Can Seat Safety

If you do one thing to keep baby safe, make sure it’s the use of a car seat

A child can only sit in the front seat once she is taller than 150cm and 12 years or older and can place her feet comfortably on the ground.

Getting ready for your new arrival has taken nine months of preparation and toil. But now you’re a parent and your whole world has changed. Your goal is to keep your baby safe, sound and healthy. This starts the second you leave the hospital – you need to get your newborn home, which means you need a car seat.

CHOOSING A SEAT

Infants are especially at risk for head and spinal cord injuries because their bones and ligaments are still developing. Their heads are also proportionately larger than their necks, so the structural support system is still a little wobbly. There are two types of infant car seats, each with specific requirements for proper installation. When choosing your seat, remember that your baby’s head and neck are most at risk, but it doesn’t take much to cause injury to any part of the rest of the infant’s body. REAR-FACING, INFANTONLY SEATS are ideal for newborns, but can be used as your baby grows. In fact, babies should be kept in a rear-facing seat for as long as possible, but at least until 13kg. Should you need to change your seat because your baby has grown, keep the weight rule in mind. If you can move any strap, harness or the entire seat itself by more than 2.5cm, you probably need to put some more elbow grease into pulling the seat belt tighter or ensuring the straps are appropriately taut. Do this by putting a knee in the seat or finding some other way to put your weight into it. Then pull on the straps.

Make sure the carrier straps are pulled tight and the harness clip is even with the baby’s shoulders or armpits. Make sure the straps are in the slot that lines up just above or closest to the infant’s shoulders.

If the child is still a bit wobbly in the seat due to her size, place rolled receiving blankets or towels along each side. This will provide additional support and cushioning. Do not place anything under the harness straps. CONVERTIBLE SEATS are designed to grow with your child. They can be modified with each weight and age transition, allowing you to only buy one car seat. When she tips the scales at over 9kg, the seat can be switched to face the front ( but this is not recommended until she is at least 13kg).

CAR SAFETY FOR TODDLERS

During your child’s toddler phase, your car seat should still be rear-facing. Some car seats allow for the child to be rear-facing until they weigh 25kg and are about five to six years of age.

These seats are generally held in by a seatbelt slipped through a hole in the back. The key is once again to ensure less than 2.5cm of movement from side to side and forward. This can be a little more difficult with the bigger car seats. To combat this, car seat engineers have added anchors and tethers for additional protection. This brings us to the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system.

THE LATCH SYSTEM

If you have a vehicle manufactured after 2002, simply feel around the back seat until you find a couple of heavy metal latches. These are designed to hold the car seat in place using the anchors and tethers that come with them. This means you can hook a car seat into the back of your car without using the seat belts, and your baby will be completely safe.

All the aspects of securing the seat apply, so make sure the harness straps are nice and taut, and that the seat doesn’t move about.

INSTALLING THE SEAT PERFECTLY

If you do just one thing to your car seat, make sure it’s this: Install it properly. • Read your car seat and vehicle manuals to make sure you understand how to properly install the car seat you have, as each one is different. Many parents simply do not follow the manufacturer’s guidelines, which renders any seat unsafe. • If you’re installing a forward-facing seat (for an older toddler), make sure it’s flat against the seat’s bottom and back. Be sure to check the safety seat’s instructions for the recommended angle of recline (this goes for rear-facing seats too). Use your hands to push down as hard as you can on the car seat – or better yet, place your knee on the car seat and push down with all your weight to squash the air out of the cushion underneath it. • It’s best to install the car seat on the back seat of your car, but if you’re installing a rear-facing seat in the front passenger seat of your car, make sure the airbag function has been switched off. You can do this safely by taking your car to the manufacturer and asking them to do it for you. • If you’re installing a safety seat and not using a LATCH system, make sure the car’s seat belt is threaded through the correct slots, and pull the belt as tight as possible so there’s no slack. The car seat should move no more than 2.5cm forward and backward or side-to- side on the belt path once it is installed. • Once you’ve buckled the belt, give it a pull to make sure it’s locked properly. • If the seat moves, you’ll need to secure it with a locking clip, a small metal device that looks like an oversized paper clip. The locking clip fits around the seat belt to hold the belt firmly in place. Check to make sure the seat is secure and resists side-toside motion. If you can still tip the car seat forward or sideways more than 2.5cm, unbuckle it and try again until you get a tight fit.

USING THE CAR SEAT

• Know how the harness system works. You can tighten and loosen the straps around your baby with the har ness adjustment lever. Adjust the harness to make the belts snug. It’s too loose if you can pinch any of the material between your fingers. • The straps should always lie flat. Straighten them out if they become twisted, which happens easily. • After you buckle your child in, tug on the straps to make sure they’re secure. Place rolled-up blankets or towels, or a neck support pillow around your newborn to keep her snug in the seat. • If your infant’s head flops forward, make the seat more level by wedging a folded towel or other firm support under the front of it (usually between 30 and 45 degrees) to keep your baby’s head resting back comfortably.

BOOSTER SEAT

Once your child has completely outgrown her bigger car seat, it needs to be replaced with a booster seat. The regular kind of booster seat looks like a mobile cushion you would take to a cricket match. It helps prop a child to a better height so that a standard seat belt rests in the correct place across her body.

The second type of booster seat comes with a high back. It looks like a cockpit seat on an aeroplane. These chairs can be strapped in like a car seat, and come with a harnessing system so you don’t need to worry about head damage from the seatbelt in the event of an accident.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING A CRASH

During a motor vehicle crash, a car occupant without a seat belt will continue to move at the same speed at which the vehicle was travelling before the collision and will be catapulted forward into the structure of the vehicle. Alternatively, they can be ejected from the vehicle completely. Being ejected from a vehicle drastically increases the probability of sustaining severe injuries or death.

The use of seat belts and child restraints is one of the most important actions that can be taken to prevent injury during a motor vehicle crash. While seat belts and child restraints do not prevent crashes from taking place, they play a major role in reducing the severity of injury to vehicle occupants involved in a collision.

SEAT BELT SAFETY

Seat belts are made for adults and are not appropriate for children’s small sizes. Your child should stay in a booster seat until adult seat belts fit her correctly (usually between eight and 12 years of age). And when your child is able to use a seat belt without a booster seat, they should always use lap and shoulder seat belts for optimal protection.

Additionally, a child should only be allowed to sit in the front seat once she is taller than 150cm and older than 12 years – until such time, children are confined to the back seat for their own safety. Keep these tips in mind too: • Make sure your child does not tuck the shoulder belt under her arm or behind her back. This leaves the upper body unprotected and adds extra slack into the seat belt system, More than 70 percent of car accidents are from frontal impact. If your baby is in a rear-facing seat in a crash, her body will still be thrown forward, but she will be protected by the seat that’s behind and around her. putting your child at risk of severe injury in a crash or with sudden braking. • Never allow anyone in the car to “share” seat belts. All the passengers must have their own car seats and seat belts. • Airbags are designed to provide extra protection for an adult already wearing a seat belt and are NOT designed for children. Children who weigh less than 45kg and who are not yet 150cm tall or 12 years should not be allowed to sit in the front seat, irrespective of their age.

USING A SEAT BELT

An adult seat belt fits correctly when:

THE SHOULDER BELT lies across the middle of the chest and shoulder, not over the neck or throat.

THE LAP BELT is low and snug across the upper thighs, not the belly. YOUR CHILD IS TALL

ENOUGH to sit against the vehicle seat back with her knees bent and can stay in this position comfortably throughout the trip.