Car seats may seem like simple baby gear, but their installation requires expert technical knowledge and strict attention to detail.
Children are safest when properly secured in an appropriate child safety seat for their age and weight. Counseling patients about proper usage of child seats could save lives.
Rear-Facing Seats
Rear-facing seats are designed to help protect children in frontal collisions where most injuries occur, where impact forces are absorbed and dissipated by the seat shell rather than thrust against an unprotected neck and spine of an infant as in forward-facing cars seats would.
Children’s immature spinal columns support proportionately heavier heads than the rest of their bodies and frontal crash tests have demonstrated this puts five times more strain on their necks than rear-facing seats.
Experts agree that it’s best for children to remain rear-facing until they outgrow the height and weight limits of their convertible seat. If unsure when the time comes for your child to switch seats, consult with your physician or Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician; otherwise follow recommendations made by the CDC and AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) of at least two years until making your decision; in Sweden children typically ride rear-facing up until four years old.
Forward-Facing Seats
Once children outgrow rear-facing seats, it’s important to switch over to forward-facing models with an internal harness. They should remain in this type of seat until reaching its weight or height limit set by their manufacturer.
These car seats feature a hard exterior shell and energy absorbing foam (typically expanded polypropylene or expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam) on the interior, with five points where harness attachment occurs: near each shoulder, hip and between thighs.
There have been no reported cases of children breaking their legs when their feet come in contact with the back of a seat. Should your child’s feet push against this part, you need to move them immediately into a booster seat.
Booster Seats
Many states mandate children ride in child safety seats until they reach a certain age or weight threshold, and car seat experts suggest parents and caregivers utilize an age and size appropriate child restraint before transitioning their kids into adult seat belts prematurely.
Booster seats raise children in order to help the shoulder belt fit snugly across their chest and between their shoulders, decreasing the chance that a child slouches during a crash, which could result in serious injuries.
Use of booster seats is especially critical for children between 8-12, who are most at risk of unrestrained car crashes. Studies show that nearly half of kids killed in vehicle collisions during this age range were either unrestrained or prematurely graduated to seat belts too early, making booster seats an invaluable safety measure. It is best to keep kids in booster seats until their vehicle reaches its back seat height and weight limit, which can be determined using either its owner’s manual or car seat installation tool.
Seat Belts
Car seats and seat belts protect children during car crashes by dispersing the force of an impact over a greater area. But these devices won’t do their job if used incorrectly.
Unrestrained children pose the risk of being thrown from a vehicle, striking something within it or being crushed by other passengers. Due to having soft bones and weaker neck muscles, children are especially susceptible to injuries.
Car seats designed specifically to meet children’s age and stature have been shown to decrease injury risk by 71%-82% compared to simply wearing seat belts alone; yet only about four out of five kids are restrained properly when traveling in cars and vans.