What do you think about snap 'n go type stroller frames and car seat adapters?

[MamaBear]

Mine was invaluable to me for plane travel in the first four months of DS's life, but if we ever have a #2 I hope to avoid both the earlier air travel and the snap n go.

By comparison, we've never even taken an adapter with us when we travel. It's no fun lugging a carseat through the airport, but that's what I've done.

[crl]

Blackbird, I have found that pediatricians are pretty clueless about car seat isues for the most part. For example, many of them do not know anything about the benefits of extended rear facing.

Also pretty clueless about strollers. My ped, who is quite progressive and very interested in newborns, asked me all kinds of questions about my MB Swift with snuzzler combo when dd was a newborn because he had parents asking him stroller questions and he had no idea how to answer them.

Catherine

[Blackbird711]

Also pretty clueless about strollers. My ped, who is quite progressive and very interested in newborns, asked me all kinds of questions about my MB Swift with snuzzler combo when dd was a newborn because he had parents asking him stroller questions and he had no idea how to answer them.

Catherine

Wow, this is kind of shocking. I know that doctors have incredibly stressful jobs and that it's hard to keep up with all the latest info, but geez.

If most peds aren't paying attention to this, then who in the medical field is actually doing the research and getting the info out there?

[Multimama]

By comparison, we've never even taken an adapter with us when we travel. It's no fun lugging a carseat through the airport, but that's what I've done.

So I guess you don't buy seats for your kids when they fly? I believe that carseats are for cars....and for planes. I would never fly with an infant without a carseat unless it was an emergency situation.

[carolinamama]

Never used a travel system type contraption for DS1. I only had one kid, I could try to be home for naps more, and he didn't like his carseat. We switched him over to his convertible seat by 8 weeks because of his severe dislike of his infant seat. I used carriers quite a bit for him. Fastforward to DS2. I was running DS1 into preschool, into his gymnastics and science classes, and had to do more errands with a baby in tow. I bought a Mac ET and it was great for the quick in and out runs. DS2 loved his infant seat and would stay asleep while I did dropoffs. I just can't imagine waking him everytime I had to run into a quick dropoff or errand to put him in a carrier or directly into a stroller. Not to mention that DS2 loathed carriers. He thought he should be nursing anytime he was that close to me and just cried if I didn't bf him. That kinda defeats the convenience of the carrier for errands etc. I was so sad when he didn't like the Ergo like DS1 because I loved that carrier. I know they get a bad rap around here, but I think there is an appropriate time and place for them. Just not overuse of them.

[edurnemk]

So I guess you don't buy seats for your kids when they fly? I believe that carseats are for cars....and for planes. I would never fly with an infant without a carseat unless it was an emergency situation.

I'm not MamaBear, but from her response "It's no fun lugging a carseat through the airport, but that's what I've done." I interpreted the opposite, that she does carry the car seat to the plane, but not on the stroller.

[Multimama]

I'm not MamaBear, but from her response "It's no fun lugging a carseat through the airport, but that's what I've done." I interpreted the opposite, that she does carry the car seat to the plane, but not on the stroller.

Ah, I see. I was interpreting the "but that's what I've done" as not bring the carseat through the airport.

I don't see any way I could have carried the baby and the carseat through the airport with other luggage, especially with the restrictions on how much weight you should carry after surgery. (Even the way we did it I worry I carried too much too soon.) Now that I am a proficient babywearer things would be different, I think, but at the time it really was indispensable.

ETA: Of course, I unfortunately hadn't discovered these boards back then and was living overseas. If I'd been able to get advice from you ladies back then I might have seen options I didn't know about.

[crl]

Well, I put the baby in the seat of the stroller and bungie corded the infant car seat to the back of the stroller (cybex onyx). So the baby was not in the carseat in the airport, but I had the car seat with me and used it in the airplane seat that I had purchased for that express purpose. So it is definitely possible to do use the car seat on the plane and not put the baby in the carseat in the airport.

Catherine

[crl]

Wow, this is kind of shocking. I know that doctors have incredibly stressful jobs and that it's hard to keep up with all the latest info, but geez.

If most peds aren't paying attention to this, then who in the medical field is actually doing the research and getting the info out there?

Well, I think of the stroller stuff as more about baby gear. I assume my ped is pretty busy keeping up with the latest on vaccines and ear ache treatments and such. It just wouldn't occur to me to ask him about baby gear except of really specific to medical issue things. I was impressed that he was interested at all.

Catherine

[edurnemk]

Ah, I see. I was interpreting the "but that's what I've done" as not bring the carseat through the airport.

I don't see any way I could have carried the baby and the carseat through the airport with other luggage, especially with the restrictions on how much weight you should carry after surgery. (Even the way we did it I worry I carried too much too soon.) Now that I am a proficient babywearer things would be different, I think, but at the time it really was indispensable.

Of course, you do what you have to. I didn't fly until DS was 2 months (and I would no have wanted to fly earlier than that). And he HATED the infant seat, so I had to put DS on the stroller seat and carry the infant seat, or wear DS and push stroller with the empty car seat on it. Especially since we needed the stroller at our destination, so I had to bring the stroller seat as well as the car seat. You just need to figure out what works for you and your baby. I'm pretty sure we'll use the car seat adapter more frequently with the next baby (we also live in the suburbs now, more car and less walking)