Carseat Safety (for all my mommy friends!)

This is probably going to be mostly links, but I've seen some horrid things lately and I need to vent a little.


1. All small children need to be in proper carseats. Those children need to be fastened into those seats for them to keep them safe. Merely having them in the vehicle does the child no good!!

2. Keep your child rear facing as long as possible. There are carseats out there that are not that expensive that keep kids rear facing up to 30-35 lbs. If you really want to be safer, there are more expensive options that rear face up to 40 lbs.

3. The laws are the bare MINIMUM of safety!!! I cannot stress this enough! Just because the law says that you can turn your 20 lb 1 year old forward facing does NOT mean it is safe!! Just because the law says that your 30 lb preschooler can be in a backless booster doesn't mean that it is truly safe.

4. Belts should be tight, no more than two adult fingers should be able to fit between your child and the belt.

5. The harness clip should be even with the child's armpits.

6. A five-point harness is the best type of restraint.

Why rear facing is best. Video.

Benefits of a 5-point harness. Video.

Forward facing vs Rear facing.

Not using seatbelts or child restraint.

I shudder when I think of the horribly inadequate seats I had for my first couple of kids. And I am so very thankful that we've never had a crash. My eldest probably would have been killed in the seat she was in as a toddler if we had been. I wish I'd looked into car seats before I was having my sixth baby. It is sad to think how ignorant I was! I followed the letter of the law and the manufacturer's specifications for what size a child had to be for those seats but never really considered the actual safety of the seats. So I hope that this information will get to someone else who, like me, just has not thought about it. Not because I did not care for my kids or was unconcerned for their safety, but just plain uninformed. :D

www.car-safety.org