Monthly Archives: September 2014

Why we are choosing an extended rear facing car seat

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Did you know that it’s five times safer for a child to be rear facing? Scandinavian children are rear facing until they are 4–5 years old (25kg or 55lbs), which has resulted in a much lower number of children injured or dead in car accidents compared with other countries, as for instance the UK.

www.rearfacing.co.uk

Car safety is extremely important to me. It is dangerous enough on the road for adults but for children it is worse. Children rely on us to keep them safe and so I have to admit that I am a bit obsessed with making sure that baby boy has the safest car seat I can get him. When researching which infant carrier to buy I came across a lot of information online about keeping children rear facing until they are at least 4 years old. I had never heard about this before. I just assumed that once they outgrew the infant carrier they went into a forward facing car seat. I delved a bit deeper and the research that I found shocked me.

Take a look at this video. It clearly demonstrates the force that a child is subjected to in a collision. In a front facing car seat that force is centred on the neck and shoulders. The video shows how that force is spread over a wider area of the body in a rear facing car seat.

If the child’s seat is rear facing, the shell of the chair will form a protective shield and absorb the shock. Crash tests show that compared to forward facing seats, the pressure exerted on the neck is 5 times lower for rear facing child car seats. These are the reasons why all baby seats (group 0+) are only designed for rear facing use.

www.carseat.co.uk

After I watched the video it suddenly seemed like common sense to me. It made me determined to keep baby boy in a rear facing car seat for as long as possible.

Now baby boy still has plenty of room in his infant carrier so we don’t need to buy his next seat just yet. However, once I get my mind set on something I find it difficult to let go. Therefore I have already done a lot of research into which car seat I will buy and I think that I have decided on the Besafe izi combi. Coming to this decision was fairly difficult though. Although there is a fair amount of information about the benefit of extended rear facing, there don’t seem to be many places that sell these car seats. It seems that you can’t really just walk into a high street retailer and buy one of these seats. The majority are sold online. The two online retailers that I found particularly good were www.besafe.com and www.securatot.co.uk. These sites had a lot of useful information as well as selling seats.

Another issue is the price of extended rear facing seats. I have to admit that they are a lot more expensive than most forward facing ones. If I’m entirely honest we can’t really afford one but I am determined that baby boy is going to have an extended rear facing car seat even if it means me going without!

I have had some negative comments about my choice to be honest. When I have told people which car seat I want some people have said to me things like “why don’t you just buy a forward facing one, they are cheaper” and “surely you want him to face forward so he can see better”. My reply is always the same – I want my child to be safe. Some people have even said that baby boy will have to face forward if he travels in their car, as if my decision doesn’t matter to them!

Now I’m not trying to convert everyone to rear facing car seats or be preachy. All I hope is that people will choose to research the benefits and make an informed decision when it comes to buying a car seat for their child.

Will you be using an extended rear facing car seat?

Image credit – http://www.securatot.co.uk

Germs – causing havoc!

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This past week since my last post has been awful! My house has become a breeding ground for nasty, horrible, incredibly infectious germs. No one has been spared the wrath of illness!

Baby boy was ill last week with a virus and although he perked up he was never 100%. Please excuse the detail but his nappies have been awful, he has been sick a lot more than usual and his sleep has been terrible. Now call me naive but it never even occurred to me that he would pass his illness onto me and Mr K. How silly of me!

It was friday morning and I was at work. All was going well until out of no where I started to feel nauseous. I got up to make a dash to the toilet, realised that there was no time and had to make do with the bin! I was mortified. I was promptly sent home and told not to return until I was better. Now luckily Mr K’s mum was at my house looking after baby boy. She sent me to bed and stayed for the whole day until Mr K got home. I am extremely thankful for this because there is no way I could have looked after baby boy myself. I spent the rest of the day either asleep or in the bathroom. I woke up at about 11pm to find that Mr K had now started with this disgusting bug as well. It was a long night!

Yesterday was not a good day either. Neither of us felt well but baby boy was giving us no let up. He was extremely active and extremely grouchy. Not a great combination with 2 ill parents.

We are all feeling a little better today which I am grateful for. I don’t know if I could have handled another day like yesterday. I plan on keeping away from other people though. Lack of sleep has turned me into an extra from the walking dead and no one needs to see that!

I’ve said before that I know that baby boy is going to pick up a lot of bugs as he grows up but now I realise that he is also going to share them. I can’t say that I am looking forward to that!

How do you manage when everyone in the family is ill?

Image credit – http://chapmanhillpe.weebly.com/germs.html

Spa day *Review

Posted in Lifestyle by

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I have just had a completely relaxing day. It involved a delicious lunch, full body massage, scrumptious tea and a beautiful hotel suite. All of this has taken place at the Swan Hotel & Spa at Newby Bridge in the Lake District. Situated beside a picturesque river with rolling hills as a backdrop, this hotel really is a beautiful place. For anyone thinking right now that I am being sponsored in any way to write this post then I will state categorically that this is all off my own back and I am just extremely impressed after a fantastic day.

