This post brought to you by Safety 1st in honor of Child Passenger Safety Week!
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children age 1 through 12 years old. The goal of Child Passenger Safety week, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is to make sure all parents and caregivers are properly securing their children (ages 0-12) in the best car restraint (rear-facing, forward-facing, booster, seat belt) for their age and size. Keep your precious cargo safe!
Car Seats are a Necessity!
Working in an emergency room, I see a lot of people after car accidents. Whether they crash, roll over, get hit, or just drive off the road, most of them don’t intend on getting in an accident that day. You can’t predict it and, most of the time, you can’t control it. And it’s common sense: being buckled up significantly decreases your chance of being hurt. Yea, the seat belt might dig into you chest a little and leave it sore, and it’s “annoying” to put on, blah blah blah, but that’s much better than being thrown 20 feet from your vehicle and going home in a wheelchair, or never going home at all. “It’ll never happen to me, I’m a good driver” is easy to say, until it does happen to you. Sounds kind of rude, but that’s reality.
As adults, we can buckle up, easy. And it’s our responsibility to make sure any child in the vehicle is also properly restrained. Safety 1st provided the following information (with some edits by me) to help educate us and ensure the safety of your precious cargo!
Safety 1st Consumer Safety Expert: Julie Vallese
Check out the following video full of great information for anyone with, or expecting, a little one:
Importance of Rear Facing Car Seats
In March of 2011 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated their car seat recommendations advising that children should remain rear facing until the age of two, or until they reach the maximum height and weight requirements allowed by their car seat.
According to a study in the Journal of Injury Prevention children under the age of two are 75% less likely to die or be severely injured in the event of a car crash if they are rear facing. When a child is rear facing, their head, neck and spine are better supported and in the event of an accident, crash forces are distributed over the child’s entire body.
Think about it: the force of the crash pushes you forward, snapping your head forward and giving you whiplash. Little baby dude doesn’t have much neck strength, so if he isn’t rear facing, his little head has no support. Not good!
Car Seat Installation
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 75% of car seats are installed incorrectly. Every car and car seat has different requirements for the safest installation so it is important to read both the car seat and car manual before installation. Typically the center rear seat is the safest place for a car seat. Never install a car seat in the front seat.
If your car does not have a latch connector, you can use the seat belt to properly secure the base. When installing, make sure the base of the car seat moves no more than an inch from side to side. New parents and grandparents are encouraged to attend a car seat check before the baby is born (call your local hospital or fire department for locations).
However, don’t just rely on the experts. You’re likely going to be taking the car seat out and installing it somewhere else at some point, so make sure you’re comfortable with the process too.
Car Seat Expiration
Never use used or old car seats. If you have to get a used one, make absolutely sure it’s never been in an accident. Car seats do have an expiration date and it is to understand the risks associated with using an expired or old car seat. The reason for an expiration date is because plastic can warp and materials can fray, which can make car seats less safe to use. Also, car seat technology and state and federal car seat regulations change, so a car seat deemed safe more than six years ago may no longer meet federal testing regulations. Finally, important warning labels may wear out and instruction books may get lost, which can lead to improper use of the car seat.
Great Safety 1st Car Seats Examples
Safety 1st Elite 80 3-in-1
The Elite 80 works in rear-facing mode for babies up to 40 pounds, then converts to forward-facing with harness, but features an extended weight range to keep children safely in harness all the way to 80 pounds. In its 3rd mode, the Elite 80 goes beyond the traditional convertible seat to convert into a belt-positioning booster car seat for children up to 100 pounds. Additionally Air Protect + combines the advanced protection of our Air Protect® cushion system with patented GCell HX™ foam designed with hexagonal shapes for 100% full body production.
Safety 1st Advance 70 Air+
This convertible car seat was inspired by race car drivers. Air Protect+ combines Safety 1st Air Protect® Technology with GCell HX™ – hexagonal rebounding foam used in the body of the car seat to protect the child from the multiple hits that occur in crashes. Coupled with this is the placement of Air Protect® Technology which takes crash forces away from a child’s head. This technology was developed in partnership with racecar engineers at Bald Spot Sports and INDY Car Driver Scott Dixon to better understand the energy dynamics a high performance driver faces in the event of a crash.
Safety 1st BoostAPak Belt-Positioning Booster Car Seat
The BoostAPak is designed to help keep kids in boosters longer, as it’s often hard to get an older child to stay in his or her booster seat. This booster seat also doubles as a backpack! For children 4 to 7 years old, booster seats reduce injury risk by 59% compared to seat belts alone. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). Additionally, the AAP recommends children ride in boosters until the age of 12 or 57 inches; but only 13% of children 54-56 inches tall ride on one (NHTSA)
Check out Safety 1st online, on Facebook, or on Twitter for more information about this great company and products.
Win one of These Car Seats for Your Vehicle!
The winner of this awesome giveaway gets to choose one of the above 3 seats!
How to Enter:
Mandatory Entry: Leave a relevant comment about your car trip traditions.
Then: Fill out the Rafflecopter form
Be sure to come back each day for extra entries!!
Rules: You do not have to be a blogger to enter/win. An email address is required to enter. The winner will be chosen randomly through Rafflecopter and contacted via the email registered in Rafflecopter. A reply to the winning email is required within 48 hours before a new winner is chosen. One person entering per household please. US only please.
This giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST on September 30th, 2013
Many thanks to Safety 1st for much of the above content as well as the great giveaway!
