Is there a reason I should consider an infant seat and not just going straight to the convertible?

@washedbyblood87 Fair.

I just find it’s odd nobody has been able to answer this question. I worked as an ER nurse. We had a couple show up, baby was being held but still connected to mom by cord. They had no car, had to borrow one from a friend to GET to the hospital, then friend came to get car. This is in South Texas.
 
@richking58 It’s literally illegal for an infant to travel in a car without being in a car seat- regardless of who owns the car. So your hospital enabled reckless endangerment of a child if you let them leave in a car without a car seat.
 
@washedbyblood87 We actually transferred them via EMS to a different hospital because the facility I worked at (300+ beds at the time, now is licensed for 500+ beds since they built another tower) neither had women’s services nor pediatrics/neonatal services (still doesn’t; their sister facility across town handles all women’s/newborn care).

I’m not proposing that an infant should travel in a car without a car seat. I firmly believe that an infant/child/adult should ride as safely as possible, with appropriate seat/restraint as needed based on their height/weight. My 5yo was RF till she was 4.5.

My question is, if a mother is planning to walk home from the hospital because neither she nor anyone in her support system has access to a vehicle - what does the hospital do?
 
@washedbyblood87 I’m willing to bet in the next 5-10 years policies for non-car owners will start to come out for hospitals…. We have a 19% poverty rate in our county. I’m sure it’s just going to get worse. And given the cost of used cars vs income - not to mention the cost of ownership (gas, insurance, maintenance, etc), it’s going to get to a point that poor people won’t be able to own cars.
 
@hermit76 In hindsight, I wish I had skipped the infant seat and gone straight to the convertible. My daughter HATED the carseat so we never got the benefit of being able to leave her in the seat while sleeping to run errands or go out. She just screamed the entire time she was in it. Maybe I would feel differently if I had a chiller baby though.

So I vote save the money and go straight to the convertible.
 
@hermit76 We started with a convertible seat the first time, and I have no regrets. We will be doing the same with the next baby.

Your context in comparison with mine in case it helps:

I live in the Appalachian South, so the weather can get pretty hot in the summer and pretty cold in the winter, but it rarely gets extreme.
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I live in the northeast, so the weather occasionally gets pretty hot in the summer and often gets pretty cold in the winter, but our car has air conditioning and heat, and we dress him appropriately. Even with a late fall baby (so newborn in the winter) and no garage, the weather wasn't a problem.

Our stroller will be a Bugaboo Fox 5, with the intent of taking the baby out of the car seat to use the stroller.
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We used a bassinet with our stroller for the first few months until we switched to using the stroller seat. Transferring him between the stroller and the car was not a problem. We also used a (babywearing) carrier for shorter trips.

We won’t travel much. We may have a short 2-3 hour road trip in December, but otherwise, we don’t plan to travel much for a long while.
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We don't travel much either, and we haven't flown with our toddler yet. Road trips (we've driven up to 6 hours) with him haven't been much of a problem, and my friends who've taken babies on road trips have said their babies were happier in convertible seats than they were in infant seats.

I will be a SAHM, and our parents live far away, so I’m not worried about getting them bases for their cars/trading off like many parents do.
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My parents live close by, but they rarely drive our baby anywhere. When they have, we've just moved our car seat to their car. It's not a huge deal to do that every once in a while, but I just bought a cheap, lightweight convertible seat for them to keep in their car in case there are situations where moving our car seat would be inconvenient.

For anyone who regularly uses multiple cars, they would have to figure that part out eventually anyway because kids can only stay in infant car seats for so long.
 
@hermit76 I skipped infant seat and went straight to a different 360 convertible. Best decision ever. My baby is 4 months today and not once have I wished I had an infant seat.

And hospital policies are not law. They can’t legally hold you for using a convertible seat vs an infant seat. Most times they’re just ill-informed. The car seat you’re considering is supposed to fit as small as 4 lbs. They will just wheel you to the car while you hold your baby as opposed to you bringing the infant seat in to carry baby down.
 
@hermit76 There are ppl that don't use infant carseats from birth. There are convertibles that can be used from infancy and into the toddler age as they grow. This saves you $$$ since you wouldn't buy the infant carseat which is usually just as expensive as the convertible.

The only downside to this route is that the convertible carseat is not portable. It stays in the car, which means if you have to take baby out of the car. You will need to grab them and put them in the pram, in your carrier, etc etc. This "usually" in turn will end up waking your baby and probably cause them to cry. However they usually stop within 15 minutes and fall back asleep (if they were sleeping)

With infant carseats you have the convenience of portability in the newborn phase to move from car to stroller with the click of a button and lifting the handle. This means you won't be startling baby awake on those grocery outings. However the infant seat isn't something meant to be used for long sleep. I think 2 hrs or less is the recommended use.

It's totally fine to skip the infant carseat if you want. Just prepare a way to carry baby around when having to get off the car. Some people opt for a baby carrier, a bassinet attachment that's compatible with the stroller.

Edit: also some hospitals won't let you leave without the infant carseat. I'd get in touch with your hospital and see if they accept convertibles for infants. If not, you could buy a cheap one at Walmart, hook it up, AND your convertible on the other side of the car. When you leave with baby, use the infant seat. Pull over after leaving the hospital and switch baby to the convertible and return the cheap infant seat at Walmart. Just make sure the convertible does have the infant insert for newborn!!
 
@hermit76 My baby is 3 months old and I’m buying a convertible seat already because she hates her infant seat. They’re not really supposed to sleep in the infant seat for long periods of time. So even if they are asleep when you get home they’re supposed to be transferred out of it. Also, at grocery stores the infant seat takes up so much room in the basket I ended up just using a baby carrier or if my husband is there we use the stroller with a bassinet.

I really wanted this seat, but idk how big of an issue the latch thing is going to be. It’s on sale at target and the trade in program for an extra 20% off.
 
@hermit76 I got the convertible chicco for babe and then a cheap graco infant seat that came with our stroller as a second car seat. The infant seat never got installed in our second car. We used it the first few weeks as a carrier when we took babe to the dr the first few months. We also use it in the stroller as babe is old enough he wants to look at everything and not be laying down in the bassinet. I’m not strong so carrying babe in the infant carrier is really too heavy for me so only my husband used it to transfer babe around as a carrier. Going straight to the convertible was the right move for us
 
@hermit76 We never did it but it’s because we never needed to leave baby in the car seat. I personally never felt okay leaving her in there for sleep when we got to our destination. So she was always in her bassinet stroller in the early days.
 
@hermit76 I can't imagine having put my tiny newborn/infant in the convertible seat we have. We didn't even switch to it until well past 1 year old, maybe even 1.5. It would not have felt safe/snug.

Also, we didn't drive much at all for the first 6 months- just doctor appointments, very occasional family stuff, a couple walks in nice parks. I still would 100% recommend a carseat with base that can pop in and out without taking baby out. So, so much easier to carry baby into the doctor, carry baby into the house while sleeping, etc. You may not think it will make a difference, but I promise it does. Bonus points for a stroller frame that it can pop into. We had one of the Graco systems and it was worth every penny.
 
@hermit76 I skipped the infant seat initially but ended up buying one because my baby just didn't fit well in the convertible car seat. It was just too big even though it says it's rated for her weight and height. Her head was constantly hanging to the side with her neck cranked because the head support would not go close enough to her head.
 
@hermit76 After reading some comments, I just wanted to chime in and say that legally, no hospital can refuse to let you leave if you don't have an infant seat. So long as the baby is within the limits of the seat and its an age appropriate seat, they can't stop you from leaving.
 
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