The Car Seat Lady on Good Morning America

Dr. Alisa Baer, aka "The Car Seat Lady," had a great segment on yesterday's Good Morning America:  "The 5 Most Important Things Parents Should Know About Car Seats."



Dr. Baer is a NICU specialist at Columbia University's Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.  Safety is in her blood:  Her mother, Debbi Baer (a nurse), was the original Car Seat Lady and still provides child passenger safety consultation in the Baltimore, MD area. 



Check out the wonderful Car Seat Lady blog and "Like" the Car Seat Lady page on Facebook. 



When you go to her blog, ahem, notice the first picture in the Bundle Me post (looks familiar?), as well as the last picture (Blue Camouflage M/L) at the bottom!

Why Is The "Bundle Me" Not Safe In A Car Seat?

Almost every CPS out there DISCOURAGES the use of the Bundle Me in a car seat. 



This time every year, questions pop up all over the internet for ways to keep babies warm in their infant seats -- from the birth boards at megamom site BabyCenter, to local boards like Kingston.com, LIFamilies.com and HamiltonMomsTown in Canada.  And sure enough, we covered this topic last year at the Car Seat Poncho Blog:

The main reason the Bundle Me's are not recommended is that the part that goes behind the child's back is too fluffy and thick, and does not allow you to properly secure your child in the car seat. Fluff and bulk in FRONT of a baby and under the harness would compress in a collision, but fluff between the BACK of a baby and the car seat prevents the harness from being sufficiently tightened.

While a Bundle Me does allow the harness to be directly on the child's chest, it provides only the illusion of security because of the extra "air space" in the back.

 Here is the full article.

Ask a lawyer what JJ Cole says about Bundle Me and car seats!

Regarding my post this week on the Bundle Me, one of my FaceBook friends asked, "Is there any pressure by parents or advocates to the Bundle Me makers?"



Answer:  Yes.  So much so, in fact, that JJ Cole, the manufacturer of Bundle Me, has a set response to these concerns. In 2007, there was a thread on this topic on car-seat.org, and o_mom, a CPST, posted this:

"Here is what they say (wording is very important):

"Tests performed on infant car seats with the Bundle Me® installed found that the car seats complied with the Restraint System Integrity and Occupant Excursion portions of the FMVSS 213 requirements. They are NOT saying that the Bundle Me passes FMVSS 213. They are claiming that they tested at least two seats with the Bundle Me installed and that those seats pass FMVSS 213 when used with the Bundle Me. Now, we have no idea what seats were tested and how many ways they were tested (every strap position, etc.) and so on, so it is still an unknown what will happen in your carseat the way you install it. "

Another point raised on the thread is that while their descriptions of the Bundle Me include "use with car seats," none of the car seats in which they PICTURE their product are ever actually IN CARS. They're on benches, on the ground, etc.  So are they actually saying their product can be safely used in car seats that are INSTALLED and IN MOTION? That would be a juicy point for lawyers' feasting if any litigation arose.



So clever are those lawyers, no?



Here's the car-seat.org thread for your bookmarks.

Why Is the Bundle Me Bad in a Car Seat?

This questions comes up several times a year on parenting and safety boards across the internet:  Why do safety people tell you NOT to use the Bundle Me in a car seat?

The answer is that the portion that goes behind the child's back is too fluffy and thick, and does not allow you to properly secure your child in the car seat.  Fluff and bulk in FRONT of a baby and under the harness would compress in a collision, but fluff between the BACK of a baby and the car seat prevents the harness from being sufficiently tightened. 



While a Bundle Me does allow the harness to be directly on the child's chest, it provides only the illusion of security because of the extra "air space" in the back. In order for the harness to completely compress away that air space, it would have to squish down on all the baby fat, flesh and bone to an obviously ridiculous level.  No one would ever do that to her baby, so the extra space remains.  And THAT'S why the Bundle Me is bad for car seats.



To really illustrate the point, I want to highlight the excellent Bundle Me thread on BabyCenter's "Car Seat Questions" board that was posted early in 2009, by lullabymama.  She tested a real Bundle Me, a real car seat and a real baby to see if the fluffy back panel really made a difference, and took photos to document each step:

• Step 1: Put Bundle Me on car seat, seat child and fasten harness to appropriate tension.


• Step 2: Remove child, remove Bundle Me, re-seat and re-fasten child.


• Step 3: Test harness tension by pinching harness straps above chest clip, near shoulder.  If more than 1" of strap can be pinched, the harness would be too loose to safely restrain a child in a collision.

Even I was surprised that the amount of slack!  I am going to bookmark that thread and refer to it whenever the question arises.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as well as the safety of your child.