Car Seat rules... How many are YOU breaking?

bamamama

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 12:20 am

oodlesofnoodles wrote:

To those who say leaving the bulky coats on/bundle me is not a big deal...
Buckle your kid in his or her coat or the bundle me. Then take off the coat and buckle the kid again.
Look at how much slack is in between your kid and the straps-that's what will happen in a crash!
Stop the excuses and playing with your kid's safety!

^THIS

I tried this experiment the other day with my baby's Colombia snowsuit (layer of thin Gortex over a layer of thin fleece). I yanked those straps as hard as I could - they were tight! Then I took him out and took off his snowsuit and put him in his carseat in just his clothes. The straps were much too loose. I've heard that this is the standard - if your kid can wear his/her coat without you having to adjust the straps from when he is wearing normal clothing, then the coat is safe to wear in the carseat. Here's a video that demonstrates this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNGT9eBL_gg

This baby was ejected from his carseat a few days ago in a crash. He was wearing a snowsuit. By a miracle, he survived and is fine apart from some scratches. http://thestir.cafemom.com/bab....._seat

And, finally, my kids RF until they are about 4 when they reach the weight limit. They hang their legs over the side. They cross them. I never ever had anyone complain about not being able to see or about being squished. We use a seat that RFs to 45lbs. If you make it the rule, they will follow it.

asp40

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 4:25 am

I am crazy about car seat safety and it makes me crazy to see people who knowingly break safety recommendations. If you dont know and are willing to learn, that is one thing. But to say "I know we should do this, but we dont" that makes me crazy!!! I happen to have lightweight children and they were rearfacing much longer than what was the norm. I just moved my last child out of his 5pt harness when he was over 6 years old, b/c he finally got too tall. I have some children who were 80lbs at 8 years and very tall, so getting rid of the booster wasnt a problem. And I ahve some kids who are so small at 9 years old, who knows when they will get out. I dont care what their friends do.

Also, about the coats. I always bought my kids thin fleece pullovers. They wore that and gloves/hat for the car and I put their coat on top of them. I live in NY and never had an issue.

STMommy

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 7:22 am

Here's my biggest peeve, which to my surprise no one has posted about - car seats should be professionally installed!!! In NYC, 90% of people install their seats wrong
http://consumerist.com/2011/06.....rong/
but 90% of people are confident that they've installed their seats correctly!
http://www.colawfirm.com/blog/.....ctly/

I ONLY install all seats by a certified, trained, qualified car seat technician. I am a busy full time working mother of small children but this is too important to excuse away!

http://www.seatcheck.org/

busydev

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 7:44 am

bbmom wrote:

I don't break any of the above listed rules but the one thing I do break is harnessing a child while wearing a bulky coat. I just can't figure out how to transport them on freezing days without doing that. People have suggested taking the coats off once in the car but I'm just not super-mom enough for that. My kids are 18 months, just turned 3 and just turned 4.

I do have them in down-coats which compress much more than polyester ones but that really me justifying myself.

didnt finish reading the thread so maybe was answered but I have this issue too. not that im not supermom and its to hard to take off the coat of my 1 baby but its FREEZING!! I am wearing a bulky coat to and shiver half the time im driving. daily my drive is 5 min to my mother (the babysitter) and 5 min back so the car doesnt really get warm or even not freezing. I need to wear gloves to drive even on days that I dont need gloves outside!

MrsDash

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 7:52 am

busydev wrote:

bbmom wrote:

What I do is have DC wear a thinner warm jacket, a hat, and a scarf in the car, and cover her with the big bulky coat. Before heading outside, I put on her puffy coat. It gets pretty pretty pretty cold where I live. (Except for today. How is it 50 degrees in the dead of winter??)

SivanMom

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 7:54 am

STMommy wrote:

I have always installed all my car seats myself, following the instructions to the T. One time, we were going on a 10 hour road trip, so I went to get them professionally installed, just for peace of mind. They told me to bring my kids along, so I drove 35 minutes, with 4 little kids, had to take them all out of the car for what seemed like an eternity while they struggled to figure out how to get my two car seats in the rear row. (They had never installed 4 car seats before, which I found really odd considering that I live in Lakewood). On the way home, both my infant car seats tilted over to the side! By then the kids were tired, hungry, crying and I was so exhausted, my hands were shaking. I had to pull over to the side of the road, take the infant car seats out, in winter, and reinstall them. I was not impressed with the certified professionals and will be doing it myself in the future.

MrsDash

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 7:56 am

STMommy wrote:

About instillation. When grading the safety of a car seat, they check to see the ease of instillation. The highest rated car seats have the easiest instillation. That in no way means it's easy. Even the easy ones can be difficult to install. It's true what you wrote. Having a professional install a car seat is best.

