Used Car Seats – Pretty in Pink

When we started to talk to folks about Everything Borrowed, many of them said, “Great – we are dying to get rid of this old car seat – do you want it?” Michelle’s mom even went out a bought a beautiful car seat from a local garage sale for just $10. This seemed like it was going to be one of the easier items to borrow, right? Not necessarily.

Just like used breast pumps, there are numerous safety issues with used car seats. Many safety organizations do not recommend buying used car seats at garage sales, on line, or from people you don’t know well. Alas, the first time in 60+ years Michelle's mom's bargain shopping didn't pan out...

So, we needed to figure out what the safety issues were and how to make sure the one we borrowed would be safe for our son - and not too too girly - we know, surprising from such progressive parents. It's just been hard enough that everyone thinks he's a girl in utero (and no, that doesn't mean Michelle developed a big ass during pregnancy - it just means she's carrying "a little wide").

We found a great online checklist by CPSafety, a collection of moms/certified child passenger safety technicians and instructors in Central Indiana that appears to go over the major safety concerns around used car seats, including:

- The age of the seat (many car seats are not recommended for use after 5 years)
- The history of seat (many car seats are not recommended for use after a moderate or severe car accident – some even after a minor accident)
- Whether it’s been recalled (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has an up to date searchable database about recalled car seats and car seat parts)
- The quality of the seat (many car seats are not recommended for use if there are cracks, bends, rust, frayed parts or other damages)

Via CPSafety we learned about The National Child Passenger Safety Certification Training Program, which certifies individuals as child passenger safety technicians and instructors. Even though (back to gender stereotyping) Danny is 200% positive he knows what he's doing and "can install a car seat, I-have-my-PhD-you-know," it’s recommended to have a technician take a look at your car seat and make sure it’s installed properly. Although some hospitals, police stations and fire departments can also provide these services, we found a searchable data base of official child safety seat inspection stations.

Finally, we found a host of other online resources that might come in handy very soon, including:

Safe Kids USA - a nationwide network of organizations working to prevent unintentional childhood injury, the leading cause of death and disability for children ages 1 to 14. They have some great resources including a quick guide to car seat safety for 0-12 months, numerous fact sheets and resources on car seats, boosters and seat belts and a searchable database of Child Safety Seat Check-Up Events

Healthy Children – a website of The American Academy of Pediatrics that has a nice overview of basic car seat safety

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s child seat recall list as well as links on how to register your car seat with the manufacturer to stay informed about new recalls and safety issues. Manufacturers are required to notify all registered owners by first class mail if their child restraint is included in a recall.

So, what did we learn? We learned that the car seat that Michelle's mom bought at the garage sale was over 10 years old and probably not safe to use even if we did know the previous owner. We also found out that a few of the seats our friends wanted to lend us were also too old, too beat up, or missing key parts.

We finally settled on a lovely - and pink - 1-year old Graco car seat that has not been recalled and have it stored in a secret location until the birthing day.

Used Breast Pumps - Milking Michelle

As a vegan who enjoys explaining to people how cows (left to their own devices) don't need to be milked and we're the only species that drinks other animals' milk after weening, Michelle was a little apprehensive about introducing any type of dairy pumping mechanism into our lives. Luckily her apprehension about having to give up her 8+ hours of sleep every night for a year - and Danny wanting to help with night feedings - got her thinking that maybe being milked by an electronic device is not all that bad.

Plus, both of us are VERY committed to breastfeeding (there are some rumors that Danny's brothers - both Harvard grads - were breastfed for 2.5 years...and his mom is not a hippie). Regardless, there are still numerous benefits to breastfeeding exclusively for 6 months and then continuing along with other food at least up to a year, so we're going to try to do it.

Plus, Michelle had a lot of food intolerances as a baby (including cow and goat milk, soy and sugars), and it seems like one of the most basic ways to “go simple” when it comes to raising a child without unnecessary purchases is to feed'em with what nature gave us.

So why even talk about breast pumps?

A few reasons:

Number 1, as we mentioned above, we would like to have Danny involved in the feeding and nourishment of the baby. Not only from a general bonding standpoint (we’re going to ignore the concept of male lactation for the moment – but check out this article by Jared Diamond, professor, scientist and author of Guns, Germs and Steel), but also from a practical and useful perspective. If Michelle is able to pump, Danny can do some middle of the night feedings; and he can take the baby on a walk and have a food supply on hand.

Number 2, same goes for the grandparents-to-be and other friends and family (and maybe caregivers down the line).

