Baby Rear View Mirrors

As a new father, you don’t like leaving your baby alone in the back seat.  You understand about the safety issues and the law, so you do it, but you don’t like it.  One way to help feel better about the whole thing is to be able to keep an eye on your baby.  But, taking your eyes off the road isn’t the best thing for him, or for you.  Besides, if your youngster is in a rear-facing carseat, then you can’t see them very well any way.

Baby Mirrors

The logical solution is a baby mirror.  But, before you run out and buy one, heed this word of advice.  DO NOT buy a baby mirror that attaches to your rearview mirror.  Why?  Because it won’t work.  That’s right, it won’t work.  Baby mirrors that are made to attach to your rear view mirror are all made based on the assumption that your car’s rearview mirror is the same as they were in 1950.  Take a look at your rear view mirror.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

What did you notice?  Map lights?  Wires?  Attached differently than other rearview mirrors you’ve seen before?  Thicker? Thinner?  Exactly!

We bought two or three of these baby mirrors and none of them would fit any car we own, or any car anybody we know owns.  That is because they are designed to strap around the mirror or use some form of gravity pressure to hold them on.  But, that only works if the mirror is “standard” which just about no mirror in any car built since 1995 is.

The solutions?  A mirror that clips to your visor.  Not only will you get more control over how it adjusts, it will actually fit.  I prefer the simply clothespin style clip, but there are others as well.  As an added bonus, you can get two if you want to let your passenger see the baby too, perfect for when Mom rides shotgun.

I find that it works best when I clip it to the passenger visor and angle it from there.  Viola!  Baby view, nice and easy, no car crashes!

So, this kind, yes:

This kind, no:

If you’ve got a rear facing carseat, then you need a second mirror to put behind the baby.  Basically, you are bouncing the mirroring twice.  You look in your rear facing mirror to see a front facing mirror that reflects your baby.  For this mirror you will have to experiment.  We got an Eddie Bauer one that strapped around the headrest.  This worked like a champ in my car (big thick headrest) not so much in my wife’s car (thinner headrest).  Feel free to go MacGuyver on this mirror because that might be what it takes to make it work.

Double bonus:  Point out your baby in the mirror when they are in their car seat.  It won’t be long before you hear "Da da" and look up to see your baby pointing at the mirror.

Tip:  Even if you have some sort of baby mirror built into your car (my Honda CRV does), you might want to look at another one anyway.  The baby is really small in my built-in one (it shows the whole back seat is why).  In my stand alone one, I can see the expression on her face!  Love it!