# Long car journey to hols - how long in car seat?



## Mrs Dot

how long is recommended max time lo can stay in the car seat for? I've read on a few sites 2hrs max???? Also when we do stop off on the mway for a break and get him out of the seat, how long does he need to stay out of it for before we put him back in again? Our journey will be from the north west to Dorset so about 4 hrs total on a good run so we're gonna have to stop at least once maybe twice - just depends on traffic TIA


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## Emz1982_in_uk

Yep I also read 2 hours! But our seat had an extra bit for newborns which meant they laid flatter and gave us an additonal hour on top of the 2 hour limit. There isn't much online that I can find which states how long they can stay in them tho!!


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## loopy_lou

Oh good question as were going to drive to Ireland abd I was thinking about the drive to the ferry terminal Thanks ;)


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## MNORBURY

I don't think it will cause any harm as a one off if you're stopping off anyway, I can't see it causing any spinal damage for one journey, it's not as if you do it everyday x


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## Rachel_C

We do a four hour journey fairly regularly and have done since Leyla was about a month old. We stop half way for about 15 minutes. As long as it's not every day, I think you'd probably be fine doing the 4 hours in one go really, but I try to think how comfortable I'd be for that long in a baby seat, cos they can't move as much as us in the car. Just long enough to stretch and wriggle about a bit is long enough for a break I think.


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## bekkie

my little guy falls asleep instantly in the car, and normally sleeps for 2.5 - 3 hours, so when we're traveling long distances we stop for a break when he wakes up.


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## pinkclaire

My HV told me no longer than an hour but I think that's pretty excessive?! I do a four hour journey when we visit MIL and as long as he's happy we stop off once half way, like someone else said it's not everyday is it.


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## sparkle_1979

It's like everything hun, moderation. We take Ruby on a 5 hr journey very occasionally and stop once for an hour. Wouldn't do it every day, but once every 8 weeks is not a problem :) x


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## Eternal

my family live 10 hours away by car, spoke to HV and MW about not being able to take LO to visit family and they said it was fine. obviously we stopped and got him out for half and hour to an hour, we did that twice.

On our first journey to Wales he ended up in hospital (unrelated) and had surgery so we were worried about taking him home and the hospital said it was fine. 

They all said that baby should be left in car seat when not in car, but that its fine, if you need to do a big journey then you can still do it. My HV said she knew a few people who took babies to OZ when they were just a few days old and kept them in their car seats. 

At the end of the day you need to do whats right for you, for us we have family all over the country so sometimes we have needed to, the rest of the time he is in it for the mimimum.


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## polaris

We did a four and a half hour journey at the weekend - we stopped for a break and a feed for LO after 3 hours. I think 2 hours is the recommended limit but I don't think an extra hour will do any harm if it's only a rare occurrence - it would be different if it was every day


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## Laura2919

Baby car seats is 90 minutes but we drove to italy last yr and so we didnt have to keep stopping we bought combination seats. They can stay in them longer and they were more comfy.


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## Mrs Dot

thanks for all of your responses we thought that this was the case with it being a one off journey, he's not been in it for more than 2 hours at any time so far and he needs a feed every 3 so we'll have to do a stop en route so we'll prob just do one stop when we get past brum depending on the traffic! going to work out best services to stop at on the way after about 2 hours.


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## Abigailly

We're driving to Fance in a couple of months. We'll stop every few hours to give her a stretch out. But she'l survive.


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## Xinola

We are also planning a drive to Finland and we´ll be taking several stops during the way. That would also include few overnight stays as we are also visiting friends along the way.


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## OmarsMum

Just stop for few mins (after 2 hrs) take him out of his seat, give him a gentle back massage for 2 mins when ur holding him, then put him back :) Traffic here is killing & I asked his Dr. about long drives & this is what he advised us to do.


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## bjl1981

We do a 4-5 hour journey every time we go see inlaws, Northwest to Reading way, and we always stop for 30-60 minutes around birmingham way (we have relatives there) otherwise we'd just drive for 2-3 hours and when LO needed feeding/changing stop at services. I wouldn't worry too much hon, they have these restrictions to make people aware of the issue, it doesn't mean that if you put LO in car seat for longer that anything will necessarily happen.


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## Akira

I know here they say that babies should not be in a capsule for longer than an hour and a half, although I think the combination seats you can have them in for longer. 

I worry about it as by the time we drive to town, and find a park etc it will probably be close to the hour and a half.....which is why I didnt bother with getting the matching capsule for pram.

If its a once off drive I wouldnt worry, your LO will let you know if he is uncomfortable anyway!


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## GersPrincess

I regularly drive to Brighton from Fife (once a month) and have done even since Emily was 3 weeks old. What I do is stop every 125 miles which is roughly every 2 hours, which breaks our journey up into 4 manageable quarters. We stop for a good hour each time, and I make sure she has plenty of time to stretch herself out in the mother and baby room, I take her nappy off and let her have a good kick about, give her a breastfeed and/or food if it's one of her mealtimes, and a good play. Then she's happy enough to go back into her seat again for the next part of the journey.


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## GersPrincess

Oh Mrs Dot, I'm not sure if you'll be going past this on your journey, but whatever you do, DONT stop at the services on the M6 toll road. They are disgusting and completely horrendous. The only baby change is in the one disabled toilet, and everytime I've had to stop there, they have been filthy and really really smelly.
I've changed my route now and dont use the toll road anymore so I can stop at Hilton Park services... MUCH better!
Generally, MOTO services have good standards of mother and baby rooms, whereas Welcome break are awful. I've pretty much visited every service station from Fife to Brighton in 4 year's worth of monthly drives now!!


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## suzib76

i am doing a 4 hour drive down to blackpool on friday, i will stop if needs be, if not i will just go direct as its much easier tbh. we will leave just after breakfast, but i will be exceptionally lucky if i dont need to stop as one or the other of the kids will prob need the toilet, or maybe dh will pmsl

i know they recommend a couple of hours max, but on actual long car journeys i doubt very much it would harm lo, i am sure they only brought out this advice becasue of all the muppets who put babies in car seats on their trvael system for hours at a time round town


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