nine out of ten car seats are installed incorrectly (or something insane similar that). Don't exist one of 'em.
I'll tell you exactly why this is… you open the car seat transmission and realize it's 97 pages long (and poorly indexed at that) and it'due south written in Dutch. Or Japanese. Or Klingon.
You lot fumble through it to observe the appropriate section (the "rear-facing, retractable seat belt" department, for case) and then you wonder… "Hmmm, is that actually what I have here? Maybe I'll use LATCH, but can I fifty-fifty install LATCH in this position?" You so become utterly dislocated by the instructions and illustrations, which never make much sense anyhow. Then your husband skips along and says, "Spiral it, honey, permit's but wing information technology."
And that's what 95% of people do when information technology comes to car seat installation. At least, that's what I noticed at almost of my machine seat checks (I used to be a Child Rider Condom Technician — CPST).
I'g gonna give yous a little crash course (no pun intended) and so you empathise the bones principles of proper car seat installation in your ride; and so it's up to you to figure out how to utilize it to your specific state of affairs.
Let's begin.
When
Anytime betwixt 35-37 weeks is a good time to install your baby (or convertible) seat in preparation for the big twenty-four hours. If y'all become into labor earlier 35 weeks, your baby volition probably spend some time in the NICU, so you lot'll accept plenty of time to figure information technology out in the concurrently. After 37 weeks, yous could become into labor at any time — and believe me, you don't want to exist installing the machine seat for the kickoff time at the hospital(!!).
So choice a overnice, sunny, unhurried 24-hour interval and get cozy with your motorcar seat and transmission.
If y'all still haven't purchased a auto seat, refer dorsum here.
Where to Install
The beginning matter I desire y'all to practice is leave the Owner'south Transmission for your CAR (yes, your motorcar). Skip the Table of Contents (information technology'south worthless) and get straight back to the Index. Look for the discussion "child" (it will either be under "child passenger condom," "child seat installation," or… something like that).
Your manual will tell you exactlywhere you lot can and cannot safely install a auto seat in your detail motorcar.
For example, some cars accept LATCH tethers in the middle seat, only almost do not (if you want to install information technology in the centre seat, y'all'll probably accept to use the seat belt, which is fine — merely exist aware).
Generally speaking…
All things being equal, the safest position for any car seat is the second row, CENTER. While caput-on collisions are the most common, side-touch collisions are the nearly deadly. Putting your baby in the center of the vehicle increases the concrete space betwixt him and a automobile colliding into him from the side.
Even so… the canned motorcar seat technician response to "Which position is safest for my baby?" is "whichever position y'all can reach the best installation." So if for whatever reason yous can't get a expert installation in the middle, y'all'll have to utilise i of the sides or "outboard" positions.
If the center position doesn't work out, yous can install the seat on either side. At that place are pros and cons of each.
Driver side vs. Passenger side Motorcar Seat Installation
one) If you lot are in a side-bear on standoff (the worst kind), information technology will probably occur while yous are turning left, thus the driver's side is safer.
ii) The driver will instinctively protect his/her side of the vehicle in an accident (another vote for driver'southward side)
3) On the commuter's side, y'all won't have to walk all the style effectually the car each time to get baby in (and out of) her seat.
The downside to the driver's side (and it'due south a big one if you fall into this category) is if you lot live in an urban environs and parallel park a lot (or just park on the side of the street), installing the seat on the driver'south side of the back seat forces y'all to be on the traffic-side of the car while getting the infant in and out (assuming we're in America and driving on the right-hand side of the street. The opposite would exist true in the Great britain and other lefty countries).
I fall into this category, so I prefer to put my younger kid's seat backside the passenger side so I'yard not risking my life (and hers) by standing out in traffic every day at preschool drop-off. These rush hour drivers are a littttle scary.
I know this goes without saying, but a rear-facing car seat should NEVER become in the front end seat. Why? Because you lot take a minor fender bough and your airbag gets deployed at 200 mph, which volition instantly impale an infant. If you don't believe me, I'll tell you some incredibly sad stories from the ER nurses at my CPST preparation course. Actually sorry stuff. Yes, many front seat airbags can be turned off with a switch (or automatically), but what if you forget? What if information technology malfunctions? If you Take to put a rear-facing seat in the front seat (like in a pickup truck with no back seat or a 2-seater), exist damn sure the airbags are turned off!
How to Install
** Preface: Delight, please practice read the automobile seat manual. I know it's a pain, but information technology'southward very important. Hire a translator if you need to. 😉
At that place are ii important aspects of fit that yous need to get right:
one. Your baby plumbing equipment properly into the seat 2. Your seat being installed properly into the car
Get these two things right and you're aureate! Once you do information technology a few times, it becomes second nature.
