Carseat and Extended Rear-Facing

I mentioned in the 7 month update that I would do a post soon about the convertible carseat we chose and why.  Well, here it is.  And I'll be honest, I'm probably going to get on a (small) soap box here :)

Choosing a carseat is hard.  It's such an important decision since that seat could someday be the reason your child lives in a car accident.  All seats made and sold in the US have to meet the same basic safety standards, though some brands have better safety track records than others and some brands do more extensive/higher levels of testing than others.  But the fact remains that the same basic safety standards are met with any carseat that is purchased.  People base their carseat decisions on brand name, price, fabric pattern/color, ease of use, recommendations from others, what fits in their vehicle, what features the seat offers, and all sorts of other things.

We based our convertible carseat decision on two things: safety track record and which one would allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing the longest.  Yes, her seat is a really pretty purple color, but that's just an added bonus :)

Did you know that the AAP now recommends that children remain rear-facing in carseats until at least the age of 2?  This is recently changed from the "age 1 and at least 20 pounds" criteria.  Did you know that many other countries recommend children remain rear-facing until age 3 or 4?

Know why?  Because rear-facing is the safest for a child in the event of an accident.  There's no magic switch that goes on at a kid's first or second birthday that says they're able to turn forward-facing and be safe.  Because small children's heads are so big in proportion to their bodies, in an accident their bodies and heads are thrown forward.  The five-point-harness restrains their bodies, but their heads are thrown even further forward before coming back against the seat.  This can cause serious head and neck injuries - including internal decapitation.

Check this out:

And this video has some really powerful crash test videos with forward-facing and rear-facing child-sized dummies in carseats.  If you don't want to watch the whole video, please just watch the first two minutes.

There was a great article about extended rear-facing in the New York Times.  Here's a powerful and to-the-point quote from it:

“Our recommendations are meant to help parents move away from gospel-held notions that are based on a child’s age,” Dr. Durbin said. “We want them to recognize that with each transition they make, from rear-facing to forward-facing, to booster seats, there is a decline in the safety of their child. That’s why we are urging parents to delay these transitions for as long as possible." (emphasis mine)

Common reasons people say they turn their children forward-facing before they reach the maximum height and weight limits for rear-facing on their carseats?  Their kids look uncomfortable or their legs are against the backseat or crossed.  Guess what?  Broken legs can be fixed.  Broken necks/spines are much harder to fix.

And when parents do finally turn kids forward facing, it is safest for them to be in a five-point harness as long as possible.  This helps restrain the child's body much better than the car's seat belt, not to mention that most car seat belts do not fit children properly until they are older.

More info about extended rear-facing:
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
http://www.kyledavidmiller.org (this is the website for a little boy who was killed in a booster seat at the age of 3; there is a short video at the top of the page)

So what carseat did we choose?  The Diono RadianRXT.  It has the absolute highest height and weight limits for rear-facing of any carseat sold in the US.  With this seat we should be able to keep Eleanor rear-facing well past her second birthday.  We will not be turning her forward facing until she reaches the maximum weight limit on her carseat.  This carseat lets a child stay rear-facing until 45 pounds!  And when we do have to turn her, the Radian can be used forward-facing with a five-point harness until 80 pounds (10-15 pounds more than most other carseats and 40 pounds more than some), at which point the Radian turns into a booster seat until 120 pounds.  Because the frame of the carseat is steel alloy instead of plastic, this carseat has a longer expiration date than most carseats (yes, carseats do expire; the plastic starts to break down, rendering it less safe.  Check the side/back of your carseat for the manufacture and/or expiration date).  It will literally be the only other carseat we will purchase for Eleanor, aside from her infant carrier.  

I'm not knocking other brands of carseats and in fact had narrowed it down to the Diono Radian and one or two other seats.  But the final draw of the Radian was the ability to allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing as long as possible, and forward-facing with a five-point harness as long as possible before finally moving her to a booster with the car seatbelt.  (Though the Radian does have other awesome features, like being able to fit three across the backseat of a regular car and folding up to be carried like a backpack - handy if you're traveling in an airport.)

