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AAA and IDOT are holding safety seat checkpoints at 82 locations throughout the state as part of National Child Passenger Safety Week.
Don't turn your child's car seat around until he/she is too tall or weighs too much for the seat. That's the newest recommendation. It is no longer one year old and 20 pounds. My little guy just turned two and I haven't changed his seat around. I thought it was going to be a big deal to keep him rear facing, but it has actually been nice. The seat still reclines. So when he falls asleep, his head doesn't flop around. And I just reclined the seat in the van so his big ol' feet aren't scrunched(he almost wears the same size shoe as my four-year-old.)
Most car seats are not installed correctly. It's a great idea to have someone who is trained take a look at yours. Again, there are 82 free checks this Saturday in Illinois. To find seat check locations throughout the state, visit www.buckleupillinois.org.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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Thursday, September 22, 2011
Safety Seat Check-points this weekend!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Unbuckling the Car Seat
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My four-year-old has been known to get his arms out of the five point harness car seat. I think it's my fault because the straps must not be tight enough. We have gone from winter coats to t-shirts to sweat jackets in the last few weeks. I always tighten the harnesses back up, but I guess they aren't as snug as they should be. Thankfully, he hasn't figured out how to unbuckle the car seat just yet. I remember when my oldest did. He still gets out of his seat more than he should and he'll be 8 this year! Have your kids ever maneuvered their way out of the car seat?
FROM NBC: Many young children have the motor skills to unbuckle their own car seats long before they have the thinking skills to know why it's dangerous. Researchers at Yale School of Medicine surveyed parents with kids under age 6.
They found the vast majority of kids who unbuckle themselves from the car seats -- 75-percent -- are under age 3! Some little Houdinis were able to free themselves as young as 12-months old.
It was more common among boys than girls. And nearly half of kids who unbuckled did so while their vehicle was in motion. when they were in 5-point harnesses, most managed only to undo the top buckle.
Monday, March 21, 2011
FINALLY:Car Seat Recommendations Changed
This actually really irritates me. This is why I NEVER say government organizations are always right. When they discover a rule or guideline needs to be changed, it take a RIDICULOUSLY long time to actually change anything. It is really frustrating. There is a supposedly "new" recommendation released today that kids need to stay rear facing in a car seat until 2 years old.
Duh-we've been talking about this on my blog for a very long time. When did experts first realize this? Check out this article on my blog dated May 18, 2009! If this is such a huge safety issue, why did it take them almost two years to release an official recommendation? When there's that much red tape, there's a problem in my opinion. (Ok, off my soap box now..)
I am actually abiding by this rule. It's probably more out of laziness than anything else! But seriously, I just never took the time to change the car seat around because I knew it was safer to keep my 18 month old rear facing(and because it's filthy dirty and I didn't want to touch it). I just reclined the seat so his big ol's feet would fit. I also have my four-year-old in a five point harness and my seven-year-old in a booster seat. He will continue to use the booster until the seat belt hits his shoulder instead of his neck. How about you?
Here's the story that ran on NBC today: There's new advice this morning for parents of young children -- about when you should turn your babies' car seats around to face the front. Many parents mark their children's first birthday by turning their infants' car seats from rear-racing to looking forward. It's been the general rule of thumb.. until now.
Dr. Dennis Durbin - The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia:"All infants and toddlers should remain in a rear-facing car seat until they are 2 years of age or until they outgrow the weight and height limits of their car seat." Dr. Dennis Durbin is the lead author of a new American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement. He says keeping young children in the rear-facing position for as long as possible will help protect their head and neck in the event of an accident.
Dr. Dennis Durbin/ The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: "We've seen many cases where children suffer serious injuries to their neck or their head when they've been turned forward facing and those injuries probably could have been prevented had that child been in a rear-facing direction." And even though they're older, and bigger, kids up until age 2 should be able to fit in most car seats.
Dr. Dennis Durbin/The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: "The childhood obesity epidemic has already spurred car seat manufacturers to make design changes to their seats to accommodate heavier children." State child safety seat laws will not automatically reflect the recommended change. But the hope is that parents will take it upon themselves to create new rules for their own families.
