Share these tips on car seats with parents
"People don’t always have sympathy for parents who don’t know how to use car seats, but it’s complicated," says Susan Pollock, MD, program manager of pediatric and adolescent injury prevention at the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center in Lexington. "It’s not that easy to do it right, and there are hundreds of different car seats to choose from."
Here are some tips to share with parents:
• The baby has to be fastened in the seat, and the seat has to be fastened in the car. "Parents often don’t buckle the car seat into the vehicle. They just put car seat on back set and don’t attach it to the vehicle as well," notes Pollock.
• The chest clip needs to be at the armpit level, and straps need to fit snugly enough so can only put one finger between baby and clip. If it isn’t tight, it won’t restrain the child, she states.
• Chest clips need to be at armpit level at all times, because it keeps the straps on the child. "If it’s located down by the abdomen, an infant will fly right out of the car during a crash, so this is very important," says Pollock.
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