After installing baby's car seat bases in our cars last weekend, we were feeling pretty good. The instructions were simple and easy to follow and with the reassurance that we are fairly smart people we felt pretty confident that we had installed everything properly. Then we took our cars to a Car Seat Safety Inspection on Thursday. All of our confidence just flew out the window.
We quickly learned why more than 80% of car seats are installed improperly. Since we were the only two cars at the safety inspection at the time, we had 7 ER nurses and 1 OB nurse working to install our seats properly and speaking with us about seat safety. It was great to have all of the attention and to know that when we left our little guy would be as safe as possible in his seat, but it was a little intimidating to have 8 women pointing out all of the errors one can make when installing a car seat.
There were several issues that we had with our installation.
Eric's car - While the car seat manual indicated it is best to place the seat in the middle of the back seat, Eric's car has a hump which makes the seat wobble from side to side. In addition, the seat manual indicates the seat belt latch contained in the box should be used when installing the seat with a belt. However, we learned that if you have locking seat belts in your car, the locks provided by the car seat manufacturer should not be used. To remedy these problems, the car seat is now installed on the passenger side using the latch anchors hidden between the seat and back. It's tight and does not wobble.
Jen's car - While the back seat does not have a hump in the middle like Eric's car, the seat was installed with the seat belt latch and the belt was far from tight. To remedy this problem, we had to twist the seat belt latch three times and hold the base down as firmly as possible while pulling latched belt as tight as possible. This was a great workout for a pregnant lady. When they had me install the seat after they had showed me what to do, I was huffing and puffing as I worked.
In addition, the inspectors told us that no aftermarket items should be used with a car seat. This includes: car seat under-mats, harness strap covers, and toys that clip onto the seat handle. There should be no free objects in the car which could fly around during an accident or roll-over. And finally, baby should not be placed in the car seat while wearing a coat or snowsuit. We both thought this was going to be difficult because it's winter and it's difficult to get the back of the car real warm. However, we can cover him with blankets after he is strapped in and there is a good reason for following the rules. The amount of padding in a coat or snowsuit can cause the harness to be too loose on the baby and in the event of an accident, the baby could be snapped back and forth causing more injury.
So Thursday was a learning experience for both of us. We're glad we took the time to have the seats inspected. It's nice to have the peace of mind in knowing that we have done all we can to keep our little guy safe in his car seat. I recommend that all my pregnant friends have their car seats inspected before their little one arrives.
