i i i It’s difficult enough just picking a car seat that fits your child and getting it fastened in your car. But unless you carefully read through your car seat’s manual — all the pages, not just the ones that explain how to install it — you’re probably making more mistakes than you realize. You may have heard statistics claiming that up to 95 percent of parents make mistakes in installing or using car seats. Could that possibly be right? Yes it could, because there are so many things to get wrong. Here are a few of the most common mistakes Child Passenger Safety Technicians see on the road. 1. Harness too loose Parents want their children to be comfortable, and so they leave some slack in their child’s five-point harness. Some parents even think that the old dog-collar rule-of-thumb applies, and that you should be able to slip a couple of fingers underneath the fastened harness.A slack harness won’t hold your child safely tight in the event of a crash — in the worst-case scenario, crash forces can actually cause a child to be ejected from a seat with a too-loose harness.

So buckle up that harness tight. How can you tell it’s tight enough? You shouldn’t be able to pinch any webbing vertically at the shoulder when the harness is buckled and tightened. The harness’ chest clip should line up with your child’s armpits, too, as you see in the photo. 2. Installing seat at the wrong angle You probably noticed when you were installing a car seat for your newborn that the manual and on-seat instructions insisted that you angle it so that a line on the seat was parallel to the ground, or that a bubble or a ball was within a certain area in an angle indicator on your seat. You may have wondered: Why would that matter? In two words: Positional asphyxia. Infants don’t have good body or head control, and if they’re held in an upright position, they can slump down so that they’re unable to breathe. That’s why infant car seats are installed so that baby passengers are reclined rather than upright. You may notice your car seat and/or manual specifies an angle for newborns, and then one for older/heavier babies, who have good enough head control that positional asphyxia is no longer a danger.

3. Car seat too loose You’ll read the same installation instructions over and over again in any car seat manual: Once installed, the seat shouldn’t move more than one inch in any direction from the belt path. So what and where is the belt path? And how can you tell if the seat is moving more than an inch? Here’s what a belt path looks like: Belt paths are the slots in the seat you thread your car’s seat belts through when you’re installing using the belts. Sometimes they’re clearly labeled on the seat, sometimes they’re not. In rear-facing-only seats there’s a belt path in the base, and another one in the seat itself (so you can install the seat without a base). In a convertible seat, you’ll find a rear-facing belt path and a forward-facing path. You can always find them by checking your seat’s manual, and once you do, this is where you’ll grab the seat to see if it moves more than inch side-to-side or back-to-front. Don’t grab the top of the seat, or the front;

the belt path is the important bit. So how can you judge an inch of movement? It’s about the width of a quarter. Put one down next to your car seat to more easily judge that inch. 4. Not using a top tether As you may know, LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children and consists of connectors on the lower part of car seats that hook onto anchors in your car’s back seat as well as a top tether that comes out of the back of your car seat and fastens onto another anchor located on your car’s back shelf or cargo area.salon chairs for sale calgary What you may not know: You use the top tether anytime your car seat is installed forward-facing, even if you’re using the seat belts for installation instead of LATCH. chair cover hire bury st edmunds

Using the top tether stops your child’s seat from moving forward during a crash, which puts strain on your child’s head, neck, and spine. Your top tether anchor may be hard to find — always check your vehicle owner’s manual to make sure you’re connecting to an anchor and not another car part. 5. Buckling harness over a heavy coat Your winter car is cold, and you want your baby comfortable and warm. But don’t make the mistake of buckling your child’s car seat harness on when she’s wearing a heavy coat. tiffany chairs rental philippinesBecause even though it may seem like your be-coated child is buckled in snugly, those layers of cloth and padding compress in an accident, leaving that harness dangerously loose.cheap tolix chairs australia It’s far safer to buckle your child in, then put her coat backwards on top of the straps. folding chair rental san jose

Or cover her with a blanket. Or dress her in loose layers that don’t add bulk. How can you tell if your child’s harness is too loose over a coat? Try this: Buckle her in with the coat on and tighten the harness. Then take her out, take off the coat, and buckle her in again without tightening the harness. That’s what would let your child’s body get thrown around in a crash. Want more on kids and car seats? Here are slender infant, convertible, and booster seats that will fit 3-across in most vehicles.shower commode chair on wheels * Coats and car seats: The deadly mistake parents make (video)used office chairs dfw * No excuses: 5 reasons NOT to turn that car seat aroundtesco direct highchair * 9 easy-to-use car seats highly rated by safety expertscheap pushchairs that recline