lifting heavy grandchild

Child car seats are the work of the devil, from the GP's point of view.
Suggest back-strengthening exercises, and teaching GCs to climb into and out of their car seats themselves.
That is what DD and DDil have done.

Getting them in is the hard part. Until I realised I could put my knee under the child's bottom and ease them across and in. Was a doddle after that.

Its the lifting and twisting at the same time that puts your back at risk. Teaching them to climb in and out sounds like excellent advice. Its certainly easier the younger you looking after littlelies.. I even found just holding my 8mth old grandson on my hip made my back ache a little I know I wouldn't be able to do it on a daily basis.

I hope you manage to find the answer , then you can tell the rest of us.

DD2 has one that swivels round to face the car door - magic!!

I have seen them kitty, a seat that swivels on the base is a boon. Have not been able to lift GD since she was I year old, she had to learn to climb in herself.

My DGS is a bit too small to climb into the car or the seat by himself yet but it's the best solution.
It doesn't help when he has decided he doesn't want to go in at all, then it's "go into rigidly unbendable toddler mode."

When my two boys were small, we had a two-door car and getting them in and out of car seats was an ordeal I wouldn't care to repeat in my current decrepit state. Perhaps that's why I have a dodgy back more than 40 years later.

Anno Similar situation! Two car seats in the back of a Mini probably added to my back problems. I always went for four doors after that.

Yes, be prepared for it to take forever, but getting them to climb in a d out themselves is the way forward.

Now has anyone a tip for fastening and unfastening those blasted harness belts once they're in the seats, with arthritic fingers?

I have to get mine to get in and out themselves - it sometimes takes a bit of persuasion (bribery?).

It is interesting how quickly they accept that grandma does things in a different way. I care for my 13 month old GD regularly and she often comes up to me with her arms raised to be picked up for a cuddle. She has got used to the fact that when she does this I take her by the hand and walk her to the nearest chair and then pull her up onto my lap.

I cannot lift any of them and we just find ways around it.

What really annoys me is that I cannot even do a jigsaw or lay out a train track on the floor, even from sitting as it hurts my hip so much.

Nellie a sharp karate chop to the solar plexus cures 'rigid toddler mode'

#onlyjokingithink

I have a fixed memory of DD2, aged just 2, wearing a royal blue all-in-one mothercare padded slippy suit thing, legs outstretched so that feet were planted on the ground, body rigid, violently and very noisily objecting to having to sit in her pushchair.
At the time I had no car and all shopping had to be done with her and DD1 aged 4 in tow, on the bus.
Those were the days - not!

DD1 was a grand master of the rigid toddler mode in her Maclaren buggy!

Neither DH nor I can manage the harness of the car seat, apparently there is a way to loosen it then tighten it once it is clicked into place. Apparently.
DGD2 does climb in and out of the seat by herself now, thank goodness.

Pilates is probably the best way to strengthen up your mid section and make you less liable to back pain.

I was always told to bend knees before lifting

I just don't seem to have the strength in my arms to lift my two these days. I've no idea why, but my muscles scream in protest and I just can't do it.

It's a nightmare isn't it? As somebody said, it's the bending and twisting that does the poor old back in! If you have to do this a lot, what about taking one of those small plastic 'steps' out to the car, getting the toddler to stand on that and climb into his/her car seat, then you still have the strapping in to do, but not the lifting. Throw the step into the boot and use at the other end of the journey to get her out of the car.Every little helps.

[[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584258/Colombias-obese-baby-rescued-Chubby-Hearts-charity-life-saving-treatment.html ]]

Check this one out - poor child

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584258/Colombias-obese-baby-rescued-Chubby-Hearts-charity-life-saving-treatment.html
Hope it works this time

Oh dear.

Oh dear indeed

Good grief.
Does the fact that a child lives in a Third World country mean that it is not entitled to the same privacy and protection of its identity as children in this country?
The DM is disgusting.

Poor child indeed.

What an offensive comment! It was reported in many quarters here and around the world, not just the DM.

We should all be concerned about this sort of thing happening both here and overseas surely, and perhaps that will shock some people into not continuing to overfeed their children.