Introduction
Introducing a new baby to your family is such a special, amazing time. It’s also likely to be one of the largest learning experiences of your life. Stated simply, there’s a lot to know. For my husband and me, the learning started when we found out we were going to have a baby. We had months of prenatal classes, many more months of actually having the baby around to perform tasks on, and then, just when we thought we’d sort of gotten the hang of things, we found out that it was time to start learning all over again, this time about how to keep our little one safe while riding in the car.
Why Baby Car Seats Are Essential
The reason why it is so important to use baby car seats is that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of injury and death in the United States for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) makes it clear that children should be restrained in the back seat at all times and that child safety seats should be rear-facing for as long as possible. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an estimated 325,000 lives have been saved since 1975 because children were restrained properly in car seats, booster seats, or seat belts.
Types of Baby Car Seats
There are several different kinds of baby car seats, but each one is intended for a certain range of ages and weights. For example, there are rear-facing infant car seats for newborns and infants weighing between 22 and 35 pounds. These seats are what people often think of when they picture a baby car seat: tall, narrow, and shaped like a bucket. Newborn seats on the market pull out all the stops to protect the baby’s head, neck, and spine. In contrast, a convertible car seat can be used for infants in the rear-facing position and then, when the child is ready, turned around for use in the forward-facing position. They are bulkier and might not fit as easily in some cars. However, they can be used from birth up to 65 pounds.
Choosing the Right Baby Car Seat
Picking the ideal baby car seat appears to be a tough project that might require much thinking on various aspects. It is natural to think of the two most important factors first: the baby’s age and weight. The next thought is to consider the right size car seat for the baby.. But beyond that, you also have to ask yourself if the car seat can carry your baby’s weight and size as it increases over the months. And then you have the not-so-small problem of getting the car seat locked into your car, which is where the manufacturer’s safety checks and the car’s owner’s manual are supposed to come to your rescue.
Proper Installation and Usage
Making sure your child is safe in their car seat starts with following these two crucial rules for proper installation and seat use—which can be found in the car seat and vehicle instruction manuals.
- Read the instructions: The vehicle manual may include child restraint installation details, and the baby car seat manual will provide explicit, clearly illustrated, and (quite often) “smart and dumber” text about how to safely carry out installations with that specific car seat brand and model.
- Secure the car seat: Current installation practices generally overrule ancient history or valid points from SaferCar.gov and NHTSA, such as “don’t install car seats in the front row or side of the vehicle with installed airbags” and “install car seats tightly.”
- In most circumstances, car seat manufacturers recommend using the LATCH method to install their products. This is because the LATCH system is a safer, more foolproof way to secure a baby car seat in a vehicle than the old fashioned way of threading seat belts.
- Whether young children are using LATCH to secure a new child safety seat, or whether they are using it to secure a forward facing or rear facing child car seat, they have to be sure they pull the LATCH buckles tight enough for the seat to remain secure in a collision.
Additional Safety Tips
- Make sure you register your car seat as soon as you buy it. When you register your car seat, the manufacturer can contact you if there’s a recall or a safety problem with the car seat. You should also, once you have access to a computer, check the NHTSA website for any recalls or safety updates.
- When It’s Cold Outside: Layers are the way to go. Start with a base layer that will keep your child warm. Add a middle layer such as a fleece and a top coat to keep all the warmth in. Make sure to put the blanket over your baby’s chest rather than behind the baby.
- Don’t use hand-me-down or old, worn-out car seats.
Conclusion
Selecting and employing the correct child safety seat is one of the gravest acts any parent will undertake. Your cherub’s life—and your peace of mind—depends on it. If my investigation proved anything (and it did), it’s that there’s no one-size-fits-all car seat, no installation that’s so foolproof it can’t be screwed up with even just one misstep, and no amount of aggression you can use on a car seat that will make it any sturdier. So it’s a good thing to deeply, deeply understand these seats and then use them in exactly the way they’re meant to be used.
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