*(p.s. If anyone where I live needs help, DH is a certified car seat safety technician.)

sneakermom

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 8:07 am

What do you do if you have an older car and it doesn't come with those car seat fasteners? Also what company car seats do you use? Which are safe and well priced?

We happen to have a walmart carseat that we have passed down from child to child. They stay in it until they turn four and go on to the booster. Unless their weight allows them to sit in a booster earlier. We never did rear facing though. Can you do that with an ordinary eleven year old car seat?

Are you telling me that you keep four year olds in car seats? I dunno. Maybe I have to get more into this stuff.

Hashem_Yaazor

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 8:10 am

With LATCH, it actually makes it a lot simpler to install car seats, correctly.

The biggest tip my husband gives people is that if their seat in the car reclines (our Sienna does), recline it, install the seat, and then put the seat back up straight. It makes it so much easier.
(He never officially got certification, but he got "semicha" from one who did.)

SplitPea

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 8:14 am

sneakermom wrote:

For installing with a seatbelt they have what's called a seat belt lock. It makes it where your seat belt won't move and will hold the carseat in place.

And PLEASE throw out the 11 year old carseat. They expire after 5 years and are not good to use that long. You can get a convertible carseat and use it with the kids now forward and rear facing.

And yep totally keep four year olds in carseats. If they only know carseats they have nothing to complain about.... And even if they do... I love them too much I listen to their complaining Smile

Hashem_Yaazor

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 8:14 am

sneakermom wrote:

You don't need LATCH to have a car seat safely installed. It just makes it easier to do so. You need a tight seatbelt installation, sometimes twisting the stalk helps, you have to make sure you thread it properly in the correct belt pathway, and that you have a locking clip.

11 year old car seat is WAY too old, I won't even begin to answer if it can be rear facing (I have no idea the type.) PLEASE for the safety of your children, get a new one. You don't want it breaking apart in a collision, CH"V!

amother

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 8:55 am

[quote="amother"]I think I am in compliance with any of those. Up until this winter, my now 2 year old twins were in things like this:
http://www.columbia.com/Youth-.....html. very warm and thin. This year, I park in a garage so they just wear sweatshirts for playgroup drop-off (their sister's, they stay in the car) and for other trips I take off their coats. The older ones take off their coats by themselves. My twins were turned FF a day after their second birthday, when I went for their well visit and saw that my son reached the limit of his car seat.
I switched my 6 year old into a booster on his 6th birthday. In his last year's Sunday carpool he sat in the other two families' younger kid's car seats, because the other kids didn't even have boosters shock

My 4 year old is still in her car seat and will be for another year or two. She will be ready for a booster before my son was. My son has a hard time sitting still and until he was 6 I did not feel that he was mature enough.
As for the expiration date - this is what gets to me. I have to get rid of my Britax Marathon now, which is my favorite of my car seats. Now I'll be stuck with a Cosco Scenera, which I hate. But when you own 5 car seats and a booster, you don't just run out and buy another car seat. At least that's what my husband says!

My pet peeve is when people keep their babies in infant car seats well beyond the weight or height limit and they can't even close the bottom strap so they just close the chest strap. Drives me crazy! Also, sooooo many people don't know that you can have the convertible car seats RF, and they go straight from infant car seats to FF. Grrr.

Can you please help me with the bolded.
I had no idea that it can be RF, please provide some links so that I can make the right purchase for a 20 month old.
TIA

amother

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 9:01 am

SplitPea wrote:

sneakermom wrote:

For installing with a seatbelt they have what's called a seat belt lock. It makes it where your seat belt won't move and will hold the carseat in place.

And PLEASE throw out the 11 year old carseat. They expire after 5 years and are not good to use that long. You can get a convertible carseat and use it with the kids now forward and rear facing.And yep totally keep four year olds in carseats. If they only know carseats they have nothing to complain about.... And even if they do... I love them too much I listen to their complaining Smile

Please provide links I;m an am haaretz in these things....

bamamama

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 9:08 am

Our car doesn't have LATCH so I install the seats using the seatbelt. I've had them checked by a CPST and they are fine. It's difficult but over the years it has gotten easier. The manual of your car seat explains explicitly how to install. I'm sure there are also youtube videos on this.

All brands that are sold in the US pass safety standards. As someone else mentioned, the more expensive the seat, the easier the use/installation, generally. I've found Britax to be very easily installed ( the new Frontier being the exception - my CPST friend says it's a nightmare).

bamamama

Fri, Jan 11 2013, 9:21 am

amother wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

For those without LATCH, I'd consider a car seat with build in lockoffs, like Britax or True Fit (for convertible).

Thanks for the link, what is Latch and why use it, also can you provide a link for pp who have no latch.
TIA

Your instruction manual will include installation instructions for a vehicle without latch. You can also try Youtube.

HY - if your car's seatbelts lock (I.e. when you pull them all the way out and let them back and they lock in the final position), you also don't need a specific locking device (in Canada, anyway).