going home from hospital sans car -- carseat issues?

[Anonymous]

I'm asking this question purely out of curiosity, as we have a car, a carseat, and have already had it installed at the inspection station. But I have some friends who do not use cars or drive, and was wondering what they will do when they bring their babies home from the hospital and it made me curious about a number of situations because I've heard that a carseat is required before you can bring your baby home. But what if the parents are planning to use public transportation or walk home? And what do hospitals do for low-income parents who just can't afford carseats and maybe their babies have come early or something and they hadn't prepared?

I'm sorry for asking a question without a vested interest in the answer, but I'm just curious. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

They take public transportation or have friends pick them up. And yes, those friends are required to have car seats equipped.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County, MD actually gives low income moms/dads carseats. The program also gives cribs if one is needed.

[Anonymous]

Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

I guess the short answer to your question is yes. And it really does not take that long to strap in a carseat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

I'm just guessing too, but I would think this would probably work. Because at Sibley they just made sure you had the baby in the car seat on your lap when you were pushed out the door. No one actually looked inside the car to make sure there was a base in there or that it was installed properly.

[Anonymous]

No, a taxi driver does not care about a carseat for your child.

[Anonymous]

you don't have to have a base for an infant seat - they can strap in with the seatbelt alone. So, you could do this is a cab really easily.

[Anonymous]

We don't have a car, so when the baby was still in his infant seat, we got pretty skilled at strapping him into a cab quickly. We almost never used the base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

There is no law requiring a car seat in a taxi. There was a thread about this before with someone asking about taking a carseat to NYC and installing it in taxis.

I would assume that if you don't have a car though, you live somewhere convenient to public transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

There is no law requiring a car seat in a taxi. There was a thread about this before with someone asking about taking a carseat to NYC and installing it in taxis.

I would assume that if you don't have a car though, you live somewhere convenient to public transportation.

Right, but you need a carseat to leave the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to follow up on the original post: what do people do if they need to take a cab with a baby? Is it permissible to simply hold the baby in one's lap? Or is someone expected to carry around a car seat and quickly install it in any cab they take?

There is no law requiring a car seat in a taxi. There was a thread about this before with someone asking about taking a carseat to NYC and installing it in taxis.

I would assume that if you don't have a car though, you live somewhere convenient to public transportation.

Right, but you need a carseat to leave the hospital.

This is OP. This is sort of what sparked my curiosity. The person saying you "need" a carseat to leave the hospital. I think that can't be correct, because if you do not own a car or plan to use one (let's say you live close to public transportation or have something against cars) why would you buy a carseat? For those times that you need to take a taxi there's no law requiring car-seat use, and for those times that you need to take a trip in someone else's car you could rent a carseat. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that you lived directly across the street from Sibley hospital. are you saying that they would try to detain your infant because you were not strapping it into a carseat for your wheelchair ride out? And for that matter, that they would not allow you to carry the baby if you preferred?

I'm not trying to make this into a safety vs. callous parent issue -- I'm asking you to assume that the parent really has no intent to use a carseat for the first year, say. So Sibley or another hospital will not let you leave without buying something you'll never use again? That seems really stupid to me, if your'e honestly walking or taking metro.

Again, I don't know why I'm asking all of this because we have a car and dont' even live near a metro! I just wonder about these things. It bugs me when we're required to do foolish, extraneous things just to prove we're "okay" to take our kids home. One thing to make sure a kid that's going into a car gets into a carseat, another thing to require it when it does not apply. But I suspect previous posters are just assuming and are not speaking from experience.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the policy varies by hospital? For instance, I know that Sibley requires this but they are also not near a metro. Does GW require this?

[Anonymous]

OP - you ask a good question. I have to assume the rule really is that you need to have a car seat IF you are leaving by car (and it is just assumed most people are leaving by car). So I would assume if you are walking, you wouldn't have to prove you have a car seat. But what about bus or cab? Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - you ask a good question. I have to assume the rule really is that you need to have a car seat IF you are leaving by car (and it is just assumed most people are leaving by car). So I would assume if you are walking, you wouldn't have to prove you have a car seat. But what about bus or cab? Interesting.

Call a hospital and ask someone in the post partum ward.