Studies have shown that seven out of ten carseats are installed incorrectly. Most often, seatbelts are not tightly secured or the seat is improperly positioned in the car.
Here are a few tips for installing a car seat safely in your own vehicle:
- Read the car seat manual and your vehicle owner’s manual before you attempt to install the seat. Remember, not all car seats fit in all vehicles. If it doesn’t fit securely, buy another seat.
- Always put car seats in the back seat.
- After placing a child in a car seat, check the harness to make it is level with the shoulders. The straps should be are secure and snug.
- Make sure the chestplate goes over the chest — not the abdomen.
Wonder when it’s time to graduate to the next stage in car seat placement or boosters? Here are a few age-specific guidelines
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants and toddlers up to 2 years should always ride in the rear-facing position.
- Children ages 2 to 4 years should ride forward facing in a full harness car seat.
- Children ages 4 and up should ride in a booster seat until they are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall and at least 80 pounds.
- Children ages 13 and under should always ride in the back seat. If an airbag deploys while a child is in the front seat, it could crush the child.
Still have questions? Call your local police or fire department and request a professional carseat inspection, or call your local public health department to ask about car seat fittings. Or visit www.seatcheck.org to find a safety seat inspection site near you.
Correction
Ages 2-4 should be REAR-FACING as long as possible NOT forward-facing unless they don’t fit in their seat rear-facing anymore. http://www.nhtsa.gov/ChildSafety/step2
I stand corrected!
I stand corrected! Yes, the AAP guidelines (available at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/788.full.html) call for “all infants and toddlers” to ride “in a rear-facing car safety seat (CSS) until they are 2 years of age or until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by the manufacturer of their CSS.” So there’s a bit of a grey area there. Evidence shows that rear-facing seats provide more protection to the head and spine during a crash. While it’s been clear — and that the benefit
A little review of anatomy and physics explains why injury-prevention experts recommend children ride in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible. Infants younger than two years have large heads relative to the rest of their bodies (ever watch a toddler topple? She’ll go head-first every time). In addition, structural features of the neck and spine make them more vulnerable to spine injuries during motor vehicle crashes. As the AAP injury prevention team notes, “Rear-facing CSSs provide optimal support to the head and spine in the event of a crash, and evidence indicates that this benefit extends to children up to 2 y of age or longer.”
Parents should recognize that some degree of protection is lost with every transition (from rear-facing to forward-facing, from child safety seat to booster seat, from booster seat to seatbelt, from rear seat to front seat). So the core message remains the same: Keep your child in the highest level of protection for as long as you can.