Before I even begin to describe my day in detail I am going to recommend the Swan Hotel & Spa for anyone visiting the south lakes area. I will probably recommend it again before I finish. I will also say that I don’t often wax lyrical about hotels but I am honestly impressed with this place after today and am not afraid to say it.

I arrived at the hotel with a friend at lunch time and after checking in and a quick nosy around the hotel we took ourselves into the bar for a bite to eat. The bar itself is a lovely room with mismatched chairs and solid wooden tables all of which give it a homely feel. I would describe the menu as traditional pub lunch with a twist. I chose the ham tartine which came with fries and when it arrived it was huge! And delicious!

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After lunch we headed up to the Vu Spa. I chose to be pampered with a full body massage. I’m not used to such luxury these days, a bubble bath without yellow ducks being a treat, and it was lovely. I almost fell asleep! I came out of the room feeling refreshed, if a little light headed from completely zoning out.

Late afternoon we went for a wander around Grange over Sands before picking up my friend’s grandson from nursery. He is staying with us for the night at the hotel. On this note I will point out that the hotel is completely child friendly. There is a lovely lounge downstairs filled with books and toys, an adventure trail by the river and at night complementary milk and cookies (in the shape of swans).

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My tea of choice was a burger. Homemade and juicy! I don’t know how this place sells any deserts because the mains are just huge! I also allowed myself a cheeky glass of wine – it would have been rude not to!

I am now snuggled up in a warm, comfy bed in the Beatrix Suite ready to settle down for the night. I have really enjoyed my day. I would love to visit again, this time with Mr K and baby boy. The hotel is lovely and the staff are fantastic. If you are in the area then please visit, if only to enjoy the view with a cup of tea and a piece of cake. You won’t regret it.

Image credit – http://www.swanhotel.com

Trip to hospital

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So yesterday we had to take a trip to hospital with baby boy. It was a scary time but he was soon on the mend.

Baby boy started with a temperature on Wednesday evening. Mr K and I gave him some calpol and he went off to sleep straight away. The peace didn’t last though and at 2am baby boy was wide awake screaming. I picked him up out of his cot and his skin felt like a furnace. I gave him some more calpol and he slept on and off next to me for the rest of the night.

The next day he was still hot. I continued with the calpol but it did nothing to help. Baby boy either screamed or slept on me and his temperature kept rising. I eventually had enough and called the doctor for advice. They asked me to take him in to be checked out. The doctor could find no obvious signs of infection and baby boys temperature had risen even more. We were sent to the hospital!

Once at the hospital baby boy was stripped naked and given a large dose of ibuprofen. Mr K and I were asked to get a urine sample from him. If I wasn’t so worried about baby boy I think I would have fallen over laughing at our attempts to do this! I find it hilarious now. We missed 3 wees by either not paying close enough attention or by baby boy rolling onto his front just before letting loose. It wasn’t entirely our fault though as one nurse realised that we had been given the wrong container. Once we had the correct one it was much easier and we managed to get a sample about 4 hours after being admitted!

Baby boy’s temperature slowly started to come down and once it was down to a normal level he became his usual cheeky self. He was checked by a few different doctors, one of whom requested that blood be taken to find the cause of the infection. At 11pm though a different doctor came to tell us that she had decided that it was not necessary to take blood and we could go home. We were to continue to give calpol and ibuprofen alternately as needed to keep his temperature down.

It was a relief to get home and after a bottle baby boy went straight to sleep. It was a frightening day and even though I knew that there was nothing seriously wrong with baby boy I still couldn’t help worrying. I know that baby boy will have many more illnesses in his lifetime but I am certainly in no hurry to experience that again.

Image credit – http://ja-medical.co.uk/childrens-health/3168739

Leaving the house – without the kitchen sink!

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I just about remember the days when leaving the house was easy. I picked up my bag, coat and keys and off I went. Simple!

Oh how things have changed. These days leaving the house is like a military operation and probably requires the same amount of kit. Popping to the shop is no longer popping to the shop – it is half an hour spent collecting everything that baby boy could possibly need, ten minutes changing his nappy and getting him appropriately dressed, 5 minutes getting him in his car seat, another 5 minutes hunting for his dummy before finally getting him in the car and going to the shop. Going out for a whole day needs specialist attention, often requiring a night before packing mission depending on what time we are leaving the next day.

Now that baby boy is eating solid food I can usually get everything I need for a day in 1 bag but when he was on 6 bottles a day I often needed 2! I never realised how much I would need to take just to leave the house for an hour! I need to pack everything just in case it is needed because you just know that the one time I don’t pack a change of clothes is the only time he will throw up all over himself or have a nappy leak. I made the mistake of just ‘nipping out’ without a bottle when baby boy was about 2 months old. Half an hour later I was back at home with a screaming baby boy!

I honestly can’t remember the last time I used my handbag. My keys, purse and phone are now kept in the changing bag. Goodness knows what I used to keep in a handbag! It was always full but I can’t for the life of me think what with!

As baby boy gets older I am honing my leaving the house technique. Who knows, maybe by the time he is at secondary school I will have it nailed!

Do you take everything but the kitchen sink when you leave the house?

Image credit – http://www.hartofthemunchkinpatch.co.uk/2014/04/packing-for-5-days-out-with-kids.html?m=1