Car Seat Dilemma - 5pt or Booster?

So many people have different opinions on car seats. Do you need the top model? Are they all the same? What about using a 5pt harness for a longer period of time? Did you know they actually expire? When do you turn them forward facing? I have tons of these questions and I need other moms and dads to chime in.

Lets start with the last question. When do you turn them around??? According to a NYTimes article in 2011, Children should be rear facing until age 2. The advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics,  is based primarily on a 2007University of Virginia study finding that children under 2 are 75 percent less likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries in a crash if they are facing the rear. Now I turned my first child around the day before her first birthday. The second one we turned around about a week after her first birthday. Now with the third, they are telling us until age 2. Will you follow that recommendation? I know all of our children survived when they were forward facing at 1 but it only takes one time for that to change. I know it's frustrating to have a kid backwards. They can't see anything and it's easier just in general. Since my kids are so small, I think I better listen to the recommendations. You see online about those horrible accidents and the kid lived because they were backwards. Good advice. What will you do?


As for which seat to use after they are in their "convertible car seat", I have to recommend a model in which the child can stay in the 5pt harness for up to 85 pounds. Yep, 85 pounds. It's called a Frontier 85 from Britax and I love it. It's not more expensive than the other seats such as a Marathon or a Boulevard. Both my children who are 3 and 5 have them. I know people complain about keeping their 5 year old 50 pounds kid in a 5 point harness but until she complains and it becomes a daily struggle that I can't handle it anymore, she is staying in it. I got her the fun cow print so she actually loves her seat. She shows it to everyone. It's got a flat bottom and it's very roomy. You don't have to re-thread the straps so it just lifts up and the straps get bigger. My mini 24 pounds 3.5 year old is also in one. Hers is on the lowest setting. My 5 year old still has plenty of room. We went from the Graco Nautilus to this one. The crotch strap on the Nautilus was getting too tight and it was on the largest setting. Could we use a booster? Well, for the older one, yes. The younger one, no. I don't know why I don't like them. I just don't. They feel flimsy. I guess we could use the Nautilus as a booster, but we have it in dad's car for the 3 year old. I'm just not ready to rely on a seat belt for a child. Am I being paranoid? Yes. Is this making it harder on myself? Probably. I just hope no one tells my kids that they don't have to be in a 5pt harness at 5 years old and they can be in the one with the seat belt. Here is the Frontier 85. I paid $219 for it on AlbeeBaby.com. We have one in hot pink and one in cow print :

Do you see how it's flat at the bottom? I like that. Lots of room for the kids legs. I like the double cup holder. The backrest goes up and down. The arm rests are not huge. I'm just a big fan. Check online for good deals but I find amazon.com and albeebaby.com have good sales.


If you want to be more informed, check out these videos on the benefits of keeping your child in a 5pt harness longer. 


Kyle Miller's Story of 5pt Harness Safety
Belle's Gift - 5pt Harness Story


As for seats expiring, they really do. The plastic begins to breakdown. Even if it has not been in a crash and has been stored covered and inside, they still expire. We have to get a new convertible car seat for our third daughter which is why I'm looking now and starting to think about new seats. Back to the research board on getting a rear facing to front facing car seat. Hopefully this is the last or second to last one that I will ever buy!


Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R

Baby's First Foods

Something I always had questions about was first foods for baby. I think I started with my first child around 4-5 months. That was over 5 years ago so it's kind of a blurr so I'll touch on my last two kids and relay what I learned there.

How to know they are ready? My kids always "told" me when they were ready. My newest bean is almost 5 months and about a week ago I noticed she was smacking her lips together. My doctor always said that was a sign. Last week we started with a little rice cereal mixed with formula. I made it as thin as possible. She didn't quite get how to put it in her mouth. She smushed it around around and stuck out her tongue. I tried a few spoonfuls, she didn't really get any in there. I tried a few hours later. The next day we started with some sweet potatoes. My doctor always said try the same vegetable for three days... as many times as she is interested, then move on to a next vegetable. But give it three days. If she tolerates it (meaning doesn't get sick etc) then you can go onto the next step. Little Bean is doing great on sweet potatoes right now. We have done three days of that, today we are trying carrots.

