Car seat info
Tim (7yo, belt pos. booster), Kate (18mo, convertible, rear facing), Cees (8yo, bp booster)
Jane (3yo, toddler car seat), Tara (4yo, harnessed booster)
And for the curious under you, here is how I get all those kids in the car, and I also have made a page to show all SIX kids in this car (baby Erik has been born now!)
1. Kids under one year old should ALWAYS ride rear facingBefore 1yo, the baby's neck muscles and bones aren't strong enough to with stand a car crash when forward facing, which often results in spinal damage. So it is extremely important to keep your baby rear facing till his first birthday. It used to be a problem when you had a heavier kid, but lately there have been more and more car seats which are rear ward facing till 30 lbs, or even 35 lbs. If your baby's legs seem too long to keep him rear facing, you can shop around for another seat, convertibles often give him more leg room. I have never turned around my babies because of leg length, I figured that if I had to choose between broken legs or a broken neck in a crash, I would take the legs! Although I haven't found any cases of legs breaking this way yet, it seems that the legs are safe, even if touching the seat back. But I would rather take my chances on the legs than on the neck of my baby! If it is possible in your car and with your baby's size, you can even keep them rear facing past their first birthday, which gives added safety, but it isn't as important anymore as when they are younger. For example, my baby Kate, who is 18mo, is still rear facing, in her Britax RoundAbout. Her picture is next to this text. You can see that she is still comfortable rear facing, the Britax is a nice roomy seat. When she gets too heavy or too tall for her seat to be rear facing, I'll turn her around to a forward facing position. |
Kate (17mo) rear facing (pic taken by holding camera to ceiling of the car and hoping for the best.... :-) |
Most people think that once a kid outgrows their convertible car seat, at 40 lbs, they can go to a normal seat belt now. This is not true! Recent research has shown that a lot of kids between 4yo and 8yo get hurt or killed because they are not in an appropriate booster, but in an adult seat belt instead. The problem is, that this seat belt is designed for adults, not for kids. This effectively can result in your kid sliding under the seat belt in case of an accident and being thrown out of the car. Or the lap part of the belt rides up too high and the kid can sustain internal injuries because of that.
Age is not really the determining factor here, it is more size which is important, but most kids seem to have reached the right size for the adult seat belt at 9yo. This is what CDC says on the issue: "Children do not fit in adult lap/shoulder belts without a booster seat until they are 58 inches tall and weigh 80 lbs. Children should ride in a booster seat from the time they graduate from their forward-facing CSS until approximately age 8 years or until they are tall enough for the knees to bend over the edge of the seat when the child's back is resting firmly against the seat back." (from Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Review, available at www.cdc.gov )
SafetyBelt USA has a good 5-step test, to determine whether your kid is ready for the adult seat belt or not. Here is what they say:
" The 5-Step Test
Did you know most children need boosters from about age 4 till at least age 8? If your child is NOT riding in a booster, try this 5-step test.
If you answered "no" to any of these questions, your child needs a booster seat to ride safely in the car. Riding in a booster is more comfortable, too!
"Boosters Are for Big Kids!" "
If money is an issue, and your car has head rests and shoulder belts in the back, look into lowback boosters. They are cheaper than the high back boosters. If the car does not have head rests, you will need a high backed one, so that the kid doesn't get whip lash in case of an accident.
There are different types of harnesses on car seats and boosters, basically to be divided into overhead shields (bar or tray) , T-shields, and 5-point harnesses. Current research has shown that the 5-point harness is the safest of these, so if you are going to buy a new seat, get one with a 5-point harness. The 5-point is the one as shown in Kate's picture, next to the rear facing links, earlier on this page. There are 5 points with which the harness is connected to the seat, 2 above the shoulders, 2 next to the hips and one between the legs.
Quotes from Carseat.Org (under "best seat"): "A harness system with a shield is not appropriate for a small baby, since the shield sits in front of the baby's face or neck and holds the harness straps away from the baby's body. A 5-point harness has several advantages for a forward-facing child. The straps are placed on the child's shoulders and low on the hips, so that crash forces are absorbed by the strongest parts of the child's body instead of the soft abdomen. If the child is husky, a T-shield may press on chubby thighs, while a tray shield may squeeze the tummy. In smaller cars, it may be hard to remove the child if the tray shield cannot be raised up completely.
