Baby car seats/caspules?

I am wondering about a car seat for baby - I know there's the car seats now where they are from newborn onwards... but was wondering about the capsule.
I thought it would be handy to have the capsule at first, as baby can be put in and out of car without waking him/her up.

- Is one better than the other in terms of safety?
- Can I hire them from my local council or somewhere? Do I hire the whole thing?(capsule and holder that attaches to the car) Maybe it's something I could borrow from a friend?
- How long would bubs be in the capsul before needing an actual car seat?
- What do you think would be better?
- Any other comments???

Hope you can help!

Hi Apple,

We used a capsule for the first maybe 6w of Jacob's life....after that, we bought a car seat that was convertible....from newborn to 18kg or something like that.

As convenient as the capsule was, from the POV that you could take him in and out of the car without waking him, unfortunately it just wasn't for us. I had to have an emergency caesarean and all the bending in and out of the car to pull out the capsule which is quite heavy, was taking it's toll on me. I have a bad back at the best of times, but after a caesarean when your stomach muscles are practically non-existant, I found it was really too hard for me to continue using. Plus, Jacob seemed to be getting big for it awfully quickly.

We hired the capsule from a baby shop down here, but I believe places like Red Cross also hire them. Everything that you need for them is usually supplied.

hi apple

i used a capsule for the first time with #3 and it was fantastic especially in respects of kinder drops offs and pick ups when bubs was always asleep, they are great - lani was in it until 6 mths (thats how long we hired it for) she was quite heavy to lug around at around 5mths up.

we hired one from our local council and it cost $70 with a $20 rebate once returned, it was clean and had the wool liner which was also nice and clean, i think i will definately have one again.

just a word if you are borrowing from a friend they now have proper belts on them like car seats, the ones with velcro aren't recommended i believe. also they say not to leave them in the capsule for more than 2hrs at a time but i must say there were some occassions when i would do drop off and park her buy the front door for pick up 3hrs later (mainly so i wouldn't forget her in those early sleep deprived days lol)

I was considering betting a capsule for the reasons that others have stated above, however, I was given an article on "are we not touching our babies enough" and it was on the whole idea that our soceity has built all these contraption fro reducing the amount of time we touch our children..I used a newborn-toddler seat care seat right from coming home from hospital and found that I never had a problme with the sleeping factor..newborns go to sleep so much easily anyhow, I had a sling and would take him out of the car seat and into the sling, usually without waking him..

Anyhow, each person and baby is differnt, but I would find one a waste of money personally!

Hi apple,

I believe the ambulance service - or someone connected to them hires out capsules.
They say that bubs can stay in them for up until 6 months, however most people I know have had their bubs grow to long for them after about 4 months.

For Aidyn I just used a convertible car-seat right from birth, and we haven't had any problems whatsoever.
We had to buy a compact model (Fisher Price) to suit our smaller car, as some of the larger capsules are too big to fit behind the passenger seat in the rearward facing position.

Apple, I noticed you are in Melb. You will be able to hire a capsule from the council. And if they have none available they will point you in the right direction :)

I personally am glad that I didnt buy a capsule as Jaykob would have grown out of it soooo quick.

Good Luck!!!

Hi apple - my Feb belly buddy.

We used a capsule, one mother bought for her upcoming grandchildren. DD was only in it for 6-8 weeks, as the other ladies have said, it can get quite heavy lifting it in and out of the car.

Hire places seem to be your best bet. They even install it for you so hubby need not worry about that.

I must admit, it was nice to leave the hospital with DD snuggled in her capsule. But i am cautious seeing as we are having a Summer baby, about leaving them in there for too long - there is no air flow in the capsules and like someone else said, leaving them in there for too long can be dangerous.

Your doing the right thing though - and researching your options....