In an earlier blog I wrote about choosing the proper car seat and some suggestions to help make it easier. In this blog I’m going to get a little mom crazy. I can’t tell you how many people I see using a car seat wrong! The worst part about it is I often see this on pictures via facebook. Your car seat IS NO GOOD if your child is buckled in the seat wrong or the car seat is not installed properly. With that said, forgive me if this blog may seem a bit harsh, but a lot of these things are simple and self explanatory if we just took the extra time to adjust straps or to read a installation guide. I’m going to be talking about the most commonly over looked things about having or using a car seat improperly.
Expiration Dates:
ALL, yes ALL, no I’m not kidding, yes yours too, ALL car seats expire. SOMEWHERE on your car seat will be a date of when your car seat expires. It might be on a sticker, it might be engraved into the plastic somewhere, but I promise you, there WILL be an expiration date. As an early mom I knew there were expiration dates however, I never really understood why. Most car seats expire due to normal wear and tear. The plastics can wear down, the foam lining can wear down, even the straps can wear down. All of these things can be life threatening if the car seat is in a car accident. A car seat is only effective if all the components are in perfect working order. The average expiration date is 5 years, FROM when the car seat was MANUFACTURED- NOT purchased!, however, there are certain car seats that now hold longer dates. Every car seat is different even if it’s by the same manufacture. The expiration date has been set based of that individual car seat and model.
Installation of car seats:
There are typically two ways to install a car seat. You can use the LATCH (or something similar, whatever that particular car seat comes with) or the traditional seat belt. To insure you get the proper installation of your car seat, consult the owner’s manual of your vehicle AND your car seat. Both together will ensure you get the proper installation. Some older model cars may not offer the proper LATCH receivers so that might not always be an option. When installed properly the seat belt and LATCH provide the same amount of safety. Always remember that even the most expensive car seat is only as good as the installation. If you install a $400 car seat improperly it won’t be ANY good in a car crash. Even the fancy car seats don’t have brains and can’t react to counteract your improper installation. When you are done with installing your seat, or have questions, consult a certified car seat installation expert. Most local fire stations or police offices can help with this also and if they can’t or aren’t certified they can likely point you in the direction of the nearest person who can help. One MAJOR thing to keep in mind: I have yet to hear of a hospital that can help you install a car seat upon getting ready to bring baby home. It is a liability to the personnel/hospital if you get in an accident. Installing the car seat is something you should do earlier rather than later because babies don’t ever come when they are supposed to! Every car seat installs differently in every car. So even if you buy multiples of the same car seats make sure they are installed properly for EACH car and the best way to ensure this is to consult your owners manual.
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Buckles and Safety Belts:
Do I hear a few chuckles in the crowd? This would be the section that I was referring to, this should be self explanatory, however this is the #1 thing I seen done wrong in car seats. Let’s start with the most obvious. Folks, we have several components of the car seat: the straps, the chest clip and the crotch buckle. My favorite of all is the chest clip. It’s not a tummy clip, or a neck clip, or a belly button clip, or a sternum clip, it’s a chest clip.
Choosing the proper car seat for your child:
It can often be confusing when to switch your child up a to a different car seat. I’ve linked here a website that shows the laws by state of when your child can legally transition in their seat. http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/childsafety_laws.html Keep in mind that YOU ARE THE PARENT and just because the law says that your child can go from a harness to a booster with a seat belt DOES NOT MEAN THEY HAVE TO! As long as your car seat can SAFELY accommodate your child’s height and weight, you can leave them in a harness EVEN if the law says they can use a seatbelt. It is becoming more and more popular to see harnesses that extend past the 40 pound mark so if you plan to have your children extended harness users then make sure you purchase a car seat that can accommodate this! Every car seat has height and weight requirements. Children must be at least ____ pounds and ____ tall before they can use certain car seats and on that same note, most car seats have a ‘top out’ level where if the child exceeds the height or weight the car seat may no longer be safe for that child. My son is on the smaller side, always has been, since birth, he could technically fit in his sisters infant seat based off his weight! My daughter has always been on the bigger side, so she might be out growing certain car seats quicker than he would (age vs. weight/height). These are things to keep in mind when you’re considering a car seat upgrade. In the state that I live in, car seat laws are primary. That means that a police officer can pull me over JUST for my car seats. In some states, they are secondary laws, meaning that you have to be pulled over for something else and then the cop can investigate the car seats in your vehicle.
Using international car seats:
Living in a military town this is something I see quite often. We have a lot of military personnel who get stationed in over seas locations. CAR SEATS ARE NOT TRANSFERABLE. You can not sell/use car seats purchased in foreign countries in the United States. The seats are built differently, under different safety standards and they are not legal in the United States. If you do long term international travel please make sure to check with the local car seat laws. Vacationing is different than long term staying. Please keep that in mind! Always double check for local car seat laws when doing international travel.
The bottom line of car seat safety is this: It is not meant to be an inconvenience to you, nor is it meant to insult your parenting or make you feel as though the government is trying to tell you how to parent. These laws and restrictions are out there by crash EVIDENCE. This information is based off crash testers and lives lost. Car seats are serious business and I see too many parents who take them lightly. Even ‘just running to the store’ a serious accident CAN happen. I have seen many, many parents ‘rebel’ against car seat suggestions and get offended and pull the line of “it’s my child and I’ll put them in whatever seat I think they are ready for”. That’s all fine and well but when you get in a serious accident and your child wasn’t in the ‘recommended’ car seat for their height and weight, whose fault is it going to be then? Are you then going to blame the government for not making you more aware of the risks of car crashes? PLEASE EDUCATE yourself about car seat laws and safety in your area! Your child is not born with a safety manual, it’s your job to do your homework! Here’s a little wake up call for ya.. check out my image I created at home.
The photo on the far left would seem “safe” right? Baby is more comfortable this way right? Gives him a little wiggle room. The straps don’t look that loose.. Well friends, observe what followed after I asked the kiddo to “get out”.. Imagine what COULD have happened had his belts looked like that in a high speed impact crash!
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