car seat safety: a pictorial guide

* I get questions about car seat recommendations and use quite often, so I am going to make a few blog entries about correct car seat use. I strongly encourage any of you that have little kids to take the time and read this! Please! This a work in progress, I'll be editing it.

If you have spent much time around me at all, you know I love me some car seats. And I get really excited when I see them used correctly, it absolutely makes my day. Unfortunately, it's as rare as a blue moon to see kids restrained correctly. Using your car seat per the manufacturers directions is imperative for it to protect your kiddo during an accident. Your child may never need the protection his car seat offers, but if he ever does need it, he needs it to work 100%. You don't get to choose when or if you have an accident, so you need to use it correctly EVERY time. I am a visual learner, so I thought I would give blog land a visual guide of car seat basics. My friend M over at The Everyday is kind enough to help me out as she is just as big a car seat nut.

The basics for all car seats:
Buckle
Harness
Stuff

For the itty bitty baby: The Bucket Seat.

J correctly strapped into his seat. Such a sweet little booger.

A lot of mistakes occur here. Key points: harness clip even with the armpits. Straps snug. There should be no place on the harness where you can pinch the strap together or fit more than one finger under the harness. It has to be tight, in an accident adults seat belts tighten, children's harnesses do not. The handle should be all the way down behind the seat when the car is in motion. It's a pain, I know. Just do it. Also, don't add anything to your car seat that didn't come with it. No mirrors, no toys, no extra cushions, no belt tighteners. Nothing.

Oh yeah, infants seats must be rear facing. Must.

For the not so itty bitty baby and toddler : The Convertible Seat.

* the American association of pediatrics now recommends children stay rear facing to the extents of their car seat. For most seats this is somewhere between 30 and 35lbs and the seat is outgrown by height when there is less than an inch of hard shell above the top of the childs head.
*harness needs to be below the shoulders for rear facing, above the shoulders for forward facing.
*tight harness, no slack
*chest clip even with armpits.
*seat securely installed in car per the car and seat manufacturers directions.

harness too lose, infant forward facing, straps too high.

No jackets in car seats or any other bulky clothing, it keeps the harness from being tight enough to restrain the child in the seat in an accident. Use a blanket after the child is buckled in correctly on top of the harness.

For big toddlers and up: The Combination Seat.


Modeling is my little pal L. She really loves her seat and was quite upset that 1, her mom made her abandon tv watching to take this photo and 2, that her mother put her in the seat wrong for the NO photo. She is in a Britax Regent, which is a 5 point harness up to 80lbs and 53 inches.
*harness is snug, you can't pinch any slack.
*chest clip is even with armpits.
*no added toys or cushions.
*seat is installed securely and tightly in the car.

For big kids: The Booster Seat.
I don't have any photos of kids in boosters, but.... I recommend putting off using one as long as possible. Each step up in car seats (example, from rear facing to forward facing) is a step down in safety. So, use a 5 point as long as possible.

For Pets

five WHOLE days

Our internet got knocked out by a HUGE shake the house thunderstorm this past Friday. It short circuited our cable modem and the modem in my computer even with them plugged into a surge protector! Our stove also got short circuited....

Ella Bella is a roller. Yep, she decided to celebrate her 100th day of life by rolling from back to tummy. She made sure day 101 was just as exciting by rolling from stomach to back. She conquered this first gross motor skill in half (yes, half) the time it took Moo.

Hubs got sworn in and had his first shift at work. It went eerily well, none of the legendary picking on the rookie that firehouses are known for. It must be coming....


Moo has replaced his favorite word "no" with a new and much more fun word. Yeah! Moo, do you love mommy? Yeah! I hate to jinx myself, but he is in such a great stage right now. I wish I could bottle up a few hours of him right now to savor when he is a smelly, moody teen. He has been teaching Ella Bella all about trains and plastic play food and even sharing his beloved train blanket with her.



I learned just how computer addicted I am. I go without internet when we are on vacation and it's no big deal, but being home without it made me feel so disconnected. Our internet being out coincided with my sewing machine being broken and my camera needing to be cleaned which left me to entertain myself in rather unusual ways. Making a huge pot of tomato sauce (sour...). Playing play doh with Moo. Cleaning my desk! Scrubbing the microwave. Dancing with Moo to Lori Berkner and Raffi. Running all sorts of odd errands. Buying Ella Bella a new car seat! Yeah, a new seat. I LOVE Moo's Britax Marathon so much, I knew if I could find a good deal on a girly one, it would be coming home with me!

car seat woes

I really, really like car seats. I *almost* have a car seat fetish.

Right now I have a love hate relationship with my daughter's car seat. It makes her puke, a lot. About half the time I put her in it, she loses the entirety of her last meal. Before the car even starts moving. She usually isn't upset at all when I put her in the seat and she throws up and has been burped thoroughly. Her clothes, her car seat straps, her car seat cover, and the burp rags, and blankets I try to catch it with will all be completely drenched.

Since car seat covers and straps aren't supposed to be washed, this presents a problem. I am at a loss as how to make her not throw up in the first place or to minimize the mess when she does throw-up.

I got her car seat inspected by a certified car seat tech before she was born and we use it correctly, but here are some photos of it installed in the car on our level driveway.

I am open to moving her to a new convertible seat or reinstalling her seat to adjust the recline if I can safely, whatever will help!

Milestone

23 months, 1 week, 3 days

And I finally turned his car seat forward facing! I am a car seat junkie and am generally a little obsessed about using them correctly. M has been close to the limits of his seat for awhile now and I was waiting until after his 2nd birthday to switch him. That is until I got an e-mail for a free car seat check this week! So we turned his seat around so we could install the infant seat and get them both checked at the same time :) I am 99.8% sure I installed them right, but I like the reassurance of having a certified car seat tech double check! If you have little bitty kids, I highly recommend having a tech teach you how to use a car seat correctly. Ok, off my soap box now...

Just another example of how he is less a baby every day and more a little man.