The new recommendations say older children should be in a booster seat until they're 4-feet, 9-inches tall and are between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. Kids should remain in the back seat until age 13.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Baby Carrier Recall
My new little one is already 15 pounds! I do get nervous about carrying him around in the baby carrier. I feel like he could get really hurt if the handle broke. I basically have to swing him up in the minivan to get the thing inside because it is so heavy. So this story made me worry a little. I usually take my kids out of the baby carrier by six months. So I only have two more months of this. I don't like switching them to the other car seat either. Then you have to wake them up every time you go somewhere. I guess it's a trade off. Although, it seems a little ridiculous that we would have to worry about the handle of the car seat breaking off!
Here's the recall:
(this link has the model numbers) FROM CPSC: WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of product: Dorel Infant Car Seat/Carriers
Units: About 447,000
Manufacturer: Dorel Juvenile Group Inc., of Columbus, Ind.
Hazard: When used as an infant carrier, the child restraint handle to the seat can loosen and come off, posing a fall hazard to infants.
Incidents/Injuries: Dorel has received 77 reports of the child restraint handle fully or partially coming off the car seat/carrier resulting in at least three injuries to infants including bumps, bruises and a head injury.
Description: This recall involves Safety 1st, Cosco, Eddie Bauer and Disney branded infant car seat/carriers with the following model numbers and that were manufactured from January 6, 2008 through April 6, 2009. The model number and manufacture date are located on a label on the side of the car seat/carrier. They were sold with Travel Systems. The stroller portion of the travel system is not affected by this recall.
Sold at: Department and juvenile product stores nationwide from January 2008 through December 2009 for between $120 and $220.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should not use the handle of the car seat/carrier until the repair kit has been installed. The product can continue to be used as a car seat when properly installed in the vehicle. Contact Dorel Juvenile Group to receive a free repair kit.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Dorel Juvenile Group at (866) 762-3316 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s Web site at www.djgusa.com/safety_notice
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Rear Facing until 4.. Huh?
Last month we talked about the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending rear facing until 2 years old. So this story didn't make much sense to me. It came down on the NBC wires. It says we should keep kids in a rear facing car seat until 4-years-old. Is that even possible? Where would their feet go? Do they make rear facing car seats for kids that big? Was this a typo on NBC's part? I am not sure. I saw it several times and all the stories said 4-years-old. I can't imagine doing that. But after all this new research on rear facing, I will wait to turn the new baby around as long as possible. He will be able to see his older brother in the back seat, so maybe he won't mind sitting backwards unitl he's 2!
But new research now says the direction a child faces in a safety seat could dramatically change the injury risk in a crash.
A new study published in the British Medical Journal advises keeping a child in a rear-facing position while traveling by car until the child is four years old.
The study says the movement of a child is dramatically reduced in a rear-facing safety seat because the head, neck and spine are more fully aligned.... and in the event of a crash, forces are distributed more
evenly.
(Duncan Vernon/Road Safety Manager)
"The best advice currently is to use a child-restraint device designed for the child's weight and to make sure it's fitted correctly, and so it's not to say our children using front-facing seats are unsafe at the moment."
NBCs British broadcast partner, ITV, reports the rear-facing seats are hard to find, and some people say they're big, bulky and expensive.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Car Seat vs. Train
The car seat company Britax sent me this story last week. Honestly, I figured it was one of the hundreds of emails I get each month from people trying to get me to give them a free advertisement for their product/service. So I just now read it and it is an amazing story! I don't understand how, but a 2-year-old survived being hit by a train. He wasn't injured and neither was his car seat! Amazing!
FROM WTMJ: ELM GROVE - Inside the mangled wreckage of a minivan struck by a train in Elm Grove is a car seat. It's still strapped in and not damaged a bit."It saved my nephew's life," said Peggy Partenfelder Moede. The 2-year-old boy was in the van when the train slammed into it. He wasn't even injured.
Assistant Police Chief Gus Moulas says when he survey's the damage, he was amazed no one was killed. "In my opinion, anyone seated in the passenger seat or even the driver's seat would've succumbed to a fatal injury," he said.Peggy says she hopes other people learn from her nephew's miraculous survival. "You never think that this is going to happen to your family and when it does, it's the little things like having the properly installed car seat," she said.