This isn't a sales pitch for the Radian (though we do love it).  In researching carseats I came across so many articles/videos/people talking about the importance of keeping children rear-facing as long as possible that I just wanted to share some of that information.  Because really, it's all about helping each other keep our kids as safe as possible, right?  There are many carseats on the market now with height and weight limits that will allow many children to remain rear-facing past the age of 2.  Please, please, please keep your child rear-facing until they reach the maximum height/weight limits for their carseat.  It could literally save their life.

Things I Don't Want to Forget - 7 months

-Eleanor is so active these days!  She's not crawling yet, though she desperately wants to.  She gets her feet kicking and her arms moving, but she just hasn't quite figured it out yet.  She has gotten onto all fours and started rocking several times though, which is a start!  She's also pushing herself backward, which is the first step in figuring out crawling.  She'll get there.  In the meantime, Eleanor has discovered that she can simply roll across a room to get what she wants - toys, cell phones, whatever catches her eye.  And putting her down for a nap often turns into her playing around and attempting to crawl.  I have a newfound appreciation for all the slats around her crib!  Check her out:

-She is talking up a storm.  Of course by talking I really mean babbling, but Eleanor thinks she is talking.  She has so much to say.  She has discovered the "b" sound and has been making that quite frequently, with some "m" and "d" sounds thrown in there.  We've been trying to get her to mimic us when we say "mama" or "dada" but anytime we do that she just laughs.  Apparently those are funny words that are better laughed at than repeated.  Recently she's been saying the "d" sound after Matt does it, but not with consistency.  Mostly she just smiles.

-Eleanor loves banging things together to make noise.  I bought her some stacking cups to play with and she likes hitting them against each other.  This past week she also discovered that she can hold her pacifier by the nub that goes in her mouth and bang the back of it against her crib in order to make a really fun sound :)

-Eleanor also really likes being "chased."  If Matt holds her and I walk behind she thinks I'm coming to get her and just starts grinning and kicking her legs and flapping her arms.  It's adorable.  Today walking into church Matt was carrying her and she looked at me and started grinning her huge grins, thinking I was chasing her (really the sidewalk wasn't wide enough for me to walk next to them).  I got to "chase" her all the way into church and she loved it.  It's one of our favorite games to play together as a family now; we've made lots of trips across our upstairs hallway and in and out of bedrooms :)

-Little Miss loves.loves.loves mirrors.  She grins and squeals and kicks her legs when she sees herself.  Each day we take a tour of the mirrors upstairs in our house.  She has a ball.  We have one full length mirror in our guest room that Eleanor loves to sit in front of.  She just grins, hits the mirror, tries to pull on it (don't worry, I hold it so she can't pull it over, since it's just propped against the wall), and generally has a blast.

-Eleanor also loves closing things.  She loves closing the computer-type thing on her activity table and I found this toy at a consignment store.  I just open all of the things and let her go to town, then rinse and repeat!

-Solid foods are going really, really well.  She loves carrots and peaches, but really I'm pretty sure she'd eat anything we give her.  She's getting pretty good and gnawing off chunks of whatever she's eating and then mashing them around enough to swallow them.  She still gags a bit, but not nearly as much as she did when we started BLW.  I'm trying to branch out in the vegetables and fruits I'm giving her.  She's trying cauliflower this week.

-Eleanor has (just this weekend) discovered that she can hold on to something and stand up.  She's not quite pulling herself up yet, but she tries when she holds on to someone's fingers.  But if we stand her next to an ottoman or a toy she thinks she's pretty awesome. 

-Today we moved Eleanor to her convertible carseat.  The infant seat was getting a little cramped, though she is still well within the height and weight limits for it.  But to be honest the only places we have carried her carseat in and out of in the last couple months are the house and daycare.  She's getting so big that it's really heavy carrying her and the carseat.  She seems so much more comfortable with more room.  I'm planning to do a post soon-ish about the carseat we chose and why (I'm becoming a big fan of extended rear facing).

