Bad Carseat Info from Pediatrician

[patti_b]

In the 9 -12 month packet of info we received from our pediatrician it says "Transport infants over 20 lbs. in a federally approved forward facing car seat." That's all it says. Nothing about extended rearfacing, nothing about 1 year minimum, and this one statement sounds like you are SUPPOSED to turn them forward facing, not that you MAY. According to their instructions you should put a 6 month old 20 pound baby FF. Heck, that 14 pounds at birth baby that was recently born would probably be 20 pounds by 3 months. They are distributing this to all patients' parents. I'm betting that the majority of parents do not do all the research that I and the rest of you on this board do, so imagine all the parents that are following these bad instructions. I'm just so astounded. Very disturbing. Pediatricians who are supposed to be helping people protect and care for their children putting them at higher risk in their cars.

All they would need to do is read the AAP's own policy statement to realize they are giving out bad info.

I'm going to bring this to their attention; just deciding how to go about it, whether a phone call, letter, mention it at DS's one year checkup. I also need to decide how to be diplomatic about it as I tend not to be so much when I'm really worked up about something.

Patti

[kellyotn]

My ped's office did the same thing. It was a very outdated AAP statement. (It was for toddlers, and shield boosters were listed.....)

If you have time, I'd call and ask who is in charge of the handouts. Its probably office staff, or maybe a nurse. In our case, they just had a bazillion pre-printed out and kept handing them out or re-copying them YEARS after new statements were available. They were receptive to realizing that they should really print out the lastest and greatest periodically.

Good luck! It is sad how many people say, "My ped said...." with full confidence that their ped would never steer them wrong. :( I have a friend who is a doc. Before she had kids, she would just honestly tell a parent that SHE was not their best source for car seat info and give them contact numbers for a local tech. Her partners however, have out car seat advice that was in their heads from when their own kids were in car seats - many, many years ago.....

[theMama]

DS' ped told us to turn his car seat forward when he hit 20 lbs too at his 9 month appointment. I wrote the office a letter (trying to be kind & give information so that other parents wouldn't be told the same thing). I got a kind response back, but I do wonder what they are telling parents these days. They didn't hand out written information that included when to turn the car seat around.

Dette

[Joolsplus2]

www.carseat.org has a 'resources' section and they probably have a handout that's more from this century they can send you. www.cpsafety.com has the AAP statement linked to it.
Yeah, it's probably just a pre-1996 handout...no seats went over 20 or 22 pounds back then, so kids HAD to FF at that weight. :(
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 3 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx