The importance of baby car seats

Several years ago, safety in a car was not a big issue. Parents would simply ask their child to hold on firmly to the front seat or to the dashboard, or would hold their babies on their lap in the passenger seat. More children would stand stronger, the safer it was! 30 years ago, using seat belts was mostly not always mandatory, especially for the passengers and study on road safety, well close to unheard of.

Fortunately, today, our society is much more aware of the risks of car traveling and the ways to protect our babies have changed so much. So much indeed that many many parents are even struggling to understand the difference between the vast number of car seats models available on the market.

Buckle up your babies, it’s the law

Car safety for babies and children are now mandatory in many countries : The lack of use of adapted car seats for your babies will lead to a big fine and a few points deduction of your driver’s license.

A lot of countries does not look at the age of the infant anymore, but rather look at the size of the child in a sitting position, which means from the bottom to the top of the head when the child is sitting. This means that a small 7 or 8 years old child could be sitting in the same car seat model as their younger cousin.

Baby car seats

For newborn babies (by definition are babies which weigh below 9 kilos/20 pounds or measure less than 66 centimeters/26 inches), parents have to use a proper baby car seat. In order to do a good job, the baby car seat has to be installed correctly : in the opposite direction to the traffic, in the back seat, to give a better protection to the neck and the chest of the child in the event of a collision or sudden braking. Also, it is recommended that you do not change the way of installing the baby car seat until the child can stand alone, so until about 12 months.

If the car does not come equipped with an airbag on the passenger side and would like to increase your child’s safety, you can use the front seat to install the baby car seat, as long as you make sure to back up the seat as far back as possible. However, if the car is equipped with an airbag on the front right side, the newborn car seat should never be installed at the front.

The seat for babies should be installed at a 45 degrees angle. Your baby should not be completely lying nor completely upright. If the seat can not be inclined to a 45 degrees angle, simply roll a tower and put it under the seat to fix the angle to 45 degrees.

Remember at 50 km per hour or 30 miles per hour, the weight of objects in motion is multiplied by 35! Therefore, when a collision occurs, your 9 kilos/20pounds baby will then weigh 315kilos/700pounds. If not firmly attached to an appropriate seating, your child could be flying to the dashboard or even be ejected from the vehicle!

Therefore, use a proper car seat for you baby, it could save your child’s life in case of accident.

Bonnie F.Lapointe is a freelance writer and has collaborated with many websites to teach about child safety awareness. Find her work at baby travel system.

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