-Eleanor had her first trip to the state fair.  She had lots of fun people and animal watching.  She even got to pet a llama (with her foot, since her hands are always in her mouth) and thought it was pretty amazing.  We went through some of the things set up for kids, including an exhibit where kids work on a "farm" and have to collect different things to put in their basket.  Check out Eleanor's cool hat and her basket of goods, which we "sold" and got $1 (in fake money) to exchange for a treat (we got applesauce, as it was all Eleanor can eat that was being offered).  I think we had more fun with it than Eleanor did, though she liked posing with the giant pigs :)

-We spent last Saturday in Louisville celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary with mass and dinner.  How pretty does Eleanor look in her dress?  

This is such a fun age.  Matt and I enjoy the time we get to spend together as a family and realize we are so blessed by the amount of joy Eleanor brings to our family.  

First day of school

I promise a post is in the works about what Eleanor is up to these days, but things have been a little crazy recently since I went back to work on Thursday and students started today.  My mom came up to stay with Eleanor on Thursday and some friends of ours watched her on Friday, so today was her first day back at daycare.  She's with a new teacher this year who I think we're really going to like.  Eleanor had a really good first day, though poor girl was exhausted.  She slept most of the evening!  Hopefully once she gets back into the routine we have some more awake time with her in the few hours we do have together.

Here's a picture of Eleanor from early this morning before we left the house:

7 months

Our sweet girl turned 7 months old today.  How that is possible, I have no idea.  Somehow 7 months seems a whole lot older than 6 months.  I don't know if it's because we're officially over the halfway mark to 1 year (!) or what, but it just makes it sound like Eleanor is so old.  She is such a joyful little girl though, and Matt and I are enjoying this age immensely!  I'll have a post up soon about all the things Eleanor is doing at 7 months.

In the meantime, enjoy the photo below.  We discovered this past week that Eleanor's hair is just long enough for a cute little ponytail on top of her head.  This is what her hair looks like after 2 days of wearing a ponytail (we did take it out for bed last night).  For the record, there's nothing in her hair - no hair tie or anything.  Isn't it funny?

Official 6 month stats

Eleanor had her 6 month appointment last Friday, just a couple weeks late :)  She weighed in at 17 pounds 12 ounces (76th percentile) and was 26.25 inches long (58th percentile).  The doctor said that Eleanor looked great.  She was pleased we had started offering food and a sippy cup and said to continue doing what we're doing.  We don't go back to the doctor until Eleanor is 9 months old (unless she gets sick).  Eleanor handled her shots like a champ and only cried for a minute or so.  Hooray for a healthy baby girl!

Playing with the tissue paper while waiting for the doctor :)

6 months - things I don't want to forget

I am LOVING being home with Eleanor this summer.  It's awesome.  It's also pretty great that Matt has a really light work schedule in the summer so he is home with us a few days a week as well.  We've been able to get in some good family time (as well as working on a ton of stuff around the house, but there will be a post about that sometime, hopefully this month, when everything is finished!).

Also, she has finally figured out how to roll from her back to her belly.  Granted, she has only done it a few times, but it's a start.  She will consistently roll from her belly to her back...but only one way.  She will roll toward her left but is not so sure what to do when I try to encourage her to roll toward her right.  If you lay next to her left side on the floor she will try to roll over and keep rolling into you - this is probably not nice of us, but it is fairly entertaining :)

Eleanor has also started transferring things from hand to hand and using both hands to put something in her mouth.

Using both hands to eat the phone :)

She can blow some awesome raspberries, and does so very frequently.  Eleanor blows them at us, at other people, at our cats, at her toys...pretty much all the time.  It's pretty funny.  Check out this post-bath video (sorry the lighting isn't very good) of her blowing some raspberries at me.  Matt has even started calling Eleanor "daddy's little raspberry."

