Are you educated on car seat safety? Please read!?

I get so sick of seeing so many parents buckling their babies into car seats wrong. It drives me insane! What’s the point in even using one if its not being used right? First of all, babies MUST remain rear facing until they are AT LEAST one year AND 20 pounds. That is only the minimum though. The longer you rear face your baby, the safer they are. Most car seats can rear face up to 35 pounds. If you have ever been in a crash, remember the tremendous amount of force it can put on your neck? Well imagine a little baby trying to hold their head up in a crash. They are simply not strong enough to withstand the force of a crash, which is why rear facing can save their life because the shell of the car seat absorbs the impact instead. Now as far as using car seats correctly..make sure the car seat is always buckled in very tightly. The car seat should not be able to move back and forth and be wiggled easily. Also, the straps should be very snug on your child. You should be able to get no more than 2 fingertips between the strap and your child’s shoulder. The straps should also always be on the shoulders, not slipping off the shoulders. The chest clip also always needs to be all the way up to armpit level. I see so many moms who have the chest clip way down by the child’s waist and the straps are way too loose. If you get into a crash like that, I can almost guarantee your child will be ejected from the car seat and possibly thrown from the vehicle because the strips and clip won’t be able to keep them in the seat. If the chest clip is down too far, the straps will simply fall to the sides of your child and the child will rip right out of the seat. And with older children..they should always remain in a booster seat until they are at least 4′9. The longer an older child remains in a 5-point harness, the safer they are. My son has the Graco Nautilus car seat and he can remain buckled in the 5-point harness until 65 pounds! I included links of pictures to show the correct and incorrect way to buckle your child. I just want to make sure everyone knows the right and wrong way to buckle their kids.

This first picture shows how unsafe the buckle job is. That child would be ripped from her seat in a crash http://www.safechildofmine.com/files/187…

This is how a baby should be buckled with the straps nice and tight and the chest clip up at armpit level http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/c…

At least watch this short a video about the importance of rear facing. Its very important information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhs…
Well what the heck..sorry I’m not sure why the links aren’t working. Go to youtube and type in rear facing. Its the first video that comes up. Please watch!

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Tagged with: armpit level • babies • booster seat • car seat • car seats • crash • fingertips • google • little baby • moms • parents • script type • shell • shoulders • text javascript

Filed under: Child Car Seat Safety

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