Car seats & slings- help

[cassiet2010]

Hi all. I am about to go buy my car seats and wanted to know what question to ask when I am buying one. What should I look out for?
Also if anyone has any tips on what to ask for when buying a sling that would be great as well.
All new to me...

[NonnyMouse]

Car seats - for me I look for ones without all the silly gimmicks like cup holders and speakers etc. I get one that will fit in my car. They all meet minimum safety standards, but some tout more "features" than others, so it depends on what you personally find necessary. I also look for known brands with known performance and easy to access local help if there's a warranty problem. I ended up getting turn-a-tot because I have issues with my back and I found it the best for me to manage physically as I can strap DS in without having to twist my body at all.

Slings - my only recommendation is to take bubs with you and try it out in your regular clothes. I went looking and narrowed it down to a couple that had rave reviews by everyone who used them, but when I went to actuallypurchase it in person I tried it on with bubs in there and it so incredibly uncomfortable, didn't fit my body well, kept slipping off my shoulder because of the loose clothes I wear,and DS hated it.

We ended up going with a cheap $30 "comfy carrier" from Kmart and we loved it so much we ended up buying two and still use both regularly.

[MimiGrace]

i'll leave the carseats to someone who knows that topic better :p

slings i can help you with.
Depending on what you and your baby like you have several options,

there are the slings that are across one shoulder. and you can either get ones that buckle (ie. the baba sling), or ring slings, or fitted slings (like the peanut shell).

I have the baba sling, which is good because i can change the length of it, however, i find that it gets quite sore on my shoulder much quicker than a ring sling, because its padded, and instead of distributing the weight, it seems to dig it into my neck.
So i would suggest sometime like a ring sling, because the material can be spread across your whole back, rather than localised to your shoulder/neck muscles, and means you can carry the baby for far longer :thumbsup: (just type 'australian ring sling' into google and it will come up with several options).

I know a lot of the girls on here use their ring slings until their children are well into toddler hood.

I personally use wraps, because i prefer to have the baby sort of, strapped to me (just my preference).
I use the hug-a-bub, for the first few weeks/months, even though i could use it past then, i've found its most comfortable with them while they're still little.

And then i moved onto the ergo - which can take me from when a baby is born (if i use it with an insert behind the baby), all the way through to when they're too big for me to physically carry :thumbsup:

Hope that helps, sorry for waffling on :o

[BabyPaparazzi]

Car seats - make yourself familiar with the new child restraint laws, it will make a difference to what you may want to purchase. For instance we started with a capsule (up to 9kg) and then went to a maxiridger (up to 27kg), so these are the only car seats we need to purchase. The main things to look at are the weight it can takes, consider the width of the seat and your car to.

Slings - you can look at two types, a sling type or a carrier (on the front of you ) type. Some slings wont hold a baby for long or as a toddler. And with the carriers make sure you try it on with weight in it (borrow a bubba if you dont have one yet lol), some really hurt the back between the shoulder blades as they dont distribute the weight evenly. I have a bigw side sling that I love, and it was reasonably priced, but it is only suitable for bubbas, I found once they become sticky beaks they dont like being enclosed in it. Then I have a Ryco carrier that I love, its really comfy and the straps cross over the back and has a waist belt so it distributes the weight well but doesnt do toddler, I never found the need to a toddler one anyway. I got given a fisher-price on but it really hurts my neck cause the strapping only goes around your neck and waist.

Hope this makes sense cause it almost doesnt to me.:D

[waterlily]

God I'm no help here I just asked for the best car seat, Brought it.

With the sling I got a peanut shell and bub hated it to no end so I also got a cheapo kmart carrier and bub loved it but I personally think it's too fiddley. So now just use the pram.
I reccomend trying them on with bub if you can if not make sure you can get your cash back if when you try it out at home it's not what you want.

Good luck.