When parents buy the baby carriage we usually get the cuckoo, the chair and the "maxi cosi", a name that popularly receives the car seat that also serves to put in the structure of the stroller. For the cuckoo or the chair nobody puts limitations. The baby can be there as much as he wants. However, if we talk about the car seat this is not the case. They always tell you that at most it can be there an hour and a half.
There are people who do not know this fact, and there are people who know it, but do not know why. Of course, if they explain to you that it cannot be there for more than an hour and a half, but they do not give you the reason and you see your son the sea of calm in there, it is easy for one day to say “what nonsense” and leave him more chair time However, there is a reason that is relatively important and now I will explain it to you: why babies cannot be more than an hour and a half in the car seat.
Risk of bradycardia, apnea and oxygen desaturation
They cannot be long, in fact, the less they are better, because the position that babies acquire when put on these devices makes increase the risk of bradycardia (the heart goes slower than it should), apnea (the baby stops breathing for a few seconds) and oxygen desaturation (less oxygen reaches the blood). All this is not recommended for a baby, so they are devices that provide security to the baby in the car but must be used only for short transfers.
The fault, as I say, is the position the baby takes. Babies should, as a rule, be in an aligned position and rest on a stable plane. When putting them in the "maxi cosi" or in the car seat they tend to flex the neck, close the mouth and make a "C" in such a way that they get to have certain breathing difficulties in the same way that they would do it in a more stretched position.
In Babies and more Postural or positional asphyxiation: why babies should not sleep in car seatsTo arrive at these data, it is enough to take a look at the studies that have been done in this regard. To get started, Pediatrics published in 2001 a study in which they observed 50 full-term newborns and 50 premature 36-week-olds sitting for 60 minutes in an approved car seat.
On average, the oxygen saturation of all babies dropped from 97% to 94%, but 7 of the babies (3 premature and 4 term) they had an oxygen saturation of less than 90% for 20 minutes. 12% of premature babies suffered apnea or bradycardia. For you to have an indicator, the oxygen saturation of a baby must be between 96% and 100%.
Another study published in 2007 compared the consequences of having the baby in a car seat with the cuckoo or carrycot for the car and in a hospital crib, to have the reference. The babies were controlled in the crib for 30 minutes and in the car devices for 60 minutes.
They saw that the average oxygen saturation was different in all positions: when they were in the hospital's cradle the babies were at 97.9%. Being in the carrycot, at 96.3%. Finally, when they were in the chair, they were at 95.7%. Again, in the car devices there were more babies with low saturations than in the hospital's crib.
The researchers concluded that the use of the devices for the car should be limited only to the car, and that should not be used as substitutes for the crib.
The carrycot for the car?
Perhaps, after reading this study you think about the possibility of using the carrycot for the car, since it seems that they breathe better. It's true, they breathe better, but is much more insecure than the chair. Two years ago we talked about it because in the event of a collision, the risk of the baby suffering serious injuries is much greater by going in a carrycot than in a chair.
The new carrycot, it seems, has a new technology that allows, instead of tipping forward with the frontal impact, tipping backwards, keeping the baby at the base of the cuckoo. Thus, they are much safer than before, but also, the baby's grip on the carrycot is much looser than that of a chair.
In Babies and more, they almost lost their baby due to postural asphyxiation: beware of prolonged use of car seats!The most advisable, then, is to make use of a back seat for the car, but limiting the time we use it only to car trips, and if the trip is long making stops every hour and a half.
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