Car Seat Safety : Not For Dummies Anymore

There are a few topics that I'm kinda passionate about and have spent perhaps a little too much time researching: the benefits to natural childbirth, DIY'ing a variety of things, derivatives (just kidding), and car seat safety.  You may be thinking, what more do you need to know about car seats other than keep your baby in one when they're in the car?  Sadly, I was the same way when I was pregnant with Selah.  I picked one out that was a cute color (yes, you can buy my business with cool colors) and would hold her up to 30 pounds.  Other than that, I was kinda blissfully clueless.  I became acquainted with some ladies who were really into car seat safety and kinda opened my eyes to all the things we as parents should be doing for our little ones when it comes to their car seats but more often than not, aren't.  

First up, have you ever noticed on the little plastic leg-opening flap on grocery carts there's usually 3-4 different rules printed?  Most carts will actually say NOT to put your infant's car seat in the front portion of the cart!  Hands raised who didn't know this.......I did it for awhile until some lady friends told me this is super dangerous for a couple reasons.  While I was thinking that hanging the latches over the seat back was making it safer for Selah, it could have potentially caused harm to the seat.  The car seats are designed to snap into their base with those latches and that's it.  Hanging them over a cart seat could potentially make the latches fail if your vehicle were in an accident.  That's a scary thought.  An even scarier thought is that infants have died when their seats fell out of the cart while perched in the seat.  A safer alternative if you want to keep your infant in their seat while out and about is putting their seat in the basket or carrying them on you in a wrap like an Ergo or a Moby.  Safety should trump convenience folks.

This next one kinda sends me over the edge a little, as well as a lot of mama friends of mine: when to turn your little one's car seat from rear to front facing?  For a long time, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested keeping your kiddos rear facing until they hit 1 year old or 20 pounds.  They have since changed that keeping them rear facing until they're at least 2 years old and reach the maximum height and weight for their seats or as long as possible past that.  Why is that you may wonder?  Infants and toddlers heads and necks are not strong enough to withstand the force of being involved in an accident if they are front-facing.  If involved in a collision while rear-facing, the force is distributed over the child's entire body.  If in a collision while front-facing, that force is absorbed in their head, neck and spine.  This video shows exactly what I'm referring to starting at about 1:25.  Kinda hard to argue with those visuals.  Children that stay rear-facing until at least 2 years of age are 5 times safer if involved in an accident than those that are front-facing.  5 times!!!  If that statistic doesn't scare you, then maybe hearing that the force that's exerted on their body can cause stretching or snapping of the spinal cord and their skull can literally be ripped from their spine.  That's called internal decapitation.  Let that mental image sink in just for a bit.

Some of the 'arguments' (if you even want to call them that) for moving children to front-facing early I've heard and read are: 'his legs are all squished against the back of the seat', 'she doesn't like looking out the back window', 'well my mom had me rear-facing at an early age', 'his legs would break if we were in an accident!'  My response to these lack luster excuses?  1) Children are extremely flexible and when do you ever see them sitting on the floor or a chair with their legs ram-rod straight; 2) sorry but my child's safety trumps their happiness any day; 3) my mom also grew up in an era where they didn't have seat belts in vehicles period but things change; and 4) I'd rather be nursing a broken leg back to health than a broken neck.

It's true...a lot of parents just aren't made aware of the statistics and that's not entirely their fault.  Heck, I didn't know either but luckily I was made aware and then further educated myself.  Selah is still rear-facing in her seat and will be until she reaches the rear-facing height and weight limits for her seat; I'm willing to guess she'll be between 3-4 when that happens.   I see numerous photos posted online of their kiddos in front-facing car seats that are under 2 and some that are even under 1 year old!  Why are you in such a hurry to reach this next milestone when their lives actually could depend on it?!?  For those of you mamas who are car seat safety fanatics, do a search on Instagram of #carseat and it'll be guaranteed to send your blood pressure up a few points.

So Ms. Know-It-All, what are some good car seats to keep my toddler rear-facing longer?  Well, let me show you some and not all of them are bank breakers!  First up, the seat we use for Selah is the Britax Marathon 70-G3. 

I love this seat and is one of the safer ones on the market.  She can rear-face in it until she's 40 pounds and front-face to 70.   She'll be in this one awhile.  Next is the Chicco NextFit that I know a few friends have. 

This one is good for smaller vehicles like sedans or small SUV's.  Third, the Diono Radian RXT convertible seat. 

This one is the daddy of 'em all when it comes to high limits.  It rear faces to 45 pounds, front-faces to 80 and the booster seat will seat to 120 pounds!   These 3 seats are on the pricier end with the Diono being the most expensive but did you know that almost all convertible seats have a starting weight requirement of 5 pounds?  So you may not even have to even bother with getting the infant seat!  Win win!  Lastly, in case you thought I'd forgotten to add something that was a little more wallet friendly...I hadn't.  The Evenflo Tribute is $59.99 at Target and has a rear-facing limit of 40 pounds. 

So safety being too expensive doesn't have to be an excuse anymore.


If by reading this post I can help shed the light of the legitimate dangers of front-facing too soon on just one mom, then I'm glad.  Read some of the links below to give you some more facts and make the decision yourself.

www.joelsjourney.org
http://csftl.org/rear-facing-car-seat-myths-busted/