Fitting Baby Into Seat
Generally, the four important aspects of fitting properly into the seat are:
1. Shoulder straps — For rear-facing seats (babe or convertible), straps should exist at or only BELOW your baby's shoulder height. Meaning… the place where the shoulder straps go into the back of the seat should be at or below your baby'due south shoulder tiptop. Not in a higher place. [For forwards-facing seats, information technology's the opposite, only we'll get to that later.]
Most seats come up with the straps already in the lowest harness height slot position or next to the lowest position – yay!
If you lot are using a hand-me-down seat, you'll need to move the straps to the lowest position yourself.The everyman position should fit the vast bulk of newborns.
*Almost baby car seats have harness straps that have to be "re-threaded" in order adjust the strap height. Don't be scared, information technology's quite easy.
Re-threading the shoulder straps:
Simply flip the seat over, locate the metal splitter plate (shown below), pull the "strap ends" off each side of the splitter plate. Then, pull the straps dorsum through to the forepart of the seat — then just thread them dorsum in at the desired height location, pull them back through and reattach to the splitter plate.
Ta-da!
To watch an instructional video, get here (cue to 2:20).
*You'll have to do this MANY times in your parenting career, and so if you learn it now, yous'll be in great shape.
2. Crotch buckle strap— Some (non all) infant seats have a crotch strap that is adaptable. Bank check your auto seat manual for the proper position. Once again, a new seat should come with the strap in the right position for a newborn.
3. The breast harness clip (below)should be level with the armpits (Remember: Buckle at boobies). It's non a breadbasket clip. This buckle is notorious for slipping downwardly nearly the waist, so always pull it upward to armpit level every fourth dimension.
In case of an blow, you want the breast buckle to hitting your kid in the sternum, which will properly position the harness over the shoulders… which increases the take chances that your child will remain in the seat.
4. Tightness of the straps: The straps should be pulled pretty darn tight. If you can pinch any of the strap material, it'southward too loose. Yous should not exist able to do this.
Most auto seats have a button and a strap that lies between baby's legs that can be pulled taut (and loosened) each time to become your baby in and out of the automobile. For some of the cheaper seats, the tightening occurs on the back of the seat backside the shoulder straps.
Larn HOW TO USE THIS PROPERLY. It'due south crucial to getting a nice, tight fit every time you use it.
For more information on achieving the proper fit for your babe, cheque the didactics manual.
**Don't ever put your infant in her auto seat wearing a thick glaze or snowsuit. Cops written report seeing coats strapped into seats later the children who had been wearing them had been ejected. Coats create also much mushy slack in the harness. Instead, use a motorcar seat cover or put a blanket on meridian to go on her warm. For more about keeping warm in cold climates, click hither.
Installing the infant seat base of operations
The majority of people volition be using an babe seat installed onto a motorcar seat base of operations, so all you need to do is install the base of operations into your auto. The seat but clicks in and out, as needed.
There are two techniques you can use for installing the base:
ane. Using LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, as well called ISOFIX in Europe and LUAS in Canada) — or — 2. Using the expert ol' fashioned seat belt
**Do not apply LATCH and a seat belt at the same fourth dimension (except for the Nuna PIPA seat). The forces were not designed to be distributed this way.
Which is better? Both are every bit condom techniques, only LATCH was designed to be quicker and easier. LATCH anchors will announced in all vehicles (VEE-hi-culls) starting in model years 2002-2003, although earlier foreign models may take them also. Consult your owner's transmission to place the location of the anchors in your car, as some of them may be hiding behind velcro or zippers or Style back into the "bight" of the seat.
A LATCH ballast is a u-shaped bar hiding in the seat crease that looks something like this:
My advice: Learn how to install the base with a seat chugalug. Why? Because every vehicle has seat belts (rental cars, taxis, etc.), but not every car has LATCH (I don't think I've e'er been in a taxi that has LATCH). You lot can apply LATCH, simply know how to apply the seat belt too.
A. Installing with LATCH: The seat base should take tethers (straps) on both sides. Once you locate the LATCH anchors in your car, simply push the connectors into the anchors until yous hear a click. Then pull to make sure yous got information technology in.
Side by side, tighten the straps: use leverage past placing your knee at the edge of the seat — foot apartment on the flooring — and push toward the dorsum of the car while pushing downwardly with a flat palm. Yous'll want to pull from inside the seat (check out this great video demonstration here: Install a car seat like a pro: Inside / Outside Play a joke on). In this fashion, you lot are compressing both the vehicle seat pan and the vehicle seat back and will get a rock solid installation every time.
B. If installing with a seat chugalug, simply thread the belt through the chugalug path of the seat base (check the instructions) and use the same technique equally above to tighten.