We always say a prayer before going on a road trip or traveling a long way
SleekRide™ Sport Stroller – Orion Pewter
Our favorite car trip tradition is to start the trip with a song!
Visited the site and my favorite item is AeroLite Stroller- Woodbine Model: CV001ALW
A favorite tradition for us is we each bring our own pillow so we can nap! (Except the driver of course!)
One of my favorite products is the Umbrella Stroller – I Heart Mickey .
We like to watch movies while we ride! Mommy and son convinced daddy to wear his seat belt EVERY time 🙂
My favorite car trip tradition is playing a game looking for different items starting the letter A-Z going in order around the people in the car.
I like the Complete Air 70 Convertible Car Seat – Chic color.
ours is stopping at any important sight seeing places.
When I was young my brothers and sisters and I would play games the entire car ride. My favorite was the alphabet game. Now my children have a DVD player in the car, but I have found that lately my oldest likes to tune it out and play games too. It is adorable to revisit these family car trip traditions with my children!
Our tradition is to take the portable dvd player!
My son made this game up that whenever we see a yellow car we yell Bingo. The 1st person to yell it gets it and then the person with the most at hte end wins.
We love to see songs on trips.
We always play music and sing together on our road trips.
I also like their S1 Trivecta – McKenna Stroller.
Our favorite car trip tradition is to bring red licorice and eat it on long car rides.
Our tradition is to sing our favorite songs on road trips.
We play I Spy.
we like to play the license plate game!
We always get coffee and donuts before we start!
I have my son always look and tell me if my daughter who is rear facing and right behind me is sleeping…we do this all the time since she never sleeps in the car!
we try to find a license plate from every state 🙂
We count the states we go thru and name each one
we stop for snacks
Screen Door Saver – wow I’ve never seen that before – great
My favorite car trip tradition would be bringing our lunch and finding a perfect place overlooking the ocean to have a picnic.
Besides the car seats, my favorite item would be the Easy-Fit® Security Gate .
We play the ABC game where you look for letters of the alphabet in order when we are on a road trip.
Car trips start off with my kids picking a song to sing.
We love to play games or put a movie on the portable DVD player.
Oh my favorite car trip for us…is when we go and look for Christmas lights!
i love this car seat the best – the Elite 80, it looks very safe !
It’s always fun to go to the store and pick out snacks and make a special road trip mix cd.
playing the license plate game
We love playing Slug bug.
Thanks for the chance.
mogrill12@gmail.com
We honestly don’t have any car trip traditions, but I guess we need one! 🙂
we have a train addiction so we look for them and csx tractor trailers
We love to jam to great music on road trips!
The best car trip we have found so far is to leave shortly after bedtime, so the kids sleep through most of the trip.
Our favorite tradition is to spot yellow cars.
we like to play punch buggy in the car 🙂
We play the sing along songs and everyone in the car joins in..
I like the
3-Ease Stroller – Rings
we like to look at the walk signs that flash at the stop lights, she says man
I like the soccer ball potty.
Our tradition is to have yummy snacks and listen to books on cd
We like to check out license plates.
We play punch buggy
Playing car games and having good snacks.
We enjoy singing songs along the way.
We just love to sing and listen to music!
riding in our pajamas is our tradition
favorite tradition is to have lots of snack/junk foods! And I try to not listen to music, and just enjoy each other and talk for once!
We have the Safety First Complete Air™ 70 Convertible Car Seat – Lemans and we love it!! We also had the Complete Air series infant car seat, and loved that one as well.
Always brought their favorite books, toys, blanket and snacks on road trips
We like to watch movies while we ride
I like their Sport LX Travel System in Medallion
My favorite tradition is eating beef jerky in the front seat with my husband.
we sing songs and play I Spy.
I like the Stand onBoard stroller
We don’t go on car trips often, but my older son always likes to have some type of electronic device to keep him busy. IE leap frog explorer, nintendo ds
Oh I also love the Disney Funsport Play Yard with Canopy – Bee Cuddly!
Every road trip requires loud music of all kinds with the windows down, if it’s summer of course. We always find something we all like.
Watching movies on the portable DVD player.
I like the Saunter Travel System – Jordan
I would say packing snacks for the road
driving to omaha… we stop at the largest truck stop for fun and snacks
We love going on road trips during the summer months and try to choose a new destination to visit every year. We sing, play games, stop to have picnics and just enjoy being all together.
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
I also like the Safety 1st ComfySeat Premier High Chair in Key West.
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
we love to go to colorado once a year
I like having fun books on tape to listen to on our roadtrips.
Road trips meant playing I spy, singing to the radio, watching movies on dvd players when on “down time”, and stopping for potty breaks and getting to actually see new towns that way. LOL. otherwise, too often the roads are all interstate and not too much for scenic routes anymore.
The new Genesis Digital Color Video Monitor would be so amazing in our house for my daughter’s lil’ one and the little ones she does day care for, including my grandson. It has a 350 foot plus range!
We always try to take a spontaneous road trip and just explore an area.
I love all of the baby proofing home items Safety 1st has. No matter what a mom needs to make her baby safe this company has it.
We don’t really have any. The kids usually sleep most of the drive.
Disney Saunter Luxe Travel System – Floral Minnie
We love to look at all the different license plates!!
We love to sing. Everyone gets 30 minutes of their music.
We bring lots of snacks and toys to keep the kids happy and busy.
I didn’t know that was the leading cause of death for children up to age 12!! So sad because it can be prevented!!! Thanks for the post, it might just save a little life!!
Greeat article.