While we all know that car seats are an important way of protecting your baby from a fatality, there may be some interesting facts about car seats that you may not know about. Being educating on these facts will allow you to provide the best level of care and safety for your child when on the road. Don’t miss them.
Expired car seats
The old common knowledge advice was that if a car seat hadn’t been in an accident then it was safe. While most parents know enough not to purchase a car seat online or at a yard sale because they don’t know the history, many still accept used car seats from family and friends or use their existing car seats handed down from their older children. But the fact is that car seats do expire. In fact, most current car seats actually have an expiration date on them. A car seat expires after five years of use. This is because plastics can corrode and warp, straps can wear, and latch connections can loosen. All of this contributes to a less than perfectly safe car seat.
Minimum requirements
I spoke with our country’s leading car safety expert for a recent magazine article. What she had to say about car seat regulations really opened my eyes. The laws concerning car seats are really just minimum requirements. According to my expert, many of these laws were negotiated down so they would be passed. You can keep your baby rear facing as long as your baby still fits in the car seat that way, for example. Most of the height and weight guidelines or laws for car seats fit only the top 99 percentile of kids. In other words, unless your child is way above average for height and weight, you may be switching him to a toddler seat or booster seat before it is really safe.
Metal parts can get hurt
Cover your car seat when it is not in use. Those metal buckles can get very hot sitting in the sun, even in winter. When choosing a car seat, look for models that have plastic coverings over the clips and buckles to reduce the chances of a burn. Some seats clips can also pinch a child if you aren’t careful when buckling in because they clips are down low near chubby thighs that can get in the way.
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