The Stuff I Never Knew About Car Seat Safety PART 1

In this past year, I've become somewhat of a car seat fanatic. My original thoughts were, bucket seat, then rear face until age one. The AAP had come out with the new recommendations to rear face until age 2, and I have to admit I thought that was stupid. Who would want to scrunch their kid up until 2 years old? We most certainly didn't rear face that long, and we were fine!

For some reason though, I kept having this nagging feeling inside of me as Daniel approached 1 year. Was I seriously comfortable turning him around? Not at all. I decided to start doing some research to see if I could find anything to back up the idea of rear facing longer. Wow. My eyes were opened to a whole new world of car seat lingo and information. I seriously felt so incredibly uneducated. Car seat safety is sadly overlooked a lot.

I know most of my reader's (which isn't THAT many), probably aren't dealing with kids in car seats, but maybe you can help educate others. I just feel like, if I didn't know these things, many others don't either. Plus it's a way for me to share with other's who may wonder why I'm making the choices I am. :)

Anyway...some things I have learned:

Only 1 in 5 car seats is correctly installed and properly used.
How scary is that? People don't take time to read the manual and make sure their seat is properly installed. There are a million and one different seats these days, and installing can be a pain and somewhat nerve wracking. I've finally "mastered" installing ours correctly. I think it was okay, but I've got that baby good and tight!

I can't tell you how many babies I've seen improperly buckled into their seats as well. Many times the straps are far too loose. You should only be able to slide one or two fingers in between the straps and your child's shoulders. Also, the chest clip, is for, well, the chest. So many times I see kids with the chest clip practically sitting on their stomach's. A properly placed chest clip should be across the chest at arm pit level. Not following these two guidelines can result in serious injury during an accident.

Forward-facing children under the age of 2 are 75% more likely to be injured.
Seriously...that is huge and it's a proven statistic.



The recommended minimum of 2 years is just what it is. Minimum.
Because of the way that their bones grow, kids up to age 4 are actually safest rear facing. The recommendation also states OR when the child no longer fits properly in their seat. Car seat manufacturers are actually making seats with very high height and weight limits on them not, so that extended rear facing is possible.

While at this time, I'm not sure I would rear face until 4, I do know I will rear face until AT LEAST 2, but in all honesty I'm considering purchasing a new car seat at some point so I can rear face until at least 3.

I'm not sure why it's not letting me embed, but if you're still curious about this, go to YouTube and type in Rear Facing vs. Forward Facing. You'll come across some eye opening videos.

Car Seats Expire
Say Whaaa? Yep. I've actually had a few people very shocked recently to discover this. Every car seat has a sticker with the date it was manufactured as well as the date is expires. Many car seats have "lives" of 7-10 years. It's pretty scary that so many people on local buy/sell sites are selling expired seats and people are actually buying them! I see them frequently on our local site. The reason they expire is because new safety requirements happen often and all the straps lose their elasticity and in the event of a crash could actually break apart.

Putting Children in Bulky Coats is a HUGE No-No
And it says so inside every single car seat manual out there. Yep. We live in a very cold climate, but it's dangerous to put kids in bulky coats. The simple reason for this, is that they can and have in some instances compress under the pressure of an accident. There was even a recent story that I read about a child in a winter coat who was ejected from the car seat in an accident. Basically if you have to adjust the straps of your car seat to get your child in with a coat on, it's too bulky.

Here's the example I really like. She could actually fit "Scout" in with her child . That's how much slack there would be if the coat compressed.



Your best bet is to use a thin performance fleece jacket in the car seat. This is what Daniel has worn all winter and has been perfectly warm.



Alright...enough on car seats today. I'll put the rest of my info in another post. Maybe this will help just one child, but I feel like I need to share what I've learned. Also...if you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)