Installing children’s safety seats into cars is not child’s play. More than ninety percent of first-time parents make at least a minor error in installing seats, in positioning infants in seats, or in transitioning children to advanced seats as the children grow. An appropriate seat – optimally installed and correctly used – reduces the risk of serious mishaps by more than 70 percent.
1. Choosing the safest car seat is easy. While there are literally hundreds of makes and models available, with all kinds of special features, and some seats costing ten times as much as others, no seat is safer than others. All seats sold in the US have passed the same crash tests. Differences in seats are largely based on the ease of placing and removing seats from cars and transforming seats to accommodate infants as they grow. For a list of seats types available, see https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/on-the-go/pages/Car-Safety-Seats-Product-Listing.aspx.
2. Consult an expert seat installer unless you are 100% sure that you can do it yourself. Manufacturers supply manuals and, sometimes, videos, to guide you but even with directions car seats can be tricky to install. If you need help, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), a government agency, lists by zip codes the location of seat safety inspection stations all over the country. Chances are there is one near you. Go to https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/car-seats-and-booster-seats.
In Canada: for more information, go to https://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/car_seat_safety
3. Register seats with the manufacturer at purchase time so they can contact you when necessary. Recalls of seats for safety issues occur from time to time. Notify them if your address changes. You can also check for recalls and register online to be notified of future recalls at https://www.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues?prodType=C. (Similar information is available from the NHTSA for other child-related products such as cribs, highchairs, and carriers.)
4. When traveling by car, children must be in their safety seats at all times. Even for the shortest rides. Most car accidents occur close to home, where most miles are driven. Make no exceptions for older kids; exceptions make it more difficult to enforce rules. For infants, stop the car when they need attention for soothing, feeding or diaper changing, for example. The safest place for children is in the center of the back seat.
5. Know (1) the appropriate seat for your children’s current height and weight, and (2) when to transition them to the next stage seat.
> Infants and toddlers should ride in rear-facing seats as long as possible, until they reach the highest weight or height allowed. These limits appear in the instruction manual and are inscribed on the seat. Most seats allow children to ride rear-facing for 2 years or more.
> Once children have outgrown rear-facing seats, they should ride in front-facing seats that have harnesses. They should use such seats as long as possible, until they reach the height and weight limits for that seat. Many such seats can accommodate children up to 65 pounds (29 kilos).
> When children reach these limits, they should transition to belt-positioning booster seats. Such booster seats should be used until children fit properly into the car’s lap and shoulder belts.
> Children are generally ready for adult seat belts when they have reached 4 feet 9 inches (1.4 meters) in height and are 8 to 12 years old. Belts should fits low across the upper thighs and across the middle of the chest.
6. Delay transitioning children to the next stage as long as possible. Each transitioning step reduces protection. When rear-facing, the car seat absorbs most of forces in a crash, When riding forward-facing, their bodies are restrained by the harness straps, but their heads – which for toddlers are disproportionately large and heavy – are thrown forward, possibly resulting in injuries.
7. Safety trumps comfort. Some children appear uncomfortable in the seats that studies show to be the safest, preferring to face forward or seemingly not knowing where to place their legs, for example. However, they do accommodate to the safest seat and position without adverse effects, if you insist.
8. New seats are expensive, old ones are not. However, old seats may lack the latest safety features, be missing installation instructions, have been recalled, or be past the seats’ expiration date (usually six years). Most seats are made mostly of plastic, a material that becomes brittle with age. Expiration date are usually stamped somewhere on the seat.
9. Children should never sit in the front seat of a car equipped with passenger-side air bags. In crashes, kids are propelled forward and get hit by airbags that are not fully inflated. Because children are lighter, an airbag can lift them off the seat and cause them to hit their heads on the car’s ceiling, resulting in serious injuries. Some cars are now equipped with cut-off switches, allowing drivers to turn them off.
10. Many car seats are unstable when standing alone. They can be tipped over accidentally by adults or older children. Older infants can wiggle sufficiently – even when properly strapped in – to topple the seat over themselves. Some parents neglect to strap infants in when seats are not in cars. If young infants turn seats over onto couches they may land with their mouths on soft fabric and have difficulty breathing.
Was this article informative? Sign up to receive similar articles twice a month. Each article covers a single subject to keep kid(s) healthy and safe for travel and outdoor activities. Widely read by healthcare professionals and sophisticated parents around the world.
 Safe and Healthy Travel |
 Prevention |
 Outdoor Recreation |
 Travel |
 Destinations |
 Food & Water Precautions |
 Sun |
 Air Travel |
