Introduction
Safeguarding your child is the main reason you use a car seat. It’s not just any car seat, but a baby car seat. And it is not just any old baby car seat; it is a properly installed and used baby car seat.
Yet, the sad reality is that most car seats are not installed correctly.
That’s not all, though. There are other errors that parents—well-meaning parents—make daily when it comes to the installation and use of baby car seats.
In this blog post, we’ll tell you about these errors, give you some statistics, and give you some tips for avoiding them.
Common Baby Car Seat Mistakes
1. Improperly Installed Car Seats:
The trouble with installations usually starts with putting the child seat in the vehicle the wrong way. This can happen when the seat belt or Universal Anchorage System (UAS) is not properly threaded through the child restraint system. Then again, it may have gotten twisted during the installation process. All of these things can combine to make for a very unsafe situation. So how can you be certain that your child’s car seat is correctly installed?
2. Loose Harness Straps:
Sometimes the harness on a child’s seat can be strapped too loosely, and this can make an accident incredibly dangerous. Picture this: your child is in their car seat, and then boom! An accident occurs. The loose harness would allow the child not only to move too much within the seat but to possibly even be thrown from it. We don’t have to tell you how bad that is—common sense would take care of that. The safety issue here is mainly to have a snugly and properly installed restraint. Snug enough against the body to keep the seat from moving, and allowing the child no more movement in the upper torso and head area than absolutely necessary to absorb the crash energy and protect the head and upper torso part.
3.Improper Placement of the Chest Clip:
The main issue is that people are not putting it in the right place. Parents often put the chest clip way too high, often touching the child’s neck. Sometimes they put it way too low, near the belly button. In both cases, the chest clip being in the wrong position provides for much more dangerous outcomes. Adjusting the harness for so many wrong answers is hard to do.
4. Bulky Clothing:
The issue with bulky clothing is that it can create space between your child and the harness straps. This, in turn, reduces how effective the harness can be if the worst should happen. The solution is not to dress your child in heavy-duty onesies or thick snow pants that can hamper the straps from doing their job. Thin but warm layers are needed underneath the harness to ensure that everything is running as it should. If it’s really cold out, put a cozy blanket over your child.
5. Switching to a Child Seat That Faces the Front Too Early:
The Issue: It is advised to keep children facing the back in a car seat for as much time as possible because doing so best protects their heads and necks.
The Fix: Follow the instructions of the car seat manufacturer and the counsel of your pediatrician to know when it is safe to transition to a child seat that faces the front.
6. Using Expired or Damaged Car Seats:
Some parents do not know that car seats expire or that they can become unsafe to use after only a few years of regular use. Another aspect of car seat safety that parents often overlook is that what may seem like a minor collision—a little fender bender—can also throw off the structural integrity of the car seat. Whether the old seat remains safe to use after an accident becomes something of a judgment call; trashing the old seat and getting a new one is a completely foolproof way to ensure that your child rides in something safe.
7. Not Registering Your Car Seat:
Problem number seven is if you fail to register your car seat. It means you won’t be made aware, should it prove necessary, of any information that comes out, any recall, any safety update will not be getting to you. The big “duh” for me on this one—the thing I hadn’t paid enough attention to before writing this book—is that, duh, of course I understand why it’s a good idea now. And not only should you register your newly purchased car seat, but also should you send the registration card back in after the car seat has been used. I hadn’t thought about all these things.
8. Reclining a Rear-Facing Seat Too Much:
- Over-reclining a rear-facing seat is a problem that can increase the suffocation risk and obstruct the child’s airway. The issue can easily be resolved simply by following the manufacturer’s instructions to the letter.
- It is relatively easy for a parent or caregiver to install a car seat at too steep of an angle. This often happens when a child’s head is allowed to fall forward when the car is parked on a flat surface.
9. Using Aftermarket Products:
Aftermarket products such as strap covers or headrests that don’t have the car seat maker’s OK can cause the seat to perform badly when you really need it. So, what should happen next? A couple of organizations want the U.S. car seat safety rulebook to say that it is not O.K. to use anything that’s not been tested and found compatible. For now, though, the U.S. rulebook is saying that you can maybe use some of these non-tested installations if you want to but it’s at your own risk, you’re not covered by the car seat’s federal safety requirements if you don’t follow the car seat maker’s instructions, which keeps the rulebook in line with what really, truly, is the limit of what becomes the government’s business in the private lives of U.S. citizens and what doesn’t.
10.Not Using the Tether (For Forward-Facing Seats):
One potential issue is a failure to use the tether straps in forward-facing seats. These are a really crucial aspect of forward-facing cars seats, and limit the overall amount of free movement that the seat can have in the event of an accident. They run from the top of the seat back (some are integrated into the car’s seat itself) to designated anchor points on the car’s structure.
One problem is that parents don’t install the tether at all or do so with much less than the required amount of tension. Tethers work by absorbing some of the energy created by a crash and putting that energy to work pulling in the opposite direction.
Conclusion
Knowing about these common mistakes can really help to keep your child safe during car rides. After all, it is the responsibility of every parent to ensure our children grow up to be safe and healthy. If we don’t have that, then what do we have? On the other hand, if we take the proper precautions, don’t overthink the situation, and do what we know to be right, then we and our children can lead normal and peaceful lives.
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