Safety experts have concerns about safety seats with shields. According
to
Kathleen Weber, University of Michigan,
Child Passenger Protection
Research Program, tray-shields usually are not
covered with energy-absorbing
padding
to protect the head if it hits the shield. This contact is more
likely with a
shorter child and a loose harness. In a test
series with a
12-month-sized dummy, peak head acceleration was 35% higher for
tray shield
restraints than for
5-point harnesses. At least one child (19 lbs.) is known
to have received a
fatal head injury from contact with a tray
shield.
"
Another carseat.org quote: "Shield boosters -- the kind with no back and a "bolster" in front of the child -- provide even less protection, especially in rollover crashes. They are no longer certified for children weighing more than 40 pounds, and children under 40 pounds are much safer in a regular safety seat with harness straps" The picture next to this text shows the kind of booster they are talking about, with Jamie (5yo) in it.
Most tethers can only be used when the car seat is installed facing forward, even if the seat is a convertible. At the moment there is only one seat on the American market which can be tethered in a rear facing position, which is the Britax Roundabout. Do not use a tether on any other rear facing car seat, they have not been tested that way and you really do not want your kid to be the first one to try it out in a crash!
If you have a new car, it most likely has tether anchors in it already. If you have an older car, check your owner's manual to see whether it says anything about retrofitting tether anchors, or call the dealer. It often is possible to have tether anchors installed in older cars, but you might have to search for the right info. Some dealers are knowledgeable, others have no clue what a tether anchor is and why anybody would want such a thing. When I went to my Ford dealer to ask for a tether anchor kit, they gave me a locking clip instead!
There are devices being sold, usually made of stiff fabric and velcro,
which
are supposed to make a shoulder/lap belt
a better fit for young kids.
The idea sounds good, but it turns out that they
interfere with the correct
working of the belt,
so it is better not to use them at all. One problem with
them is that the lap
belt gets pulled up too high, which means that
it is
positioned on the kid's abdomen instead of hips. This often leads to
internal
injuries in case of a crash. There has
been a study done on these by the
NHTSA and they concluded that they all
produced some degradation in the
performance
of the lap/shoulder belt system.
On the picture to the right, Cees is showing one of those devices, so you'll have an idea what I am talking about. We bought them a few years ago, for when we traveled, so we didn't have to bring a booster seat with us. At that point in time, I had no idea they were not safe, so I am really glad we never were in an accident while we used them! I will never use them anymore, I will throw them away now, although I have to admit this one came in handy to get a picture for this page :-)
A lot of people still use the old recommendation that they should use the slots which are just higher than the child's shoulders. But this is only correct with a few brands of car seats, namely Britax RA, Cosco Alpha Omega/Eddie Bauer 3 in 1 and the Sit'n'Stroll. If you have a different convertible seat, you have to be sure that you use only the top slots when you use it forward facing. This is because the top ones are the only ones which are reinforced and can withstand a crash in the forward facing position. If you use the middle or lower slots, the harness can rip through the plastic, possibly allowing the child to be ejected from the seat. There have been several known deaths in which the harness broke through non-reinforced slots, but it is impossible to guess the number of unidentified injuries which may have occurred.
This statement is only true for convertible car seats, the ones which can be used both rear facing and forward facing. For car seats and boosters, which are designed to only go forward facing, all the slots are reinforced, so this is not an issue.
If you don't know how old the seat is, most likely there will be a sticker somewhere with the manufacture date. Usually it is stamped on a paper sticker attached to the side or the back of the seat. This date will also help you to check whether the seat has any recalls on it too. To check on line for recalls, go to Is Your Car Seat Safe? at Carseat.org. The newer car seats have an expiration date printed on them, which makes it easier to decide when to stop using a certain car seat.
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The Car Seats SiteRing This site owned by Karen Plomp |
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Page last updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2001.