Hanging heads while sleeping

After switching to a front facing car seat after the twins turned one i have noticed that when they fall asleep in the seats thier heads hang foward. It looks so uncomfortable and i was wondering if anyone else has had this issue. I have tried a head cradler from babies r us as well as a neck pillow but both do not work to keep thier heads from hanging

 

Yep that's pretty typical, it's because of the way the seat backs are slanted and the carseats have to fit in.

We used a tightly rolled towel under the back of our dd's carseat to help raise it up a bit, so the seat bottom was a little straighter and not quite so slanted back, and it helped the sleeping slump a little bit (she was having trouble breathing), but there's not much else you can try,

Once they get a bit older they'll figure out how to pull their head back up and to the side so it doesn't hang. You can also try bigger shoulder pads to help cushion their cheeks so their heads don't go quite so far forward.

 

We use a rolled up towel or receiving blanket as well. Our carseat recline a bit, but there isn't enough room now that their legs are getting long. You can buy baby neck support pillows.

 

You could also consider switching them back to rear-facing until they get a bit older. You may already be familiar with this research so I don't mean to step on your toes if you've already factored this in to your decision to turn them around, but I know a lot of people haven't heard yet; the AAP now recommends keeping LOs rear-facing until at least age 2. At this age, they are 5 times more likely to be seriously injured in a car accident if they are forward-facing rather than rear-facing. Just something to consider.

 

This also happened to our kids, but if you have the car seats installed by the Highway Patrol (they generally do this for free) - they will show you how to roll and where to put the towels below the seats to support them properly.

I have not heard about the rear-facing until age 2, but I know that there is no way this would be possible for our boys! Their legs are so long they could no way continue to sit facing backwards without getting all crunched up!

Sheri

 

We have these on our boys car seats. It helps give them a little "pillow" if they fall asleep. Sometimes I take them off if they are playing around a lot, but can still get at least one back on while they are asleep. It's helped us!

 

My boys are 19mos and are tall for their age too. I blame it on daddy's genes!! Anyways, we are still rearfacing and their feet do hit the seat of the car but they usually either criss cross their legs (like Indian style) or just hang their legs over the sides. No complaint from them!! I actually think kids are more comfortable rear facing b/c their legs aren't dangling over the front of the carseat and their circulation being cut off.

OP: I would think about rear facing them again. For their own safety but once you turn them when they are older, sleeping in the car doesn't happen as often.

 

You might be surprised! I know a number of people who have rear-faced their tall or average-height kiddos till age 3 or 4 with no problems; they just learn to cross their legs, like my 19-month-olds do. In Sweden it's actually the law now that kids have to RF till age 4! I've seen many pics of kids that old comfortably rear-facing. You might want to google "extended rear-facing"; there are some very compelling youtube videos, articles, etc., that show how much safer it is. (Including one of an 18-month-old who was forward-facing because he was very tall and heavy for his age. He broke his neck in a car accident and nearly died; if he had been rear-facing, his injuries would have been minor.

Video Link

 

If you prefer, here's a much shorter video that shows a crash-test demonstration comparing a forward-facing versus a rear-facing dummy. The FFing dummy's head and neck are thrown violently forward upon impact (which can cause the neck to break, causing paralysis or even death) while the RFing dummy is supported and stays aligned.

Video link

 

Thank you SC_Amy for posting those videos. It didn't take a video to convince me, it was a lot of mamas on another site convincing me to practice extended rear facing.