Portable DVD Player for Rear Facing Carseat

[Angela0917]

We have a longggg 12 hour drive coming up next month for my sister's destination wedding. My son is 20m old, and I'm trying to think of ways to entertain him for the drive. I've been looking into getting a portable dvd player with a headrest mount, but I'm not seeing anything to specifically use for the front of a headrest that I can put in the back seat, so that my son could see it while he's rearfacing. Has anybody seen anything like this? I'm wondering if I can use a regular one and just use it backwards, but I don't want to make it unsafe. My son's carseat is in the middle of the back seat, and there is no headrest in the middle, so I would have to put it on one of the sides, which is probably better because then he wouldn't be able to reach it, but he should still be able to see it. Any suggestions?

 

[LuLuO]

What kind of car do you have? Is it possible to put the straps through to the trunk to secure the DVD player? I did that with a baby mirror in my sedan.

 

[Angela0917]

We have jeep patriot, so that probably wouldn't work.

 

[LuLuO]

I think putting it on the side headrests is a good idea and I don't see why you couldn't use it on the front of the headrest. I would probably buy another cargo strap (or two) and attach it around the dvd player/case and then hook it on the anchor to have a more secure fit, just to make sure that the player wouldn't become a projectile in an accident.

 

[squirrel]

You may want to switch it to the other side half way through the trip so his head isn't always turned to the side with the DVD.

 

[LuLuO]

You may want to switch it to the other side half way through the trip so his head isn't always turned to the side with the DVD.

Yes. Good idea.

 

[Angela0917]

I think putting it on the side headrests is a good idea and I don't see why you couldn't use it on the front of the headrest. I would probably buy another cargo strap (or two) and attach it around the dvd player/case and then hook it on the anchor to have a more secure fit, just to make sure that the player wouldn't become a projectile in an accident.

That's what I'm afraid of!

You may want to switch it to the other side half way through the trip so his head isn't always turned to the side with the DVD.

Good idea, I didn't think of that! We're going to drive through the night, so hopefully he'll sleep most of the way!

 

[lgjjp]

We drove to disney in nov with our 2 & 1 yo dgd. (17 hours-we drove straight thru) They were both rear facing. we used a dvd player that we put in the center and strapped it to the headrests on either side. It worked great and kept them entertained for the drive. I was a little nervous about how they would do being strapped in for a drive that long, but they did great!

 

[angelmom27]

you might be surprised at how long he will sleep in the car. i would suggest against using a portable dvd player. only cause like a PP said it will become a projectile during an accident. even the ones that are mounted properly to the back of the headrest have killed kids. I would just bring a bag of his favorite toys and some books for him to look at. And of course some snacks. We have no dvd players in our vans and all of the kids have done great on long road trips.

 

[NYEmomma]

My DD doesn't sleep in the car AT ALL. Just doesn't happen. It made for some very unenjoyable trips to visit family in the next state. We did extended RF'ing and while she was turned to the back, I used a DVD holder that hooks in between the two headrests in the car. Like this one: http://www.amazon.com/DvdDr-70200-P...PYRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316532089&sr=8-1

DVD player has made our long car trips SO much more enjoyable.

 

[amylynne01]

I got this one for our Edge. Right now DD1 is FFing and DD2 is RFing, so we needed two screens so they both can see. For DD2, it's attached to the headrest of her seat. She can touch it but just barely.

 

[Princess Roo]

At that age, one of us sat in the back with the toddler during the trip. We held a laptop or iPod that they could see to watch a show or two, but otherwise entertained with silly games and books and stuff. We didn't do a 12-hour trip, but we did a few 8 and 10 hour ones, and our kids do NOT sleep well in the car, unfortunately!

 

[dhardawa]

I had one that had two screens. The screen attached to the actual player was my daughters so it was attached to the back of the passenger seat. Max had just a screen and it was attached to his headrest BUT, he was in a rear facing seat that allowed for tethering. I would never use one on his headrest otherwise because in a crash, a non-tethered rear facing seat will flip up and would slam his face into the screen.

 

[mom2val]

.

 

[Jey12]

We have a jeep patriot and i can't think of a single way to attach the player to be between the two seats safely and that he couldn't get ahold of. I would buy a soft bungee and just strap the screen part onto one of the side passenger heardrests in the back. You could also run another bungee over the headrest and hook it into the carseat anchor behind that passenger seat. In the case of an accident the screen shouldn't become a projectile that way and danger your baby. Does your patriot have the plug in for the dvd player in the cargo area? If so that's a great place to plug it in so there's no wires stretching across the backseat.

 

[DreadpiratK]

We've tried a couple of portable players, without ever finding a completely workable solution. This summer we came across a Video Now player at a tag sale for a steal- 1$ for the player, and .25 each for about 10 discs. don't know why it was so cheap. Anyway, my DD loved it right away, so I looked on Ebay and found another for a very reasonable price (about $20 for the player and another 12 or so discs) so now both our little ones have the player and 20 some discs to share. Works great! on our trip to NJ last week they were totally entertained (except when they both HAD to watch the same show at once).

The players are very light (about like a walkman) and fairly rugged, and they don't even seem to eat batteries too badly. We made a 12 hour round trip with them and they didn't die until close to the end. Plus the controls are very basic and simply, so even young kids should be able to load and watch their own discs without too much help. The only draw back is I don't think they make them any more, so the selection of discs out there is all there will be, but there's quite a lot, mostly cartoons.

 

[PrincessMommy09]

We used an iPad for DD while she was rear facing. We got a headrest mount for under $20 from Amazon.