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Parents Report: Common Car Seat Mistakes
Four out of five car seats are used incorrectly. To protect your child, make sure yours isn't one of them.
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A car seat is one of the most crucial pieces of safety equipment you'll ever use, so shouldn't it be simple for even a sleep-deprived parent to install? Unfortunately, many moms and dads don't realize they're making dangerous mistakes. "Despite design improvements, parents still find car seats very confusing," says pediatrician Benjamin Hoffman, MD, a certified child passenger safety technician. "I've done more than 4,000 seat checks and seen only 13 seats that were installed properly."
We at Parents realize it's no small task to get every detail correct. You have to know exactly when your child has outgrown his seat, buy a new one that fits him perfectly (and master a new set of installation guidelines), get the strap placement just right, and much more. It's enough to make you think you need a PhD in engineering to figure it all out. That's why we created this comprehensive -- yet easy to understand -- guide to help you navigate the complicated world of car seats. "The good news is that car seats are extraordinarily effective," says Parents advisor Dennis R. Durbin, MD, director of research for emergency medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "When you use one correctly, you can be confident that your child will be likely to survive a crash with little or no injury."
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just fyi... if your infants feet touch the back of the seat and his legs have any bend to them it's illegal for them to be rear-facing. I got pulled over by an officer when my daughter was 10 months and he made me put her face forward because she was too tall. Its a danger for them if you were hit from behind!!!!
1/28/2010 11:35:18 AM Report Abusemjsaladino1: rear-facing in an infant seat is his head less then 1" from the top of the seats shell(plastic). If it is then you absolutely MUST purchase a convertible car seat. Convertible car seats rear-face until 35-45lbs and 1" of shell left over the head. Legs over the seat edge is perfectly fine. Look for High RF weight limit(35-45lbs), Harness Height(17" seated height)& FF weight limit(50-80lbs). Don't waste your time with 3-in-1
11/9/2009 11:04:27 PM Report Abusecooper690: She is not to young to understand the seriousness of this. Pull the car over and punish her. Absolutely DO NOT stick anything through the straps of your daughters carseat. Safety pins (as reccommended by the uninformed member above) will cause damage to the straps and make them no longer safe. Make sure your tightening her straps tight enough and she is not wearing a heavy coat, sweater or sweatshirt. Her straps should fit her tightly.
11/9/2009 10:59:08 PM Report AbuseMJSaladino: I would definitely switch seats because he's beyond the limit of the current seat. It's only designed to protect for those specs, so if you had an accident, it might not protect him. He is 22 lbs so it's safe for him to face forward, even though not ideal.
10/25/2009 08:14:03 AM Report AbuseOur son is 31" tall but only 22lbs and his carseat has limits of 30" and 30lbs...what to do? Do we keep the seat he is too tall for or switch to a forward facer that he may not be as safe in? Other options?
10/8/2009 05:50:38 AM Report Abuse