12 months vs 2 months vs 2 days
I guess she's grown :) I found the outfit Annie wore home from the hospital still at Old Navy on clearance in 18-24mo size and had to snag it to get this photo op!
Because I read so many blogs and frequent a message board, I had probably even more information than most, which somewhat helped me make the decision but also made me doubt that I was doing everything "right" with the carseat as well. One person in particular on a message board consistently had awesome information - she has a link to a google document with tons of carseat reviews and other information that I found extremely helpful - here it is. It was mainly because of that that we chose the First Years True Fit for both of our cars.
I contacted Emilie, who wrote the above linked document, to ask where I could go to get my carseat inspected by a certified tech, and it turned out that she does inspections as part of her job. I knew I could go to the fire station, but in our last experience with that, no one there was actually a certified tech, and they didn't really examine anything about the installation of the carseat - a guy just stuck his head in the car, grabbed the carseat and shook it and said it felt good - that's it. I wasn't as concerned about the infant carseat because that is very easy to install. The convertible carseat is a completely different story - while it wasn't super difficult, it took Ben a lot of time to read completely through the directions, change some things about the way the carseat came because it was set up to forward face, and then read the car's manual to make sure it was in the right spot, etc. Anyway, due to my confusion about a lot of this, I did decide to have Emilie come over to our house to check the installation of both cars. It was definitely worth the small cost!
She let me know a few things that I was not previously aware of, and I wanted to share them with all of you - if you are in the Twin Cities area, I highly recommend contacting her! She's in the process of setting up a website, but does have a Facebook page and twitter. You can email her at contact@carseatgeeks.com.
1. First and foremost, keep the kid rearfacing as long as possible. Click here to read more about that. We were already doing this because Annie is not yet 20 lbs so can't even legally forward face anyway, but I was not aware that the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends keeping kids rearfacing until 2. The law is 1 year AND 20 lbs, but that is a minimum requirement, not what is most safe. I know a lot of people say that kids used to be in their parents laps and were fine, but guess what? The ones that aren't fine aren't really around to talk about it. So might as well err on the side of caution with this one, even if you don't drive much - car accidents are the number one killer of kids, and most accidents happen close to home.
2. You can't use LATCH in the middle seat in almost all cars - it's only set up to work correctly on the driver or passenger sides, and using both middle LATCH anchors is not a correct installation. LATCH is only designed to be easier, it's no safer to use than the seatbelt installation.
3. Carseats should not touch the front seats of the car at all. Especially in Ben's Jetta, this is an issue, but we were able to make it work rearfacing because Annie is now fine to sit way more upright.
4. The level that convertible carseats say they need to be at (there is usually a line that is supposed to be parallel to the floor or an actual level) when rearfacing is a guideline for babies without head control - the seat can be more upright for use with a child with head control (6months+). This helps considerably so they don't touch the front seats of the car.
5. Never use a thick or puffy coat in the carseat - the thickest item a kid should wear when in a carseat is a fleece. I know this is annoying in MN, but you can just use a blanket and put the coat on them when you are getting out if you will be outside for a long time. The coat compresses in a crash and when it is on the straps are typically not able to be tightened enough - you can test this by tightening the straps as much as you can with the coat on, taking the kid out without releasing the straps, and putting them back in without a coat - if you can fit more than one finger between their body and the strap, it's not tight enough.
6. Emilie said she's never seen a 100% correct installation of a carseat, and that Ben's installation in the Jetta was actually as close as she's seen (he was quite proud of himself about that!) - I was really surprised about that! For something that EVERY parent needs to do, you'd think directions would be easier to follow.
Anyway, I don't mean this to sound judgmental or preachy - but this is an important topic and I wanted to share what I learned with all of you.
7 comments:
This is great! I knew most of this (I've been researching like crazy, too), but everywhere I read said that if your car does have LATCH, then that's what you should use. If it doesn't, then use the center. So, I'm glad to hear what you've learned too.
So, what did she end up fixing about your installation? How much was her fee? I think I'll e-mail her with questions about how much longer we can use our infant seat...
She came directly to our house, which I think she only does if you live in St. Paul. I don't want to post her fee on here in case it changes, but I felt it was very reasonable for the amount of time she spent with us and the instruction she gave. I know there are also free carseat clinics at some hospitals, and I believe she may also set up times to meet with several people in a row at places like Babies R Us.
We had used LATCH in the center on my car so she fixed that, she also made it much tighter, and made sure that the seat wasn't touching the front seats of the car. She also had us put Annie in there to show how the straps should fit for her. She taught us how to do all this, so she didn't do it for us, but now we know how to do it for the future. She's super nice and very knowledgeable about this stuff!
What a great post! I used Emilie's document too when deciding which convertible seat to get for our son too. Now I'm curious to get it inspected to be sure it is in correctly. Thanks for the info!
Great information Erin! We're still rear-facing Isaac, but I had no idea the car seat couldn't touch the passenger seat! I will definitely be checking this out!
THANK YOU! Erin, we had our seat "inspected" but the "inspector" at our childrens hospital. The seat was in the middle - but using the latch system. They said nothing. Checked everything out - tightened it a bit and sent us on our way. We had no idea that the LATCH system wasn't to be used for the center.
Well, the carseat has been reinstalled with the seat belt - and we are looking for inspector with something more than a name badge... too bad we are in Ohio and can't call you lady.
Thanks for all the info. The tech who inspected our car seat talked about the safety of the vehicle itself too. Not just airbags and things that happen when you do crash, but accident prevention as well. Are your tires fleet farm specials, or getting a little bald? Windshield wipers in good shape with rain-x? Her point was, all of us parents spend so much time and money on what happens if you do crash, we should think about some things we can do prevent it in the first place.
A lot of people are unaware of what you mentioned in #3. The style of front seats can be different in every car, so the setting up of car seats should be adjusted accordingly. Thank goodness we have people like Emilie, right? If you think about it, the proper installation of car seats is actually an advocacy, so people like her (and you too, Erin!) should be commended for their efforts.
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