Infant Car Seats – 3 point check on How to Buy Safe Child Car Seats for your Infant
The most important thing to keep in mind when preparing to buy your first safe child car seats for your baby is that you will need to buy a number of car seats relative to the growth of your child.
1. The first step to keep your child safe on the road is the choice of a car seat that works for your baby’s age and weight.You should use your baby’s height, weight and age and chhose an appropriate car seat for use.
You should use a rear-facing car seat until your baby reaches about 20 pounds in weight.
Convertible car seats are used facing the rear until your baby is at least 1 year of age and weighs at least 20 pounds. The convertible car seat can be used forward facing upto the weight limit listed in the car seat instructions.
From the height perspective, for rear facing car seats, the baby’s head should be an inch or more below the top of the car seat. For front-facing seats, the top of the baby’s ears must be below the top of the seat.
Once your toddler is at least four years old and weighs at least 40 lbs, booster car seats will help the vehicle seat belt fit better.
2. The second step in ensuring your child’s safety on the road is to make sure that the car seat fits your vehicle. It is essential to find a car seat that can be installed tightly, with the proper angle and less than an inch of side-to-side wiggle.
Always check the manual to make sure you can install and use the car seat as it is intended.
3. The third step in ensuring your child’s safety on the road is to ensure that the car seat you buy has gone through severe crash tests.
All infant car seats sold in the U.S. pass the same federal crash tests. Often car seats have extra features which make them easier to install correctly, such as built-in locking clips or non-twisting straps.
To ensure that your baby is kept safe in the car, you should use a car seat with the most crash protection for as long as it fits your baby. The weight limits are much higher on many rear-facing and forward facing car seats.
You should also look for higher forward-facing weight limits on 5-point harness seats, and keep your toddler in a booster seat as long as possible after he or she outgrows a regular car seat.
Finally, before you purchase any car seat, you should check whether the car seat has been recalled by the manufacturer for any reason.Always follow these instructions to make sure that you purchase the safest child car seat for your baby.
