What mom is not familiar with the pain associated with lugging a car seat around? You know the nagging ache in the shoulder blade or back, the numbness and tingling running down your arm, and the feeling that your arm may actually fall off? Trust me, you are not alone.
Carrying around a car seat with an infant is hard. And as your child grows, the increasing weight only makes it more and more difficult. So let’s talk about a THREE ways to make this necessary task easier on your body.
- USE GOOD BODY MECHANICS
Using appropriate body mechanics is key to preventing pain. When lifting the car seat and baby, use your legs by bending your knees and squeezing your glutes rather than straining by rounding your back. Always make sure to hold the load as close to your body as possible and try to alternate which side you carry the car seat on. For the best hold, wrap your arm around the car seat handle and grip lightly (see picture above). While carrying the car seat, make sure to keep your back upright, core muscles engaged, and breathe.
- INCREASE CORE MUSCLE ACTIVATION
Rather than trying to hold all the weight of the car seat and the baby with your wrist flexors and biceps, utilize the obliques and shoulder blade stabilizing muscles to perform the work. These muscle are larger, have more fibers made for endurance tasks, and provide major stabilization to your trunk. You can engage the shoulder blade musculature by pulling the them back and down while holding the car seat. You can engage the core musculature by gently pulling the belly button toward the spine and holding the body upright rather than leaning toward the car seat.
- TAKE BREAKS
If you are unable to hold your body upright or feel like your arm is going to fall off, take a break! When you continue to push through pain, use poor mechanics, or lose your core activation, you put yourself at risk for injury. If you are injured, you may not even be able to carry your baby or car seat without pain so a small break is more than worth it. When you can, take the baby out of the car seat or place the car seat in a clean shopping cart or stroller to help ease the load on your body.
If you need help combating car seat pain, improving your body mechanics, or improving your core muscle activation, contact Life Changes Physical Therapy today. Being a mom can be a tough job, but we can help make it easier!