# How long was your newborn's torso?



## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Checked out the car seat I'm thinking of buying for Aka_chan in the store today. Distance from the bottom of the seat to the lowest strap position was 7.5"

Anyone remember how big their newborn was in terms of fitting into a car seat?


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## alegna (Jan 14, 2003)

I have NO idea. And I've been thinking about this lately- it would be really difficult to measure torso height accurately on a newborn. I would guess the most accurate way would be in a carseat or something that had a carseat-like position.

-Angela


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *alegna* 
I have NO idea. And I've been thinking about this lately- it would be really difficult to measure torso height accurately on a newborn. I would guess the most accurate way would be in a carseat or something that had a carseat-like position.

-Angela









Well, how many inches did she need to grow before she could use the 10" Britaxes?


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

I tend to have long-torsoed babies. At birth, my DD2 was 7 lbs 5 oz, and 20 inches long (21 inches at a week, after she had uncurled







) and was about an inch below the bottom slots on her Marathon. She was on the 2nd slots in her bucket, and moved into the MA at 2 months when she was consistently above the bottoms slots.


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## alegna (Jan 14, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sapphire_chan* 







Well, how many inches did she need to grow before she could use the 10" Britaxes?









I have no idea. At the time I didn't know of the concern about strap heights. BUT we moved her to a wizard at about 4 months and I'm quite certain that the straps were below her shoulders at that point. She was 19" at birth (total). No clue how long when we moved her.

-Angela


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## Rico'sAlice (Mar 19, 2006)

I was very lucky. J was 21" and it was mostly torso. It's interesting buying clothes for him since when I get shirts that manage to go to his hips, then the sleeves are too long and the neck opening too wide.
Anyway, at 3 days his shoulders were _just_ at the bottomost setting on the BLVD (using the infant insert, didn't really add height, but helped him stay straight) They were well above by 1mo.

But that's really not the norm. So I wouldn't count on it. (I didn't buy an infant seat, but I knew they were in stock in town if I needed one, and had a (very trusted) friend I could borrow from if I had too.) But I wouldn't think 7" would be tough to manage.
Do you know anything about how tall you and F were at birth?


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## runes (Aug 5, 2004)

dd was 19 3/4 inches at birth, and we moved her into a britax roundabout at 8 weeks. she could have been in it earlier but that was when we got around to switching out the carseats.

aka_chan...i love it!!!


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Rico'sAlice* 
Do you know anything about how tall you and F were at birth?

(







Hi Alice!) We've both got pretty short legs now in proportion to our torsos. Neither my mom or MIL have ever made comments about us being particularly tall or short babies.

I'm not too worried about it because if I end up in the hospital with a little baby I'm getting my SIL's <2 year old infant seat (her youngest will be transitioning to a booster before mine is born).


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *kidspiration* 
dd was 19 3/4 inches at birth, and we moved her into a britax roundabout at 8 weeks. she could have been in it earlier but that was when we got around to switching out the carseats.

aka_chan...i love it!!!









Cool beans, sounds like I'll probably be able to use the convertible right away. Of course, if all goes well, the baby won't be going anywhere by car for like a month.









(







I was kind of wondering if you'd catch that. I can even write it in kanji now.)


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## thepeach80 (Mar 16, 2004)

I think all the kids were about 7" at birth, I'd have to look at the pics.







They fit fine in their Snugrides and Ilana barely fit in her SS1, but she was close to even w/ the slots.

Evan wasn't even to the 2nd slots in the SS1 at 12 mos and didn't outgrow that till 2, but has grown in torso since then! Ilana was just even w/ the bottom slots of the MA at 10 mos and 28".


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## DahliaRW (Apr 16, 2005)

My youngest has his shoulders 1/4" below the lowest slot of the Marathon when I first tried him in it at 2 weeks old. Since the Britaxes allow the shoulders to be up to 1" below the lowest slots (and the lowest slots only and they are the only ones that I know of that allow it), he technically would have fit. Most likely from birth. He was 21 1/2" and 10 lbs 10 oz. My first was the same length (though only 8lbs) and I'd imagine he would have fit similar.

Ds#2 is now 6 1/2 months and his shoulders are above the second slots in the MA! Of course he outgrew the bucket around 3 months.


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Went to Target again today (for something for school I swear!) and measured the two infant seats they've got there. Both were ~8" for the lowest slots and there were only two slots.

How are infant seat straps supposed to fit? I've only recently started reading on this and only know about convertibles.


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## DahliaRW (Apr 16, 2005)

Same as convertibles (so at or below shoulders).


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## yamilee21 (Nov 1, 2004)

We used a convertible from the beginning - the lowest slots are about 8.5 inches. We could not get my son to fit in it properly until we figured out, sometime during the first week, that he had to use the second slots, which were about 10-10.5 inches. He was 22.5 inches at birth, mostly torso and a big head.


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## Twinklefae (Dec 13, 2006)

Ugh! I had the car seat all ready to go (bucket) with the straps on the lowest setting. I had to sit on my hospital bed and rethread them to the second hole cuz he wouldnt' fit, and no one else knew how. This is at like 6 hours pp. Not my favourite memory....


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## aja-belly (Oct 7, 2004)

our son fit well into the triumph on his first car trip (more than a week old). he has a very long torso now, but i have no idea if it was inordinately so as a newborn...


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