Infant Car Seat Mechanics

Hi guys, I just wanted to share a fun little tip today. There is nothing probably harder than bringing home a baby and having to lug that heavy infant car seat around. Not to mention you're told not to carry heavy items for the first week or two or maybe longer, if you've had a c-section, or if you've suffered a tear. So I am here to show you a nice safe way to carry an infant car seat. My model is my little baby and he's in this heavy duty car seat. 

So first off, just when picking up a car seat, you wanna use your legs and carry, use your legs, not your back. So I'm just gonna turn this to the side so I can show you. So the appropriate way to try and carry a car seat... We all tend to want to just kind of grab like right here, rest it on our hip, shift our weight. And I'm 100% guilty of this as well. But let me tell you, I am starting to feel it in my biceps. My shoulders are starting to hurt, so I know I need to start really carrying with good mechanics. Especially as he's getting heavier. 

So the proper way to carry a car seat is to take your arm, go around the inside and grab on. And here you are. Next time you're out and about, try carrying the car seat like this if you have to lug the car seat around. So my arm is just threaded on the inside and I'm carrying it on the handle here. All right, thank you. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. Bye.

Hi. This is a video about some tips about how to protect your back and your shoulders when lifting a heavy infant car seat. Now, best case scenario, leave the car seat in the car and just carry the baby in a carrier. But I get that that's not really feasible all the time and you guys are going out to dinner, and you wanna bring the baby with you, and have the baby be comfortable in the car seat. Totally fine. So, you wanna know how to carry it most appropriately. I have a video about how to actually carry the car seat, but when you are squatting down to put the baby in the car or put the baby in the actual car seat, you wanna avoid just simply bending over and putting the baby in. That's putting a lot of stress to your low back, especially if you're carrying a 15-pound, 20-pound baby, and having to simply bend forward. That's just so much stress through the low back. So, good mechanics would be to squat down and put the baby in that way. And this is gonna take a lot of pressure off your back.

The same goes for if you're picking up the car seat and putting it in the car. So, if you pick up the car seat, you wanna do this by squatting down again and pick it up however you're comfortable picking it up. Keep your shoulders down to back, your chest is up, and your tummy is tight. You want to keep the car seat as close to you as possible. And I know that there's gonna be some forward reach of having to put the car seat in the car, but you wanna avoid that reach as much as possible. So, keep it close to you, put the car seat in, and avoid putting more strain and forward strain on the low back and hips. That's one technique to really protect your back when having to lug this heavy car seat around. If you want further tips on how to carry the car seat, I have a video that teaches you the technique of wrapping your arm around the car seat in order to help carry a baby some longer distances, so if you're carrying the baby inside the restaurant. All right. I hope this was helpful. Take care.