*Ignore the LATCH tether straps attached to the seat. In fact, just constrict them or click them abroad so they don't arrive your way.
*Many of the nicer seats accept a "seat belt lock-off" (shown above). If you don't have a seat belt lock-off on the seat itself, y'all'll have to lock the seat belt by pulling the unabridged seat belt strapping out, so slowly letting it go dorsum in. You may not know it, but you lot are substantially switching the belt into "locked" way. For more info on locking your seat belt, go hither and curlicue downwardly to "seat belt shenanigans."
Proper Automobile Seat Angle: 30 – 45 Degrees
In addition to the seat or base existence properly secured, you lot must also take it installed at the proper bending (30-45 degrees, or whatever your manual states).
Most seat bases come with a built-in "level" or color-coded gauge that shows you when the seat is at the proper angle; some of the economy automobile seats simply take a leveling line. Y'all can suit the top of the human foot of the base to get it just right. A great video on this tin be found hither (skip to 0:32).
Infant car seat installation without the base of operations (seat only)
Typically, you don't need the base to properly use your car seat — it's just a convenience. To install without the base, simply thread the seat chugalug through the grooves on the side of the seat and tighten in the same style as higher up. It should wait something like this (for American machine seats).
European seats, similar the Cybex, some Maxi-Cosi'due south, and the Nuna PIPA, have a "European belt path," which goes behind the head of the seat. These seats are typically easier to install without a base than their American counterparts.
For the seat only, yous as well have to pay attention to the angle. Check the bending estimate: if it's not right, you may have to ringlet up a towel (tightly) to place under the foot of the seat to get that bending right. Don't neglect to do this.
**Note that for this installation, y'all have to put your baby in the seat before fastening the seat into the auto (obviously).
**Information technology'due south not true that the auto seat handle has to be in the "down" position while in the machine. This myth originated from the earliest 'based' car seats in the 1980s, which relied on the handle in the downward position to be locked into the base. Your manual will tell yous which position(s) the handle should be in — and where it should not be in.
Is it tight plenty?
Whether installing the base or the car seat alone, ever check to make sure it's tight plenty. Pull the foot of the seat back and along, and from side to side. Information technology should non move more than 1″ in any direction. If it does, yous demand to tighten information technology more.
Note: At that place volition be a lot of play in the unsecured "head" stop of the seat (the cease that is closest to the front end seats) — that'south okay.
Newsflash: Babies Should be Rear-Facing for… a Long Time!
By and large speaking, babies have heavy heads and relatively weak necks with soft bones. In a frontal standoff, a forwards-facing babe'south neck may stretch and rupture the spinal cord. At about a yr of age, their bones get-go to harden and babies gradually go less vulnerable.
Moms become all bent out of shape about having a rear-facing baby. Look, I get it: it'south much harder to see what's going on back there and try to comfort baby when she'southward freaking out. But suck information technology upwardly; it'southward waaaaay safer.
We e'er knew that infants should face the rear and recently the AAP has released their new recommendations "The AAP recommends children remain in a rear-facing car safety seat as long as possible, until they accomplish the highest weight or tiptop allowed past their seat."
Parents, you're the guy!!!
I know a lot of parents (ok… moms) who don't actually know how to remove and re-install the car seat or base, or are afraid to. They've been scared by propaganda that ensures them they will screw it up and their baby volition die a hideous accidental death. I desire to encourage yous to become a car seat expert. Don't pawn this responsibility off on someone else.
I accept learned over the past year that you cannot rely on ANYONE: the police-officeholder-who-is-supposed-to-be-an-proficient, grandma, your friend with a baby, the rental car guy, or the flying attendant to take any idea what they are talking about when it comes to machine seat installation. Near people are TOTALLY INCOMPETENT on the topic and volition just make stuff up to placate y'all. Unacceptable.
Am I telling you non to trust anyone simply yourself when information technology comes to properly installing a car seat in your auto, a taxi, or an plane? Precisely! Be a stickler about it. Get to know that instruction manual and call the manufacturer with any questions. Manufacturers are shockingly helpful.
Get it Checked
Y'all tin can notice an inspection station nearly you for some peace of listen. AAA offices offering this service as do many (only not all) local police and fire stations. Or you can apply the National Child Rider Safety Certification "find a tech" search characteristic for your area.
Alrighty, it's almost get-time. Stone on!
— Read also: What I learned in CPST Training.
**Now that you lot are near the end, you volition be receiving 2 emails a week from me. At that place's a lot to tell you…and not a lot of fourth dimension – ack! If you lot need to reference any of the previous (or future!) emails, get the goodies hither in the archive.
For more on our favorite infant seats, get hither.
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