Baby Car Seats - Essential to protect your Baby

The toll from car crashes is heavy on babies and children. Crashes are estimated to kill some 600 U.S. youngsters under age five every year. Another 60,000 to 70,000 are seriously injured. Most accident happens within 25 miles of home at speed of less than 40mph.

A study by the national Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency that oversees car seat regulations, found that in 1997, 54 percent of kids under age five killed in crashes hadn’t been fastened into car seats or safety belts-despite laws in every state requiring babies and young children to be properly secured in child car seats when riding in a vehicle. And many children ride in car seats that are installed correctly.

Some parents mistakenly believe they can hold a baby in their arms during a car crash. But the forces of a crash are dramatic: In a 30-mph crash, a 15-pound baby is hurled through space with a force of almost 300 pounds, striking solid objects or other passengers in the process. If the parents holding the baby is sitting in the front seat and wearing a seat belt, the baby will be pounded into the dashboard by   the force of the adult’s body. Furthermore, a deploying air bag could prove fatal to the baby.

Car seats also called child safety seats or car restraints – are hard, moulded seat designed to protect babies and young children during crashes. The seat shell is covered with quilted fabric or thick upholstery, usually removable for washing. Adjustable straps, called a harness, securing the baby in the seat. An adult seat belt threads through slots in the seat’s shell and is tightly buckled so the restraint is firmly lashed down.

Car seats must be installed in the back seat to surround a child with a buffer zone of protective space and to distance them from the front seat’s hostile dashboard, windshields, and air bags. Babies weighting less than 20 pounds need to ride in a rear facing position so the safety seat’s shell will better support their heads and spines. Since a baby’s head is much heavier than the rest of its body, babies are vulnerable to whiplash.

Starting with your baby’s first ride home from the hospital, don’t put your key into the ignition until you’re certain your baby is buckled correctly into a rear-facing safety seat, properly secured to the automobile’s back seat.

Car seat options

Car seats are grouped by the child’s age and weight and the direction the seat faces inside the car- rearward for babies, forward for toddlers. You’ll find infant  seats, convertible seats which can convert from rear facing to front facing and booster seats designed for older children.

Seats can also be described by how they secure a child. “Five point” harness systems have five straps: two for shoulders, two for waist, and one between baby’s legs (crotch strap). Smaller infant seats have “three points” harness –two shoulder straps and one crotch strap. Most seats have simple straps, and a few also have a front shield.

Booster seats (not to be confused with high chair substitutes, are designed to raise preschoolers so they can see out. They also guide adult belts comfortably across a child’s body. Some have removable five-point harnesses for lighter-weight riders.

Chrysler, Ford, GM, Toyota and Volvo offer a built in child car seat as an option in some vehicles. Usually, these are toddler seats/ boosters for children older than one year and weight more than 20 pounds. The seat is tailor made for the car, and no installation is needed- but you must make sure that it’s comfortable for your child. These have not been crash tested, but because they are tightly secured and the child sits farther back than in a separate car seat, we believe they’d perform very well.

Tips for selecting the right one

More than three million children's car seats are sold or given out by hospital loaner and commercial discount programs each year, and car seat sales are between $250 and $300 million annually. But in order to protect your child, the seat must meet certain criteria.

Check the Basic requirements

You want the right seat for your baby's weight - and for your car's back seat. If a safety seat is too large for your car, it won't fit properly, which could compromise your baby's safety. The harness must contact the baby's whole body well. And it has to be fed into the correct shoulder slots for your baby's height. The harness should adjust easily to accommodate your baby as she grows.

When correctly installed, a rear-facing seat should not tip more than a 45 degree angle and should be so firmly belted down that it barely moves.

Cost doesn't guarantee quality

A more expensive seat won't necessarily protect your baby better. All seats have to pass rigid, federally monitored crash tests and specifications. That said, there are differences in the crash performance of various models, and noticeable variations in shell thickness and rigidity between some low-priced convertibles and those in mid and high price ranges. But usually when you examine differently priced models from the same manufacturer, you will find nearly identical shell construction.

A Seat to fit your needs

Before shopping, establish the kind of model that will work best for you. If you will be shifting baby from one car to another, consider a lighter weight, rear facing infant seat with an attaching base, plus another base for your second car.

Should you want to use a tether once your toddler can face forward, look for a convertible seat rather than an infant seat or seat/stroller combination.

A car seat/stroller combination might be handy if baby will go wherever you do. But if your car's trunk is small, you may want to purchase the seat and stroller separately. Strollers that can accommodate a car seat are fairly large. Since everything not tied down should go in the trunk when baby's on board, you will want enough trunk room left over for groceries and parcels.

Will you be having a heavy or tall baby? It's hard to tell in advance, but if you know y our baby is going to be a boy, and you and your partner are both tall, chances are your baby will outgrow an infant-only seat months before his body is mature enough to sit facing forward. A rear-facing convertible seat with a heavier weight limit in the infant position might be a good solution.

If you have a small or low-birth weight baby, you hospital or you baby's pediatrician may recommend a special car seat, such as one without a shield (shields fit small babies poorly), or a car-bed that lets a baby completely recline. Before leaving the hospital, your baby may be observed in a car seat to see if the semi reclined position adds to or causes possible breathing problems.

Children with special health problems or medical conditions may need other restraint systems. Talk to your pediatrician, or contact the toll free number for national Easter seal society and ask about the KARS (Kids are riding safe) programs.

Beware of used seats

While it's great to buy baby clothes, soft carriers, and sturdy toys at yard sales and thrift or consignment stors, buying a used car seat isn't a good idea. Stringent federal monitoring and the fierce competition between manufacturers have improved car seats every year. Plus, unless you know the history of the seat, you won't know if it's been in a crash or not. Although there may be visible changes in the seat's color where the shell has been stressed or marks on the belts that resemble melting, caused by severe stretching, most fractures and frame stress points won't be visible.

Critical instructions from the seat's manufacturer may be lost. The seat won't be registered in your name, so you won't be in the loop for future recalls. And, unless you have consulted NHTSA's website to print out an up-to-date car seat recall list, you won't know if you are taking home a safe seat or dangerous lemon.

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