Infants in boats?

[AMJ]

Michigan has laws on this a recommends, though it's only a guideline, not taking them under 2 years of age even if the life jacket looks like it fits. They do STRICTLY enforce the rules for minors and both the state police which has officers that patrol waterways as well as coast guard and I personally know people whose boat was boarded when other boaters reported they'd been seen on the bay with children who were not wearing life jackets.

 

Dd also said during their paramedic training on drowning that the law is such that if the child is notnwearing a life jacket and drowns the parents can be charged. Even if the child is successfully saved, the parents will be charged with child endangerment. I know one of the officers that patrols the Saginaw Bay and let me just say there is no way I would take child onboard who cannot properly wear a life jacket.

BTW, are you aware that it is very easy to not realize a person is drowning? Drowning people do not call for help (they can't), and don't struggle wildly (again, they can't).

 

Google drowning and read up on it. I was once at a pool party with my then age 7 daughter. A boy not 5 feet from me was drowning, and only one gal, an elementary PE teacher, realized what was happening. She jumped in and saved him. He was in less than 4 ft of water.

[AMJ]

I wouldn't take such a young baby on a boat and I would never fly with a child seated in my lap either.

I so agree with the flying statement. Make sure your carseat is approved for airplane use, buy a ticket for the child/baby, and use early boarding to get them properly strapped in. I grew up on an airline (Dad is a pilot), and I know well the effects of turbulence. Turbulence is not always avoidable or predictable and a baby or small child in a lap can be suddenly thrown or crushed between the adult and the seat or wall in front of them. Children have died this way. Unbuckled adults have been seriously injured during sudden turbulence (yes, some died) -- think what will happen to a smaller, less developed body.

 

Also insist on either a rental car picked up or dropped off at the airport TERMINAL, or insist on a shuttle or other transportation that allows you to properly strap in the carseat and the child. Do not carry them unsecured on a "courtesy" shuttle.

[T'smom]

I can't even picture how it would work -- how could you wear both a carrier and a flotation device yourself? And aside from that issue, such a set-up would not necessarily safeguard your baby, and could very well increase the danger to both of you, especially if you were unconscious or incapacitated in the water.

I know. That's why their argument did not convince me.

[texasmama]

I would not take a one month old on a boat, and I would not appreciate people who tried to pressure me into doing so.