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Home › Articles › Preparing for Baby › Oops, Don't Do It Again

Oops, Don't Do It Again

Buying, Installing and Using Infant Seats the Right Way

By Teri Brown

Pages:  1  2  3  

Purchasing an Infant Safety Seat
"Parents always ask me, 'What is the best child safety seat?'" says Haschel. "The answer is the seat that fits your child, fits in the car and the seat that will be used correctly and easily every trip. All the seats for sale in stores here in the United States have a minimum Federal Safety Standard that must be met. Parents see a varying degree in price at the store. All seats meet the minimum standard. Some have extra features that enhance ease of use, thus the difference in price."

Haschel warns parents to make sure the seat is new in the box, has an instruction manual, is free from defects and has all labels intact. "Be cautious about secondhand seats," says Haschel. "The child safety seat is a one-time-use-only product. If it was secondhand and already in a crash and the parent did not know it, they may be endangering their child." For the most part, if the safety seat is in a crash it must be replaced.

"I always applaud parents that come to me to learn about their safety seat," says Haschel. "It can be confusing. I encourage parents to contact a certified child passenger safety seat technician if they have questions or need help. Keep in mind the safety seat technician provides an education service, not an installation service. We will help the parent, but in the end our goal is to make the parent comfortable with the seat they have purchased. We want the parent to be able to uninstall and install the seat correctly every time on every trip."

Built-in Safety Seats

Many cars are being manufactured with built-in child safety seats. This has both advantages and disadvantages.

Amy Frias is a community educator at the Children's Hospital of Orange County, Calif., and a certified car seat instructor. She believes there is a lot less room for error with built-in child safety seats, but there is still a lot of misuse. "Parents don't always use these particular seats correctly because they don't pay attention to the weight and height requirements," she says. "These types of seats are not fairly common and there aren't any currently that allow an infant to remain rear facing."

Officer Ronnie Haschel agrees. "Read the owner's manual for the vehicle that has the integrated child safety seats," he says. "Most of the vehicles that have them are not for infants. They are for children of toddler age. It would be better to purchase an infant seat."

Car Seat Safety Resources

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

American Academy of Pediatrics

Safe Kids World Wide


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