Car Seat Safety
Because children have soft bone
structures, weaker muscles, heavy heads and smaller
bodies, the only way to protect them from the danger
of sudden stops or collisions is to correctly restrain
them in moving vehicles with a proper car seat. Infant
car seats are divided into four stages. The car seat
you need is depended on the weight of your child.
Determining the Appropriate Car Seat for
Your Child:
Rear
Facing Baby Car Seat
Babies have relatively large heads and weak neck
muscles. An infant seat is designed to cradles the
baby’s head to protect him/her from sudden stops,
turns, or collisions.
Infant car seats are to be placed backwards, so that
during a collision, the back of the infant seats takes
the force of impact. When properly installed, and
your child is secure properly in the seat, the risk
of injury to your baby is minimize.
Always properly secure your child in the infant seat
even for a short trip. And continue to use the infant
seat in the rear-facing position until your child
has reached the length and weight specified by the
seat manufacturer.
Also, never place an infant car seat in a seat that
is equipped with an air bag. If the air bag inflates,
serious injuries or even death may result. If you
find that you have to attend to your child’s
needs, find a safe spot to pull over and park.
Important Features of Infant Car
Seat
When buying infant car seat, attention should be
given to some of the following important features:
- Don't buy a used seat. This is because you don't
know if the car seat has been in an accident, and
because it is not registered under your name, you
will not receive recall notices. Overtime, plastic
can dry out and degrade, increasing the chances
of cracks. Also, car seats are stamped with an "expiration
date" of approximately 5 years.
- All car seats should meet or exceed federal safety
standards
- Infant car seat should provide excellent head
support
- Have easy in/ out convenience (so you don't disturb
your baby while he/she sleeps)
- Removable and machine washable infant seat cover.
- Some infant car seats can be convert from rear-facing
for a newborn child to forward-facing for the bigger
babies (over 1 year old).
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