How to Use a Child Safety Seat Properly

Child safety seats are the law in all 50 states of the U.S. How long a child has to wear a seat varies from state to state, but penalties for noncompliance can range as high as $500 for a first offense if your child is caught not properly restrained in the right type of seat based on their age and weight. With all of the legal protection for children riding in automobiles, it is a wonder to some parents, then, why it is that some car seats can seem more complicated than a Rubik’s Cube. Child safety seats used to be a much simpler affair, a seatbelt went through an area of hard plastic and snapped simply into the receiving end and that was it. It was this simplicity, however, and the near-regular failure to secure the child properly that gave rise to newer and more complicated technology designed to ensure the proper installation of the seat and safety to the child. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) evaluates all car seats using rigorous standards to test child seats for their ease of use, ease of installation, ability to secure a child properly and how understandable the labels on the seat and instruction manual are. Any child seat that passes this inspection at minimal levels is allowed to be sold and used in the United States.

Choosing the Right Child Safety Seat

There are in all about seven different types of child safety seats available on the market, some with very specific uses (like the car bed - newborns and small infants up to 9 lbs. only) and others, like the forward-facing which can be used in a variety of ways and ages depending upon your needs and the needs of the child. Other child seats like the 3-in-one combination seats actually serve as a carrier for small children under 1 year-old that snaps into a stroller or into a base station that is secured to the seat of the car and left there on a regular basis. These 3-in-one systems offer great convenience for porting your child around, but like the car bed, they will have to be replaced in due time with a regular forward-facing car seat and ultimately, a booster seat that your child may have to use for a very long time depending on what the laws of your particular state have to say.

Securing a Child Seat Properly

• Using a Seatbelt: Most child seats still have the option of being secured by a seatbelt threaded through a hard, plastic section in the backing or base of the seat and snapped securely into the seatbelt’s receiver end. The belt then must be tightened significantly to allow for no wiggle and the car seat leveled properly to maximize safety in the event of a collision.
• Using the Top Tether: Most every vehicle made int he U.S. since 2001 includes an anchor for a top tether which is a place behind the backseat usually above the trunk for anchoring childseats that come with a top tether - a thin, strong flat corded section with a metal hook at the end for attaching to the anchor. Used properly this will secure the car seat securely as well, leaving no need to use the seatbelt.
• Using the LATCH System: Latch actually stands for Lower Anchor that Tethers Children and is an alternative means of securing a child seat using a system similar to the top tether. Instead of using just one tether to anchor to the back, however, LATCH uses two tethers to anchor to hooks directly in the back seat near where the seatbelts are.

Either one of the three methods of securing a child seat are proper and legal in the U.S. if done properly. If you have any questions or concerns about proper installation after reading the manual there are usually workshop days where they are checked at the local police or fire stations or often specialty stores that sell these cars have days where you can have them checked by a professional as well.