When Alanna was about 37 weeks pregnant, she was talking to her dad about how she was nervous to go on a road trip, in large part because she hadn?t gotten around to installing her car seat yet. Don?t worry, he told her: Car seats are only required for babies born in emergency situations. She was so shocked, she didn?t even know what to say. But she understood it was just a generational gap?especially, she says, once she watched the 1982 video of Princess Diana driving away from the hospital holding Prince William in her arms, when car seats weren?t yet mandatory for babies.
That?s not the only safety guideline that has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Updates to safety guidelines are good news for parents who can rest assured that they?re following the best, evidence-based practices, but they can cause a bit of friction with grandparents, who are used to doing things the old way, and insist their kids turned out fine. Here are seven key safety recommendations that have changed since your parents had babies. 1. Putting babies to sleep on their stomachs

Doctors used to tell parents to place babies on their stomachs to sleep, so the 1999 Back to Sleep campaign, which said putting babies on their backs would lower the chances of SIDS, was a shock to some, says Richard Stanwick, chair of the Injury Prevention Committee at the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) and chief medical health officer for Island Health in BC. Canada made the move after similar campaigns i...