Number 3, breast pumps can be useful to help facilitate regular breastfeeding or to enable a baby to have better access to breast milk. Breast pumps can be used to stimulate lactation for women with low milk supply or to relieve engorgement (which is not only painful, but can prevent proper latching on). If a baby is having trouble latching, pumping can facilitate break milk consumption via a bottle. Having a supply of breast milk on hand and a baby that can take a bottle is also useful if a mom needs to take medication that affects breast milk (in which case she can “pump and dump” to keep up her supply) or has a temporary low supply (possibly due to medication, dehydration, etc ).

Number 4, things may change and if a bottle isn’t introduced early enough, some babies won’t take one (or will only take one after hours of crying...). The timing of when to introduce a bottle seems to vary from between 4-6 weeks or 8-10 weeks, but the general consensus seems to be 1-2 weeks before a period of separation (like returning to work) is needed and ideally not before 2 weeks but sooner than 2.5 months or so is best.

So, now that we’ve established that pumping may very well be useful – when/if/how to acquire a used pump or borrow a pump?

In most cases, for at least the first few weeks, a pump is not needed, so we don't think it's necessary to have one on hand before the baby arrives. If milk production becomes an issue and pumping is recommended a rental pump can quickly be acquired. In many ways this is ideal as it would enable us to check out a brand or two before making a larger commitment (and this way our midwives won't look at us with that look - "the best pump is your baby").

But should a pump be borrowed? What are the health and financial implications of used pumps?

Basically, there are closed system pumps (hospital grade) and open system pumps (regular purchase) and, to avoid the accidental transmission on HIV, Hepatitis and Cytomegalovirus, only closed system/hospital grade pumps are safe to borrow/rent/share.

Hospital grade pumps in New York rent for about $70-$80/month or $180-$210 for 3 months plus the purchase of the necessary accessories ($45-60) and regular (open system) pumps cost between $35 (manual) and $350 (automatic). Medela (a favorite of a lot of people – especially the Classic and the Lectina) has an interactive website to search for rental agents in your neighborhood.

That said, if someone (like us) is interested in pumping for up to a year, it doesn’t make a lot of economic sense to rent a hospital grade pump and borrowing them is hard (we don’t know anyone who owns one that isn’t a rental agent). Therefore, if we need it, it might make sense to buy a used hospital grade pump (hard to trust its condition and where it came from), or to (yikes!) buy a new one and then resell it after we’re done.

A quick glance at Froogle indicates that there are quite a few used Medela hospital grade pumps out there for about $300 each – (and a few Ameda Elite, but these are not on the FDA approved list) so we think we’ll probably just hang tight - see what happens when the little guy comes out - and know that we can buy one if/when the time comes.

We’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile – a few resources:

According to the Food and Drug Administration:
“You should never buy a used breast pump or share a breast pump.
Only FDA cleared, hospital-grade pumps should be used by more than one person. With the exception of hospital-grade pumps, the FDA considers breast pumps single-use devices. That means that a breast pump should only be used by one woman because there is no way to guarantee the pump can be cleaned and disinfected between uses by different women.

The money you may save by buying a used pump is not worth the health risks to you or your baby. Breast pumps that are reused by different mothers can carry infectious diseases, such as HIV or hepatitis.

Buying a used breast pump or sharing a breast pump may be a violation of the manufacturer’s warranty and you may not be able to get help from the manufacturer if you have a problem with the pump.”

Here is a great overview of the health issues around used breast pumps, as well as a list of FDA approved breast pumps for multiple users and statements by various hospital grade pump producers on used breast pumps.

In addition, here is the consumer reports report on pumps in general, a great review of various breast pumps, and an overview of hospital grade pumps.

Getting Ready for Baby - Bringing him home on the subway?

Now that we’re just a few weeks away from our baby’s birthing day, it’s time to get serious about the list – and identify the 5 or so most important things we really need in order to take our little one home from the hospital and take care of him for the first few weeks or so.

We think the short list is a car seat (we're still looking into this - but apparently it's quite frowned upon - though not illegal - to bring your newborn home on the subway or in a cab without a car seat), new born cloth diapers and diaper covers, a few outfits and receiving blankets and possibly a breast pump.

Lucky for us, our sister-in-law has already set aside enough new born outfits and receiving blankets (hand me downs from our three year old nephew) to get us through the first few days without having to do laundry; and we’re using a diaper service (commercial plug: for friends and family without hand me downs to lend – you can gift our baby-to-be a week’s worth of diapers for $30) that will start delivery right after the baby arrives, so that just leaves the hard stuff. The hard stuff because there’s safety issues involved in each of them.

Check out the next two posts as we explore used breast pumps - aka Milking Michelle and used car seats - aka Pretty in Pink.