Thinking Out Loud....

A few weeks ago, a girl I went to middle and high school with posted a picture of her newborn on Facebook. She was in a crib sleeping with a very heavy blanket over her. I cringed. SIDS was something that I was always terrified about when Kennedy was a small baby. In fact, she slept in the rock and play sleeper right by our bed until she was 3 months old. Partly because I was nursing, partly because I was terrified of her sleeping in her crib. My pediatrician told me that back in the 80's and 90's a lot of cause of infant deaths were labeled as SIDS but in fact it was because they suffocated on blankets, pillows or stuffed animals that they were sleeping with. Kennedy is 13 months old and we just now started letting her sleep with a light blanket.

Anyway, back to the picture. I really wanted to send that girl a private message and tell her she really needed to be careful putting a blanket in the crib with her newborn. I didn't though. I didn't really feel it was my place. We don't talk to each other on a regular basis and we weren't even close in school. Maybe if it were a close friend or family member I would have.

Last Wednesday, when we were having frigid cold temperatures, I dressed Kennedy warmly in a heavy coat and hat and put her in her carseat. She looked absolutely adorable so I snapped a quick picture and posted to Facebook. In no more than a hour, I had two messages from people that I am not close to saying that they thought Kennedy's chest strap on her carseat was too low. I looked back at the picture and the chest strap had gone down a little lower due to her coat. One of the girls that sent me a message also told me it was unsafe for me to put Kennedy in a heavy coat in her carseat. She sent me a link to an article about a toddler who supposedly flew out of the car during an accident because there was so much padding in the carseat that the straps held onto the coat and not the child.

After reading these messages, I cried. I know...I am sensitive. I felt like they were attacking me as a mom and also I was thinking "seriously? I never talk to these people. They never comment or like any of my pictures but they want to tell me they don't think my child is safe????" I know how to buckle Kennedy properly in her carseat and I know where the chest strap is supposed to be, but obviously, the coat had caused it to slide down a bit.

I called my pediatrician the next day to talk to her about the coat issue. It confused me. Am I not supposed to dress Kennedy warmly when it's 12 degrees outside??? My pediatrician told me heavy coats are fine but that after I buckle her in, I need to tighten the chest strap even more so that the coat will not cause it to slide down.Her advice has worked perfectly and I trust my pediatrician. Thank goodness it doesn't get cold very often down south and we probably won't use that heavy coat more than a handful times this winter.

I love Kennedy more than anything and her safety is very important to me. I guess I just have mixed feelings about how this situation came to be. And now it's got me thinking, do I send a message to the Facebook friend who has her newborn in a crib with a heavy blanket????