Statistics show that 7 of 10 seats inspected at checks are installed wrong or are misused.  Shannon Choe, premier baby planner, founder of Premier Baby Concierge, and SafeKids CPS Tech, took car seat selection and installation tips on NBC’s “The 10! Show.”  When selecting a seat, it’s important to consider the seat that best fits your child and your car.  Then, to ensure safe installation, follow instructions in both your car seat manual and your car’s manual.

Some of the most common misuses of car seats are related to the changing needs of growing kids.  Consider these situations:

• Infants facing the wrong direction for their age or weight.  Infants must ride rear facing until at least 12 months of age and 20 lbs. at a minimum.  As a parent of a baby who really disliked riding rear-facing, I understand wanting to turn the car seat early, but if you watch these car seat crash test videos, you can see for yourself that the impact of the crash forces are better absorbed by the seat when they are rear-facing.
• Height of shoulder straps.  When the seat is rear-facing, the shoulder straps should be at or below the child’s shoulders and when the seat is installed forward-facing, the straps should be at or above the child’s shoulders.
• Using a seat that doesn’t fit the weight or height of child.  Just like we occasionally discover that our kids are walking around in shoes a size too small, we need to periodically check how they fit in their car seats.  Many infant car seats have a max weight of 25lbs.  Many convertible seats go to much higher weights, but you must also watch that your child doesn’t outgrow the seat height-wise.  Their head should be no more than an inch from the top of the seat.  Another example of children in seats that don’t fit them, is kids moving to a booster seat before they hit the required 4 year and 40 pound requirement.

If you’ll have seats in a babysitter’s or grandparent’s car, be aware that the car seat installation you’ve mastered of your car seat  in your car, may actually be different when moving that same seat to a new car.   Some related installation mistakes to consider:

• Car seats installed in the wrong position in car according to manual.  Car manuals hold the key to letting you know the appropriate positions for car seats, taking into consideration air bags and other safety issues.
• Installed using tethers incorrectly.   Ninety percent of the time, tethers are only used for forward facing car seats.   Checking the car seat manual will let parents know about their seats.  Car manuals will tell them the appropriate spot in the car to tether seats in each position.  First of all, sometimes the tether hooks are not the most obvious locations, and furthermore, some cars have convenience hooks intended to hold grocery bags or dry cleaning that can be confusing.  These are not strong enough to withstand crash forces, so again, a glance at the car manual will go a long way.
• Not installed tightly enough.  Seats should be installed tightly enough that they won’t shift more than 1 inch side to side.  While people may realize this is an issue, it can be hard to accomplish.

Do you best at home, then attend a car seat check point to give you the “thumbs up” or to learn more about your seat.  You can also locate and call a Certified Child Passenger Safety Tech (CPS Tech) to have them inspect your installation and further educate you about car seat.

To find a car seat check near you, go to www.safekids.org.  If you are in the tri-state area, call Premier Baby Concierge if you are interested in having a Certified CPS Tech come to your home.

Check www.carseat.org click recalls to see current car seat recall list.

Hey Moms, How do ASTM, JPMA, Car Seat Safety Week apply to you?  Read on!

I (Shannon), PBC founder and premier baby planner, attended the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Consumer Products Standards subcommittee meetings in mid-August.  ASTM is “an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and services.” (Wikipedia)   I attended the meetings relating to baby & childrens products with particular interest in discussions related to slings and cribs due to all of the recent recalls.  At PBC, we are passionate about safety standards, as well as educating parents about the importance of reading manufacturer instructions to ensure proper use of products.  It was a great experience to see who makes up the committee, how they determine the standards, the testing measures, the language on warning labels, and to be involved in the whole process!

At my Certified Passenger Safety Tech training through SafeKids, I saw first-hand the mistakes that are referred to when they say that 7 off 10 car seats are misused or installed incorrectly.  “Not mine” we all think and we wonder, “Who are these people who can’t manage to get their car seat in right?”  Well, there are those that think that the LATCH system should be used with a seat belt (twice as secure, right?  Wrong 99% of the time, but the answer lies in your manufacturer’s instructions); there are those who put their child of inappropriate size or weight or height in a forward facing seat or booster too soon; but there are also those who don’t read their Britax instruction manual and realize that the LATCH system has to be re-routed when they turn their child in a convertible seat from rear-facing to forward, rather than clipped in upside down.  May not seem like a big deal, but in a crash, each of these could be a huge deal.

Join me this week in celebrating Child Passenger Safety Week and take the time to re-visit and cross reference your car seat and auto manuals to be sure that your car seats are installed correctly.  If you have any questions, call, email or tweet me this week and I’ll do my best to advise (for free!) remotely or set up a time to meet if that is warranted.