a booster seat from my Britax Marathon recently (Vietbabe is 33 lbs; 34", age 4). They told me to definitely switch back to the Marathon (Height/Weight limit: 27"-49" lbs; 20-65 lbs). There is also a Britax Regent car seat (5 point harness) that has weight/height limits of: 22-80 lbs and 19"-53".

As the video makes the rounds, our entire street is switching to Britax car seats. Just wanted to pass the safety (or Australian investment) tip along.

Travelling
 

Good for 7 hours.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

That is a tear jerker, but it sounded to me like they buckled him in wrong. The seat belt latch failed, and I would hapily represent his family against the manufacturer.

That said, I second the endorsement for Britax seats. We use a Britax Marathon, and little dL (25 lbs, 31", 9 months) seems to like it. I think he will be happier when he turns a year old and we turn the seat around to face forward.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

I think it's misleading and misinformed.

First, the problem was that the seatbelt failed--which is a seatbelt problem, not a child seat problem. This could happen with a five-point booster as well, if using the seatbelt. Using the top tether won't necessarily help because the seat still comes loose. Indeed, it may turn the seat-baby into a projectile.

Second, as an alternative, a 5-point seat may use LATCH. But LATCH is not always designed for use over a certain weight. Heavy child plus seat may exceed the weight limits. There are two problems in this regard. First, the LATCH loops may break too easily. Second, the straps used to buckle in the seat to LATCH are much thinner than the typical seatbelt, and are therefore not as strong. So, you're using 1" web-belts instead of 21/2" web-belts to hold in the seat.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

No doubt about it - it was definitely a seatbelt failure which could happen with a child seat too. But if the seat belt failed with a car seat, wouldn't the top tether at least help keep the seat and child inside the car? (The child in question was thrown outside the vehicle which rolled on him).

Also, since the car seat is held in with the lap belt, might there be more seat belt failures linked to shoulder strap problems as opposed to lap belt? Anyhow, Vietbabe was complaining about the shoulder strap so I think the booster seat was going to be more dangerous for her. She'd probably end up moving the shoulder strap behind her head and I wouldn't see her b/c unlike the car seat position (middle), the booster seat goes behind the driver or passenger side.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

We don't have LATCH in our current car, but we do have a Britax Husky (now relabeled the Regent) for my 6-year old (46.5 in, 47 lbs). Anyway, when we got it the instructions very clearly said NOT to use LATCH, but to use the regular seatbelt, for kids over a certain weight.

tm

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

It's all speculation, but I would guess that the number of deaths occuring when a child seat is ejected from the car and the child is then run over is lower than one per year. You're probably right on the teather, but my point is that the benefit of th tlikely creates some other risk.

From the movie it looked like the failure was that the buckle came undone. I doubt that the belt is weaker on the shoulder part than the lap part.

As for vietbabe, if she's taking the seatbelt off, and you can't see it, there's not much choice unless you can find another way to enforce the rules.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

AAAAAGGGHHH!! My long reply was deleted, sparing you my carseat diatribe. Short version, AdL, please rethink turing the little one forward at one year as the AAP and everyone else now recommends that you keep a child rearfacing to the rearfacing limits of the seat (33 lbs for Britax). See the link below for additional information about extended rearfacing.

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx

Seatbelt failure is rare, a much larger problem is that people are putting 3 year olds in boosters when no 3 year old is mature enough to sit properly in them, using LATCH in the center seat (which is only permitted in certain Fords and Mazdas), using expired carseats, putting infant carriers forward facing and all sorts of gross misuse. Essentially, each step up (rear to forward facing, 5 pt harness to to booster to seatbelt) is a step down in the safety of your child.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

Thanks for posting this. I was going to post the same thing but my post would have been less helpful.

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

Yes, thanks for posting that. While I appreciate the information, I am not sure if I can go much beyond 1 year with our seat facing to the rear: he simply doesn't fit. Though he's "only" 25 lbs, my son is exceedingly tall and, even now, his legs are scrunched up, like the kid in the picture on the site that you posted; and he doesn't like it very much. He prefers keeping his legs straight.

That said, I will take this new info to our pediatrician and see what she has to say.

AdL

5 Point Harness Car Seats
 

My three-year-old wants you to know that she is plenty mature to sit properly in her booster seat.

She also says you're a big doodie head for suggesting she isn't.

Different strokes.

I was going to say that generally 4 year olds aren't mature enough (because I don't think that they are) but the video was about a 3 year old. For longer trips, I don't feel confident that the average 3-4 year old can sit up straight properly for the entire trip or that if they were to drop something, not lean forward to pick it up, which could introduce slack in the seatbelt, or not slouch when sleeping, etc. But that is a vast geralization, and JMHO.

4 years and 40 pounds is generally considered the bare minimum for booster seats per the NTHSA and others. What really sucks is that there aren't more options for harnessed seats for bigger kids in the US. Everyone on this board can probably afford a Britax for each car, but a lot of people can't. The other problem is that the vast majority of kids outgrow seats by height well before they hit the weight limits. In Sweden they keep kids rearfacing until they're like 5 and their crash injury statistics are so much better than ours.


ETA: Some of the rules are obviously stupid, though, since I don't meet all of the requirements for using a seatbelt without a booster (all seatbelts hit me in the neck no matter what I do, and 5' 3" isn't all that short). And in some cars, your Cadillacs and such, my knees don't bend properly at the seat edge when I'm sitting allt he way back.

