About five years ago I went through an extensive course to obtain my Child Passenger Safety certification.  In my class were fire fighters, police officers and nurses; I was the only civilian in the room.  This course taught me everything from crash dynamics to installing car seats into vehicles.  It was an intense 40 hour course all to learn the proper way to strap the youngsters in.  My certification was for two years and I did not renew because of the cost after it expired, however, I still educate parents and parents-to-be about how to install and maintain safety seats.

 

I can tell plenty of stories and give lots of advice about car seats, but today I thought I would start with rear facing infant seats.  Important to know is that a child should be rear facing until they reach at least 20 lbs or 1 year of age.  The longer you can keep them rear facing the better, simply because the seat is supporting their neck and back in a front-end crash which can cause the most damage to our bodies.

 

All new vehicles since 2005 are LATCH compatible which is an anchoring system built into the vehicle so that you can easily latch your car seat into the car.  DO NOT use both the LATCH system and a seat belt to install a car seat; it's only one or the other.

 

When evaluating which position the straps should be that come over the baby's shoulders into the 5 point harness, remember that your child is being buckled in like how an astronaut would be.  The straps should start below the shoulders and come up and over them.  When the child becomes forward facing, this will change.

 

Always make sure if you are using a carrier style infant seat that the handle is placed all the way back and down.  Do not leave it up over the baby, especially to hang toys from.  These handles can brake in a crash and you don't want broken plastic to be flying down onto the baby.

 

Next, do not use any aftermarket products on the seat, to hang from the seat or even a mirror to hang on the head rest of the seat so the baby can see him/herself.  These products are not safety tested and can become very dangerous projectiles should you get in a crash.  If you want to use a window shade, use the cling on type and not the suction cup type.  These fall easily and can land on the baby.

 

Do not add lots of layers to the baby's clothing when it is cold outside.  This sounds silly, but the more padding that you have on the child, the less tight you can buckle them in and the less safe they become.  I would recommend putting them in warm clothing, buckle them into the seat, then put lots of blankets on top of them to keep warm.

 

Lastly, I always would recommend that you take your car and infant seat to a police or fire station for installation.  Make sure a CPS Technician installs it and ask them to show you what they are doing.  Of the 500+ seats I have checked, I can only remember 3 of them being installed correctly, so fathers to be out there, put away the duct tape and twine and let a professional do it.

 

If anyone would like to learn more about Child Passenger Safety or Car Seat Tips, please be sure to send a question through our comment box on the home page.  Also, I would recommend going to www.safekids.org which is a great website for all things kid safety.