Now what can go wrong you ask??? Well lets revisit my second child which as you have already been told has had MASSIVE digestive issues. We didn't start her on cereal/solid foods until 6 months or so. Some background information: The middle bean was projectile vomiting for 10-12 times a day from birth. I'm not talking spit up, I'm talking across the room, hit the wall, soak your mother kind of vomiting. You had to see it to believe it. We started putting rice cereal in her bottles when she was young per recommendation from the doctor to help her keep her food down. I think it just made it worse. She just threw that stuff up and it made her choke on it. She got so constipated that we had to put corn syrup in her bottle. Again, made it worse. It was a cyclical issue and it was one problem after another. We decided giving her "real food" was just adding fuel to the fire. We tried Oatmeal to start with (since we figured she had enough of the rice) and she was pretty miserable. I think when those issues were solved we did the solid food. She was still really plugged up. Just kind of a bad experience. Now for our first child, we never had those problems and we are hoping and assuming that this newest and last bean won't have any issues. SOOOO, the middle bean started with organic sweet potatoes, then carrots, then green beans, then we went to the fruits... apples, pears, prunes. Eventually she was eating normal but we went VERY VERY SLOW. You don't have to do that. That is the game plan for the newest addition. Slow and steady to make sure she has no reactions.

What type of baby food you ask???? Well with my first one, we bought a mini Cuisinart Food Processor with some credit we had left over from our wedding. Its a great little gadget. I boiled my own sweet potatoes, peas, apples, and anything else I could think of. We had a great book called HOMEMADE BABY FOOD PURE AND SIMPLE. Loved that book. Probably not in print any more but you get the idea that there are plenty of books out there. Now if you are a first time parent, go ahead and make your own baby food. Go out and get the Baby Bullet by Magic Bullet. I would have been all over that when I was a first time mom. Second time mom???? Well, if you are able to do it, then that's awesome. I'm a third time mom. I don't even go to the store. I buy ALL MY BABY FOOD AND DIAPERS ONLINE. Never go into a store. That's my rule.

We buy organic. I figure if I can't make it, it might as well be organic. We buy the cases of Earth's Best baby food. They come in starter packs. First Fruits. First Veggies.

When they get into the Stage 2 and they can tolerate thicker foods, we move onto the next step. Earth's Best makes some awesome mixes of food. My favorite are the fruit and grain combinations. We definitely are going to order online. Try Amazon.com, Diapers.com, Drugstore.com, Target.com. I love free shipping. Anywhere that has sales. My kids tend to eat TONS but don't buy too much in advance as you never know if they will like a certain type. Also, remember they make pouches of babyfood now and the company Plum Organics makes those spoons that screw onto the top of them. Check this out:

What was your kid's favorite babyfood?

As for the STAGE 3. We never really made it there. By the time my kids had teeth and could chew those little noodles in there, we were onto table food. I started with soft avocados, then moved onto edamame and cut them up after I took them out of their shell. They loved them. I tried to do a few jars of the Stage 2 combinations and some table food. Again, it depends on when they had teeth. My children had teeth early. A full mouth by age one. No wonder my 5 year old has lost 2 teeth and has 3 more loose. 

As for what to put your kid into when they are starting out? My mini bean is in her swing right now and I'm getting ready to give her more carrots. Just letting her tummy settle. She will be eating in that thing or her car seat until she can sit up and go in her high chair. 

Speaking of high chair, one chair I always recommend for moms and dads is a great product from Fisher Price. It's the Healthy Care Booster Seat. We take this thing everywhere. Restaurants, friends houses. We use it in our own kitchen. Love love love. It comes in two models.... one with a tray top and one without one. DON'T get the one with a top, you will never use it. Best $30 we ever spent.

Well better go finish feeding the baby. By the way, feeding solids helps my kids sleep better. :) Yeah for sleeping more. 

Let me know your thoughts on feeding.

Happy Baby Thoughts

:)R