Liz Wood is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. She is passionate about proper use and installation of child car seats. Liz is a mom of two active boys. She knows how tricky it can be to choose the right seat and install it into an unfamiliar vehicle. She wants to help all parents learn how to install their car seats, when to adjust them to fit the child, when to move to a new seat, and how to properly secure their children into their seats correctly every time.
Car seat installation best practices
- All child car seats should be secured into the vehicle seat tightly. This means the seat moves less than 1\” side to side or forward and backwards at the belt path.
- Children should ride rear facing as long as possible to the maximum weight and height of the child car seat.
- When using LATCH anchors to secure the seat, ensure you observe the maximum weight of the child allowed. This information is typically listed on the car seat itself. When the maximum child weight is exceeded for LATCH, a seatbelt installation should be used and is just as safe.
- The middle center seat is the safest location for rear facing infants but most center seats do not include the lower anchors, so a seatbelt must be used to secure the car seat.
- Typically using the seatbelt and LATCH at the same time is not allowed by the car seat manufacturer. A common exception to this rule is for belt positioning booster seats where the child will be using the seatbelt, some seats allow the use of LATCH to keep the seat in place. The car seat manual will specify what is allowed.
Child fit best practices
- When rear facing, the car seat harness should be at, or just below the child\’s shoulders.
- When forward facing, the car seat harness should be at, or just above the child\’s shoulders.
- The harness should be snugged up and checked every time the child is buckled in. This means you cannot pinch any webbing between your index finger and thumb at the shoulders.
- Ensure the harness slack is the same on both sides of the child. Some car seats allow the harness webbing to slide side to side. This is corrected by pulling on the tighter side at the hip.
If this information is helpful imagine how great personalized advice tailored to your car and car seat would be! Book an appointment with me today!
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