{"id":1172,"date":"2013-07-27T09:10:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T13:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2014-05-20T15:59:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T19:59:01","slug":"continuing-car-seat-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/27\/continuing-car-seat-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuing Car Seat Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even though I\u2019m a self-proclaimed\u00a0<a style=\"line-height: 1.7;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/21\/car-seat-fanatic\/\">&#8220;Car Seat Fanatic&#8221;<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.7;\">, I\u2019m far from an expert.\u00a0 I recently joined a Facebook group focused on child car seat safety and even I have learned so much.\u00a0 While I haven\u2019t made any changes to our car seat set-up and feel my children are (and pretty much always have been), I\u2019ve learned things that will definitely affect the way I secure my children and car seats into the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A lot of people come to the group asking for advice on which car seat is best or safest.\u00a0 The general advice among Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPSTs) is that the best car seat is the one that fits your child, fits your vehicle, and can be used properly every single time.\u00a0 Most everything new I\u2019ve learned goes along those lines:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Most importantly, the manual that came with your car seat and the manual that goes with your vehicle must be followed exactly.\u00a0 If\u00a0 the car seat manual or vehicle manual restricts something or requires something it\u2019s because going against the rules could cause harm to your child.<\/li>\n<li>All child car seats meet the same safety standards and there are no ratings for which seat is safest.\u00a0 There is no research to show that the most expensive car seat protects a child any better than the cheapest. Installing a seat with LATCH is no safer than using the car seatbelt.\u00a0 Safest is whichever gives you the most secure install.<\/li>\n<li>You should not put anything between the child seat and car seat nor should you put anything between your child and the child seat or harness (other than lightweight clothes) unless it came with the seat.\u00a0 This includes bulky winter coats.<\/li>\n<li>While the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends rear facing all children to 2 years old, most experts recommend to rear face as close to 4 years old as possible.<\/li>\n<li>When forward facing, a harnessed seat is not safer than using a booster with the car seat belt so long as the child meets the size requirements of the booster, the seat belt fits properly and the child is mature enough to sit properly in the seat<\/li>\n<li>Not all car seats can be used in all cars or in all seats.\u00a0 For example:\n<ul>\n<li>Few car seats allow \u201cbracing\u201d when rear facing.\u00a0 This refers to the child car seat resting on the front seats.\u00a0 Some car seats do not even allow touching the front car seat and some cars specifically prohibit anything touching the front seats.<\/li>\n<li>Forward facing car seats are safest when using a top tether anchor.\u00a0 Older model cars often don\u2019t have the anchors but many cars can be retrofitted with the anchors if you contact a dealer.<\/li>\n<li>Some cars with 3<sup>rd<\/sup> row seating do not allow car seats to be used in the back row.\u00a0 You need to check the owner\u2019s manual to see if the car seat type you intend to use is safe to use in the seating position you were planning to use.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though I\u2019m a self-proclaimed\u00a0&#8220;Car Seat Fanatic&#8221;, I\u2019m far from an expert.\u00a0 I recently joined a Facebook group focused on child car seat safety and even I have learned so much.\u00a0 While I haven\u2019t made any changes to our car seat set-up and feel my children are (and pretty much always have been), I\u2019ve learned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tiny-travellers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}