How do they do this? Given that a rear-facing seat barely fits in most cars with the passenger seats all the way up, and by "most cars" I mean big, American, cars, not panty-waisted Swedish cars, knee surgery rates among Swedish parents must be quite high.

You know, every week I ponder whether the Roundabout is properly installed in my car. Neither the Britax's nor the car's manual gives me any confidence -- each one passes the buck and says to refer to the other -- and the local organization that checks seats only does so once every few months. I think I could drive out to some distant county to get a police check if I had the chance.

I don't even want to talk about the whole "in the middle, but insalled with the seatbelt, no tether" versus "on the outboard, latched and tethered, but more vulnerable in event of side impact" debate that we have every couple of weeks.

And is it me, or is it really, really hard to get the straps just the right tension so that the seat does not move more than an inch side to side or front to back?

At least my bra is the right size.

Solution to 1: Fatten up and then kneel on the seat while fastening it.

This creates a problem on no. 2.

Hmm, how do you kneel on a rear-facing Roundabout?

Maybe this question is better suited for the FB.

I exaggerated a little bit. It is more to like age 4. See

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.o...s/wmj/funk.pdf

At the bottom of the first page. Their stats were even better than I remembered. The Swedish research was what persuaded the AAP to change their recommendation. An excellent article about what happens to kids in accidents in various restraints.

In any case, it's not that bad. Most kids can rearface in a Britax until around age 3, and at that age the seat can be more upright than it is for newborns (no 45 degree angle requirement for older kids), thus giving the average parent more room. The thing is that most kids don't mind sitting in the seat with their legs crossed at the ankles/calves (reminiscent of indian style). In the US, the seat with the highest rearfacing limit is the Cosco Scenara at 35 lbs.

ET fix link

I wouldn't be too sure. The % of women wearing the wrong bra size is comparable to the % of improperly installed carseats.

I had my first real professional bra fitting for my nursing bra after the Chicklet. Holy Crap! I was actually had the right idea for my size, the problem being that there were only 3 companies that made something in it. So I had to purchase them from the fancy schmancy maternity/nursing specialty store.

Mount it. More on the FB . . .

I think the whole carseat debate is about as stupid as the whole bra debate.

You do what works. Period.

My bra size is one thing. But that size bra doesn't fit me. How stupid is that?

Every single bra-fitter I've ever encountered has been wrong, all the same way. They somehow think that someone who is (was - sniff) a full 32C on the smallest or medium hook should be fitting in a 34B bra. If your idea of "fitting" is tits squeezing out over the front and the band slipping down toward the waist, then yeah, perfect.

Not to sound callous about child safety in the carseat debate, but as with all the hyper "don't"s of pregnancy, I think it's possible to go overboard. Yes, I talked my ex- out of removing a perfectly good Britax out of the smaller car and replacing it with a backless booster, but in general, the idea of keeping kids rearfacing until upwards of 4 seems a bit extreme.

eta: On the other hand, I have some acquaintances who do not use childseats at all, and if there's a belt being used, it's strapping down 2 kids at once (3 and almost 5 yrs old). I took those kids with mine to an event a few weeks ago and wouldn't do it unless they provided me with seats and told the kids they had to stay in them.

That's the general problem--it's the argument that you should spend twice as much on the next bigger seat to reduce the risk of injury marginally, if at all. Multiplied across a few million kids, that's a lot of money not necessarily worth spending, depending on how much the risk of injury is decreased.

Helpful
 

[Extensive car seat safety debate]

People, this is why you should always have a spare child. Maybe even a spare to the spare child.

That was my point.

I am like bnb* in that the bra size that supposedly fits according to my measurements does not actually fit. I have gotten the right fit, although was surprised by the size, when measured at Nordstrom, but the lady did not rely on the measurements.

*Otherwise I am pretty sure that I am not like bnb in the boobies department.

How about LATCH'ed in the middle?

Most cars don't have the proper connections. using the two inner connections from the outer seats is not recommended, or approved per latch/isofix.

Helpful
 

A spare wife is also helpful, and can help with the spare children issue.

Yup. Unless your car manual specifically says you can LATCH in the center, you cannot. I think only certain Fords and Mazdas permit it. Mainly because the connections must be a specified distance apart and car manufacturers are only required to provide LATCH in two seats, so they generally don't bother putting in and testing anchors in the center.

You CAN do a center installation with the seatbelt and still use the tether and you can tether Britax seats both forward and rear facing.

It's not the latch -- the seatbelt is just as effective, and no harder to tigthen. It's not having the tether, and even without the tether, the seat seems more secure in the outboard position with back of the front passenger seat just against it. It's also much easier to take her in and out without bumping my head or hers.

As a practical matter, you can of course LATCH in the center, but center LATCH installations have not been tested, although in theory the protection should be the same so long as the distance on center is the same or close to what it is in the outboards. But of course, b/c it's not tested, no manufacturer - whether carseat or auto -- will say it's ok.

By balancing on the one knee you have buried in the seat, with the rest of your frame jammed between the car seat and the roof of the SUV (and/or sticking out of the open door).

All the while pulling as hard as you can on those damn straps, in sequence, while your face is red and you are cursing liberally. Until that motherf-ing seat WILL NOT move!!

It is very hard.

And then, your wife takes the car seat up to the fire department for inspection, and you receive the news that: "The firemen said that you did a very good job for someone who didn't know what he was doing . They said it didn't meet code, but the seat wasn't going anywhere."

Fuckers.

S_A_M

P.S. Ah, good times.

P.P.S Looks like I'm lucky my children aren't dead. We had to forward-face them both for height reasons shortly after they turned one.