car seat in grocery cart??

[♥ms.pacman♥]

ok i just want to ask..how do you manage to secure an infant car seat to the front part of a shopping cart (the part where an older baby/child is meant to sit?). I see this being done all the time at grocery stores, Target, etc. i have a Graco Snugride 22 and i try to do this but it never seems to work..it just seems so unstable to me..it seems like if someone just bumped it accidentally it would tip the seat over and it would fall.

sometimes some shopping carts are such that i can secure the seat to the front part (the same way the carseat attaches to my Snugrider strolelr base) but in order for it to do that, the carseat has to be at some odd angle, almost like DS is lying flat on his back. just looks too weird. Further, with the car seat so up high the whole carseat/cart ensemble seems to have a very high center of mass (yes i am a geek, lol), making it easier for the cart and everything to potentially tip over.

So today i had to go to the grocery store by myself and i just put DS's carseat in the main basket part of the grocery cart, facing me..that way the car seat cannot fall out of the grocery cart, center of mass is lower, etc. however of course that results in a lot less space for groceries etc. also, it kinda wobbles inside the grocery cart a bit, so not sure that is the safest option either..

so anyway, am i being just paranoid? i see people put carseats in the front part of shopping carts all the time and i am wondering if there is some secret technique i am missing out on. right now my DS is 3 months old and cannot sit up on his own, so i can't just put him by himself (without the carseat) in the front part.

[boogiemomz]

i've only ever used the main part of the grocery cart as you described, too scary to use the front part. DD winds up "holding" some of the groceries, though. doesn't work for the huge, major shopping trips though, not enough room in the cart. i have gotten pretty creative piling things up in the front seat part, underneath the cart, and in the corners of the main part!

[elliput]

Some car seats can actually snap onto some grocery carts, however, for all the reasons you just stated, it is not recommended that this be done. I'm pretty darn sure I recall from my infant car seat manual that there was a picture of the carseat on a shopping cart with a bit red circle and line through it.

I prefered to put the infant seat in the main part of the basket. I figured it would help prevent me from overspending.

[wendibird22]

Baby goes in the basket. Too many horror stories of seats falling and carts tipping over. The other option is to wear baby in a carrier.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thx everyone for the responses! i guess im a bit relieved to know it wasn't just me, it really seems kinda dangerous to put the carseat like that on top, but i just see so many people do it all the time i was just wondering..

boogiemomz - aw, so cute that your baby holds grocery items in the cart..i'm sure my DS will do the same as he gets a little older, he loves to grab things! and yeah today i got pretty creative in putting $50 worth of groceries (including cereal boxes) in the front seat part!

elliput - hmm, good point..i will have to go check my graco carseat manual. and yeah true about overspending....and anyway i tend to reserve the major grocery shopping expeditions to the evenings/weekends when my DH can come too (in that case, DH pushes the grocery cart and i push DS in the stroller)

wendibird - yeah i have a sling (sleepywrap) but i'm not really that good yet on using it, especially by myself (all the times i've used a sling i've had DH help me put baby in the sling). plus, my DS doesn't really like being carried all that much (odd, i know).

[KrystalS]

When my DD was still in the infant seat I would get a couple of the shopping baskets and place one under the cart and one in the front basket. That way I could put smaller items under the cart vs older big items, and I was able to hold more in the front of the cart with a basket.

[SnuggleBuggles]

It is super dangerous and my manual had a section on how you shouldn't do it. I wore my ds instead until old enough to sit stably. Wearing was much easier than any other plan I could come up with.

Beth

[egoldber]

Wel I did it. And I don't feel bad about it. Maybe I'm lucky, but the grocery store near me, the carseat clipped right on, it was a good angle and felt very secure and safe. There were some places we went where the carseat did not fit as well and then I would just put the seat in the basket.

[Kymberley]

I used to do it, until I heard about it here. A lady working at the grocery asked me about my Ergo that DS was in the other day. I told her that we don't do the infant seat in the cart anymore and she told me that she saw a cart tip the day before with a very young infant in the infant seat up front. Poor lady didn't sleep well that night, she couldn't get the image out of her head.

[AnnieW625]

I did it all of the time with DD and her Snugride 22. It snapped right into the top of shopping cart, and DD was always buckled into the seat. I was always with her so I never felt unsafe doing it, but I can see how others aren't comfortable doing it and that's their MO and I am cool with that. It wasn't until a post here a few months back that I had any idea people were up in arms about it. I see it all of the time here.

I have a Beco for #2 so we'll most likely try that as we will be using a Graco Safe Seat for #2 and since it's a larger seat I can't see it fitting right on top of the seats, but I can't say I won't at least try it.