The train was breaking when it hit the minivan, but police think it was still going pretty fast. For those who are interested the car seat is a Britax Roundabout.
What do you think after reading this? Did the car seat save the child's life or is it getting too much credit?What brand of car seat do you use?
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Friday, September 19, 2008
Free Car Seat Checks
A new survey shows most parents in Illinois don't know how to properly install a child car seat or what Illinois law requires. The AAA Auto Club Group survey shows 97% of parents don't know children in Illinois are required to use a child safety seat or booster until 8 years-old. 67% of parents surveyed weren't sure how to properly install a car seat.
Saturday, September 20th there are child seat safety checks being held across the state.
The Peoria event is at Green Chevrolet Hummer on the corner of Knoxville and Pioneer Parkway. It is from 12:00p.m.-4:00p.m.
You can find the car seat check closest to you by going to AAA.com/safety.
AAA says car seats with a manufacturer's date before 2002 are too old to be safely used.
I will never forget when I got laughed at by a family member because I had a police officer who was certified to install car seats put mine in. I was told I was being over-protective and I was obviously a new mom. Well, I'm not a new mom anymore and I always have someone certified install my car seats. I have seen too many people have them in wrong. My husband is now Car seat certified. That makes it a lot easier for us. He took a class in Chicago last year for work. He said there were hundreds of car seats and several different cars. It was like a puzzle trying to figure everything out.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Car Seat Recall
From ABC:
Combi USA is voluntarily recalling 67,000 child car seats because federal tests show the seats might separate from their bases in front-end collisions.
Though Combi has received no reports of injuries, a recent test done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that the seat could potentially fail to adequately protect children in a frontal collision.
Models being recalled include Centre, Centre ARB and Shuttle rear-facing infant seat models 8065, 8074, 8086, 8087, 8520 and the travel systems that contain these seat models 4400, 4515 and 4520. The recall includes the entire production of these models from October 2005 through December 2007.
Consumers are being asked to contact the company to obtain a free retrofit kit on its Web site or by calling 1-800-543-7734.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
Monday, January 28, 2008
Booster Seats
I might not want to be in a such a big hurry to graduate my children to their big kid seats.
The Law: Car seat until 4 years old and 40 lbs
Booster seat until 8 years old and 80 lbs
However, this rule doesn't tell us when to go from a booster with a five point harness to a loose seat and the car's seat belt. Here's a question from a newsanchormom.com reader:
Hi Jen. Thank you for the great website that is loaded with useful information for all of us Moms! I have a question about the safety of booster seats. I am not eager to take our 40 lb 4 year old out and into a booster. I have read about the booster seats not being as safe using the car's seat belt and to keep children in the 5 point harness as long as possible. So, I did find a booster that uses a 5 point harness, but it is pricey. So should we spend the extra money on the 5 point booster?
According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, you should keep your child in a five point harness for as long as he/she fits in into it. The NHTSA says to check the weight limit of your high back booster, but most of them go up to 80 pounds.
However, the NHTSA says many kids get too wide or too tall to use a high back booster by the time they reach 65-70 pounds. The NHTSA says to use a booster seat that has a detachable base at this point because the high back boosters with a five point harness tend to sit up too high for the lap belt in a car.
"Another type of seat for a child who is at least one year old and weighs at least 20-30 pounds, is a forward-facing-only seat with a harness. Most of these seats come with a removable harness and are called combination seats or child seat/boosters. Some manufacturers call these seats high back boosters, which is confusing because the term "booster" is generally used to describe a seat that lifts a child up to improve the fit of vehicle lap and shoulder belts......For best protection, use the built in harness until the child outgrows it. "
If you want to know which safety seat is best for your child, you can find the answer by looking through a list of car seat safety questions.
I have an almost 12 month old and I was surprised to learn the NHTSA recommends keeping him rear facing even if he is 20 pounds. The NHTSA says not to turn the child forward facing until he/she outgrows the weight limit that is printed on the seat. The child could be almost two before this happens.
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
