September 2014 Moms

Car seat safety!

Hey ladies! With so many new little ones coming I thought it may be a post to review car seat safety! I know I made so many mistakes when DS was a newborn in terms of strap positioning and chest clips!

I think the most important things I learned was when rear facing the straps need to be at or below the shoulders in the car seat and the chest clip needs to be even with the arm pit!

What other things would you ladies consider important for car seat safety?
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Re: Car seat safety!

  • Hey I actually took a class on this this morning lol. They kept reinforcing the importance of having the right angle on the seat
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  • Do the "pinch test" on the straps by their shoulders. If you can pincha nd grab some of the strap between your fingers, it's way too loose and needs to be tightened.
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  • Here's my question for the ones that have had the seat checked.  I had a neighbor fireman look at mine and he said its right using the latch system. But my question is about the base movement.

     Since it attaches to the latch system near the buckles at the back, is there a way or should it be connected to the seat bottom at the front?  It really seems to move up and down easily when I lift up.  Shouldn't the base be completely secure from moving any direction? Or am I just being too paranoid? 
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  • Don't add anything extra to the seat that was not meant to be there. Aka it was made by the manufacturer to be used with your specific seat. I see people all the time wanting to add neck pillows, piddle pads ( I think that's what they're called), etc. none of that is safe. A blanket over the top or cover over top is fine
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  • NinjaZia said:
    Here's my question for the ones that have had the seat checked.  I had a neighbor fireman look at mine and he said its right using the latch system. But my question is about the base movement.

     Since it attaches to the latch system near the buckles at the back, is there a way or should it be connected to the seat bottom at the front?  It really seems to move up and down easily when I lift up.  Shouldn't the base be completely secure from moving any direction? Or am I just being too paranoid? 
    I'm not sure if some give up and down would pose as much of a safety issue as the seat jerking forward/back, but I do know that mine doesn't move up and down. When I installed it myself, I put it in the center and even with as tight as I could get it, it still moved quite a bit side to side and up & down. CHP advised that I move it to a side seat for a tighter fit (the center "hump" can cause problems), and we had to pull down a bar from under the front of the base to have it leveled properly, which also made it tighter against the seat. Since I have leather seats they added a rubber cabinet liner mat under the seat prior to installing it, which helped it to "stick" into my seats better. With those changes it's so tight that there's zero movement.
    Hmm,  I will take a look at the bottom of the base.  Maybe there is something to make it settle better.  I decided to put it in the passenger side seat anyway.  At 5'2, reaching in the middle to pull out a car seat will be tough for me.  I've got leather seats too, maybe I should look into the cabinet liner.  Thanks for the ideas!
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  • The reason for the seat bases and convertible seats installed backwards to move up and down is called rebounding. This motion helps absorb impact. They are designed to almost flip toward the back of the seat during am accident. The movement you want to worry about is the side to side and lifting of more than 1 inch when you use your non dominant hand as strong as a hand shake where the seat belt goes through the car seat.

    I totally recommend the blog Car Seats for the Littles as well as the Facebook group of the same name. They are extremely knowledgeable and you can post pictures of your install and fit of car seat and they answer your questions. One thing I have noticed though is that of you just post a picture and ask a question, you get a million comments from around the world. For the most accurate info I would go straight to the source and pm a tech or admin on the fb page. They are all listed in the documents for the page and super helpful. I have asked about how to arrange our seats and got good recommendations on seats to look at.
  • Great advice here, everyone.  We actually had a free check in town today, and I was a little surprised by what the guy said.  He told me that since DD was almost 2, he could flip the seat around to FF for me.  I told him no, that we had specifically bought the seat because it rear-faces to 45 pounds.  He seemed taken aback, like no one had ever declined before, and he didn't seem to understand why I wanted to leave it RF.

    Based on what I've seen on the Bump, which is where most of my carseat education has come from, I thought extended rear-facing was generally considered safest, and it surprised me that he seemed so surprised and confused.
  • I actually had gone to my local fire department today and made sure I had installed our car seat correctly and they gave a lot of information on car seat safety... Glad I went
  • Great advice here, everyone.  We actually had a free check in town today, and I was a little surprised by what the guy said.  He told me that since DD was almost 2, he could flip the seat around to FF for me.  I told him no, that we had specifically bought the seat because it rear-faces to 45 pounds.  He seemed taken aback, like no one had ever declined before, and he didn't seem to understand why I wanted to leave it RF.

    Based on what I've seen on the Bump, which is where most of my carseat education has come from, I thought extended rear-facing was generally considered safest, and it surprised me that he seemed so surprised and confused.
    @biokitty42 The CHP officer who inspected mine was allllll about the extended rear facing. We have the Britax B-safe which is good to 30 lbs but he told me that when my kid outgrows it I should get another rear facing/convertible seat to keep him rear facing as long as possible. 

    This was not the case 9 years ago when my sister's oldest was ERF and the CHP acted like she was nuts too. They gave her some line about the his foot getting injured in an accident but her thought was that a broken foot was better than a broken neck. 
  • So frustrated with this...my township doesn't do checks anymore and the borough does it...but I'm not a resident.... So I'd have to travel like a half hour...know it doesn't sound like a lot but I've been avoiding the highway in nj ;)
  • teenybean said:
    Don't, under any circumstances balance them on your shopping cart. So dangerous and I see it all the time and it makes me sweat. Kids die from this and it remains socially acceptable. This is worse than placing them on an elevated surface...also a bad idea.

    THIS.  An infant just died from this near me.  Mom balanced the car seat on the shopping cart seat and the shopping cart hit a bump while walking through the parking lot.  The car seat tumbled out and the baby died due to injuries.  When I see people doing this, it makes me sick.

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  • Alessia87 said:
    So frustrated with this...my township doesn't do checks anymore and the borough does it...but I'm not a resident.... So I'd have to travel like a half hour...know it doesn't sound like a lot but I've been avoiding the highway in nj ;)
    My town doesn't do it either, but the hospital that I am delivering at does.  They will inspect it for you there by appt. or refer you to a nearby town that does checks.  Not sure if your hospital offers anything like that, but it may be worth a shot to give them a call.

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