Eleanor loves our cats.  Loves them.  Her face lights up when she sees either of them and she starts making excited noises and trying to touch them.  Mac will not let Eleanor touch him (we have to be holding him when she does).  Sadie will let Eleanor touch her for a little bit and then has gotten really good at positioning herself just out of Eleanor's reach.  Which is fine since we then use Sadie as a motivator to get Eleanor to start trying to crawl :)  Eleanor isn't anywhere close to figuring this out, but she moves her little legs like she's trying to get somewhere.  She has pushed herself back and pulled herself slightly forward but that's about it.  She'll get there eventually though :)

Sadie hanging out with Eleanor.  Eleanor really wanted to pet Sadie but couldn't quite reach.

Eleanor has figured out her sippy cup, which didn't take long at all!  Less than a week later and she's sipping out of a straw like a pro :)  She's also enjoying food.  She got some banana down on Saturday and some zucchini today.  So far Eleanor has had avocado, broccoli, zucchini, banana, and pickle (I was at Panera for lunch and she kept reaching for my plate...so I just cut my pickle into strips and she was happy to eat that.) We're going to try carrots soon, and I think sweet potatoes.  She's gotten really good at getting the pieces in her mouth, and even biting down on them and breaking chunks off.

Check out the piece of zucchini in her mouth :)

She's a sippy cup rockstar!

She is taking 5 ounce bottles about every 3.5-4 hours.  She usually has 5 bottles a day. She's also getting 2.5 tablespoons of rice cereal mixed in with each bottle.

Little Miss is a pro at sitting up now.  Every now and then she falls over, but not very often.  We've even graduated to sitting in highchairs in restaurants and in shopping carts.

Eleanor is still picky about what she finds funny enough to laugh about, but when she does laugh it's pretty awesome.  Check out this video.  Aren't her laughs adorable?

We have Eleanor's 6 month appointment next week, so I'll update with her official stats then, though at the doctor two weeks ago she was up to 17.1 lbs.  No wonder she's getting so heavy to carry around in her carseat!

Avocado!

Today we started solids with Eleanor!  We had planned on starting when she turned 6 months old, but then waited since she was sick.  Now she's finally back to normal (and finally back to mostly sleeping through the night again, thank goodness - it's rough getting up every 1-2 hours when you haven't had to do that in 4.5 months!), so we decided to give it a try today.

We are doing baby-led weaning with Eleanor, which basically means we are not giving purees and are offering table food.  If you're interested in learning more here is the website.  There is also a book about it that I found helpful.  We have several friends who have done BLW and quite a few mamas in an online group I'm part of have done it as well.  As a disclaimer, I'm not against purees.  As long as you're feeding your kid(s) healthy food, feed them however you like :)  But for us, BLW makes sense.  Here are some of the reasons why we thought this would be the best choice for our family:

-At some point kids need to go to solid foods anyway, and regardless of whether they do purees first or go straight to table food, most kids end up gagging a bit when they start finger foods.  Let's just let Eleanor figure it out from the get-go.

-BLW isn't suggested until babies hit 6 months of age and are showing interest in food, can sit up unassisted, and can take food/objects to their mouths.  Good news since our pediatrician doesn't recommend starting solids until 6 months anyway.

-With the amount of thickening we have to do to the formula in Eleanor's bottles because of her reflux, purees really aren't that much thicker than what she's got in her bottle.  She's still choking/gagging, though it is definitely better, with the thicken formula.  I'd rather just go straight to solid foods than give her food that is about the same thickness and might be just as likely to come back up like her formula.

-With BLW Eleanor can eat while we are eating.  I don't have to spoon-feed her a puree before our meal or while I'm trying to juggle eating my food too.  Just put some food on her tray and let her have at it :)

Those are just a handful of the reasons why we're choosing this route.  Today went well, I think!  Right now food is for exploration, figuring out that there are different textures and tastes.  Eleanor did get a few pieces of avocado in her mouth and mushed them around for a minute before spitting them out, which is great for her first try!  It'll take her a little bit to figure out that she can actually swallow food, but she'll get there.  We've also got some green beans and zucchini (I'll cut it into strips) that we're going to try soon too!