Special carseats to bring home preemies?

A lady I work with has twin granddaughters that were premie and she said that inorder to bring them home from the hospital they needed to rent a special car seat that lays flat down because with a standard infant carseat they can lean foward a bit and cut off circulation. Has anybody else ever heard of this? It was a suprise to me.

 

My girls were 28 week preemies (you can see their weights in my siggy) and we had the Graco Snugride carseats that have a 5lb minimum weight and both of my girls were 5lbs by the time they went home. I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

 

My girls were 4.14 when they were born and they just had to do the 1hr carseat test before they left the hospital. They passed just fine and came home in their Graco snugrides.

 

My girls came home around 4.5 pounds and we rented a carbed from the hospital. One came home a week later than the other, and by the time the second one came home the first one had gotten over 5 pounds and could ride in her Graco Snugride.

 

Those are carbeds and some preemies do need them to come home, but not all of them.

Mine were 5 lbs 1 oz and 4 lbs 3 oz. and they passed their carseat test so they came home in the Graco snugride infant carriers. Had they not passed the carseat test then we would have had to rent a carbed.

 

Mine both passed their carseat test and came home in Graco Snugrides. Snugrides say min of 5lbs but we took Taylor home in it when she was 4lbs. They padded her with blankets. Abby was just 5lbs when we took her home. Like pp said...wait and see.

 

I just did a NICU rotation and asked specifically about this. They said the small babies who PASS the carseat test can go home in a regular carseat, regardless of the 5lb minimum. They just pad them up a lot. Otherwise they use the bed. They also said that the babies who do not pass the carseat test *usually* aren't ready to go home anyway, but of course there are always circumstances that will allow them to.

 

One of our boys 'failed' his carseat test...we use graco safeseat (5lb min). Our hospital got rid of the carbeds because they didn't feel they were safe. It's illegal in our state to 'rent' carseats, so we had to buy a carseat from the hospital (they actually ask for a donation of $50-they work with families who can't afford it). But it was a Chicco that was rated for 4lbs and up. (it was a nice carseat!)

GL! They will work with you to get your babies home safetly, whether it be a different carseat or carbed, etc...

rebecca

 

im in the hospital and asked a nrse and she said they do have them kind of seats but thats a special situation seat. if ur babies are too small for a reg seat they just need them pads that go around their head that most seats come with already.

 

QUOTE(kitkat72783 @ Dec 18 2008, 01:40 PM) [snapback]1115399[/snapback]
A lady I work with has twin granddaughters that were premie and she said that inorder to bring them home from the hospital they needed to rent a special car seat that lays flat down because with a standard infant carseat they can lean foward a bit and cut off circulation. Has anybody else ever heard of this? It was a suprise to me.


This is what it looks like.... I seen it one day when I was looking stuff up for the babies I was surprised when I saw it too
Premie car seat

 

we brought our 3.5 lb dd home in a Graco Snugride because she passed her carseat test (our hospital does them for ALL babies born prior to 37 weeks NICU or not - mine were never in the NICU)...my DS had ONE deceleration 5 minutes prior to the end of the test (and our test was 3 hours which was ridiculous because my kids would never be in the car that long) and they made us rent a carbed which was a load of crap....the funny thing was it was rated for 5 lbs also!

 

Those, like others have said are car beds... those are normaly given to baqbies who dont pass their car seat test due to BRADYS. My girls where 34 weekers and came home weighing just under 5lbs, but where able to fit into a regular infant car seat... had they not passed the car seat test, they would have been given car beds for a few weeks and then re-tested.

 

like the other posts said, if the babies are THAT fragile they wont' be leaving the hospitals! My girls had the car seat tests and passed. We had Graco Snugrides and they were both 4 lbs 13 oz when they came home (seperately...)

 

one of my boys had to come home in a car bed. he weighed 5 lbs 5 oz when he left the hospital and he passed the car test. the reason he had to have the car bed was b/c he was too short for the graco snug ride car seat. he was 17 1/2 inches long.