JUST RELEASED: New Child Seat Safety Guidelines!
This morning, both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new recommendations for child seats.
The new guidelines advise parents to…
- Keep toddlers in rear-facing car seats until they reach two years of age or until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer.
- Most children will need to remain in a booster seat until they have reached 4 feet 9 inches tall and are between 8 and 12 years old. The booster seat’s shoulder belt should lie across the middle of the chest and shoulder, not near the neck or face. The lap belt should fit low and snug on the hips and upper thighs, not across the belly.
- Children should ride in the rear of a vehicle until they reach 13 years old
According to Dennis Durbin, MD, FAAP, lead author of the AAP policy statement, the new guidelines are based on the latest scientific and medical research which indicate that: “A rear-facing child safety seat does a better job of supporting the head, neck and spine of and toddlers in a crash, because it distributes the force of the collision over the entire body…For larger children, a forward-facing seat with a harness is safer than a booster, and a belt-positioning booster seat provides better protection than a seat belt alone until the seat belt fits correctly.”
Why change now?
According to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, “while all car seats sold in the U.S. must meet federal child restraint safety standards, selecting the right seat was a challenge for many parents”. The “room for interpretation” in the 2002 guidelines plus the huge variety of car safety seats on the market often left parents with more questions than answers. The result: children were transitioning from one stage of car safety seat to the next, far too early to be truly considered “safe”.
New research findings, however are clear. Children under age 2 are safer in rear-facing car seats. Children under age 2 are 75% less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they are rear-facing. The hope of both NHTSA and the AAP is that issuing these new requirements will simplify the selection process and make it easier for parents to choose the “best” car seat for their child.
For more information:
- For guidance from the AAP to help parents choose the most appropriate car safety seat for their child, click here
- For a detailed list of car safety seats, including the height and weight limitations for each, click here
- For state-specific child passenger safety laws, click here
- For a copy of the NHTSA “Car Seat Recommendations for Children” poster (above), click here
Be Ready, Be Buckled: Create Lifetime Seatbelt Wearers
In past articles I have written about various programs sponsored by the federal government that help to promote safety in kids. My most recent 
post was about distracted driving. For this post I have found a new program and site that I think is perfect to highlight and to showcase on this blog.
The program is called “Be Ready, Be Buckled”. Among its sponsors are the DOT, the National Highway Traffic safety administration and others. One aspect of the program is to encourage kids, K through 6th grade or age 5-12 to submit original artwork which focuses on the theme and supports the use of seat belts.
Some suggested questions or discussions to help inspire young artists include:
- Why is it important to buckle up every time while driving or riding in a bus, truck or car?
- How does the motto Safety Belts Save lives apply to bus and truck drivers as well as Kids and families.
- What would happen if a truck or bus driver did not buckle up on the job?
Two grand prize winners will be selected by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). The top 12 will complete the 2011 calendar. The picture at the top of this post is last year’s winner.
Even if your child does not win they and the family will share a bonding experience over safety and will hopefully create lifetime seatbelt wearers and champions. Please feel free to submit a copy of your child’s artwork here: info@pediatricsafety.net – we would love to post it on Pediatric Safety and to help encourage everyone to buckle up. For more official information and for the contest entry form please go to:
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/safety-security/2011-ArtContest.pdf
S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover
To clean most child car seats covers requires complete removal of the car seat from the vehicle. As a result, there are two groups of parents, those who are constantly taking their child’s car seat out of the car for cleaning and those who never remove it from its secure position in the vehicle.
My husband (an award winning pediatrician) and I used to fall in the first camp. Then we came up with a solution. The S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover provides a washable cover that doesn’t require removal of the child seat from the car.
Here’s our story:
We spend a lot of time in our car. Whether it’s taking the kids to school, afternoon or weekend activities or 
the long drives to grandma and grandpa’s house. All that driving often equals hungry and restless kids. The Cheerios® that used to pacify our kids at a younger age, soon turned into sticky apple slices, crumby granola bars, and drippy drinks. These snacks didn’t always make it into our kids’ mouths. More times than not, we’d find the leftovers in the child car seat. And after playground dates, our worn out kids mixed their dirty bottoms with this flavorful mess.
The only way to try and return their car seat to “like new condition” was to unfasten it from the vehicle, unhook the harness straps from the back of the seat, and then peel away the manufacturer’s car seat cover. Into the wash it went and if we were lucky, some of the stains disappeared. Then we’d reverse the process to put the seat back together. This process is not easy and takes plenty of time. When we’d go to put the child car seat back into our car, we could never quite get it right and would have to venture to our local Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for a trained technician to properly resecure it.
Sitting and talking with other parents, we knew we weren’t alone. Our frustrations were echoed amongst our friends. Some told us stories of leaky diapers and potty training accidents. Others, had kids who easily became carsick and frequently vomited. We’ve all experienced runny noses and drool that finds their way onto sleeves and nearby surfaces.
Searching the shelves at our local baby and toddler store, we found all sorts of mess-preventing items, like sippy cups, bibs, and high chair mats, but we couldn’t find something that would protect our child’s car seat cover from the inevitable every day dirt and grime accumulation. How could we create a better way to clean our children’s car seat covers while keeping them safe?
We turned our frustrations into action. Once we put our children to bed, we turned “together time” into “brainstorm time”. We carefully looked at both outgrown and current seats and we tried to figure out how to remove a car seat cover without having to disassemble the seat. We put our ideas on paper. We drew car seats and cut out the paper models. We did the same thing with scrap fabric. We even cut apart the manufacturers car seat cover to fully explore some options. Our late nights led to creation of specially designed release elements for a child car seat cover…5 years and many prototypes later, the S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover was born!
The S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover – (Secure And Fast, Easily Removable) – allowed us to remove and wash an otherwise disgusting car seat cover without having to jeopardize the car seat’s secure position in our car. It took less than 1 minute to remove and put back the cover. Our kids could now sit in a clean seat and we could eliminate removing the entire seat from the car, and avoid additional trips to the DMV. And, since proper hygiene is the first line of defense in keeping your child well and safe from illness, we now had an easy way to ensure our car was as safe an environment as our home!
But there were other ways we wanted it to be “SAFER” too. During the manufacturing process, we made sure the S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover underwent lab testing that included checking for absence of specific toxins and against flammability. The testing also included proper washability, ensuring that it will hold up to multiple washes in the washing machine. In the end, we came up with a cover that was <1/8 inch thick and slipped easily on top of an existing car seat cover.
Once we were comfortable with our solution we knew we wanted to market it so kids like yours could be S.A.F.E.R., too. We were granted two patents for our designs and received a “Gold Medal” at INPEX 2008- America’s largest invention trade show.. Most important of all we received numerous comments from parents like you that their child’s car seats were a mess and they hated cleaning them…the S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover made all the difference.
HEALTHFUL HINTS:
Car Seat Safety
- Always check that your child car seat is tightly secured in your vehicle by pushing and pulling it side to side. It should not move more than one inch in either direction. We encourage a child car seat to be installed at least initially by a certified child passenger safety technician. Locate one in your state here
- Shoulder harness straps for children in a forward facing car seat should always sit at or above the child’s shoulders. The S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover has 3 levels of slots, designed to line up with a manufacturer’s original design.
- Harness straps should be pulled tightly against your child and the chest clip should be at armpit level. Do not wear winter coats in a child car seat.
Keeping your child seat cover clean:
- When washing a child seat cover, wash it in a mesh bag on a gentle cycle to minimize damage (the S.A.F.E.R. Child Car Seat Cover can be washed in the mesh “wash me” bag in which it was originally packaged).
- Since the cover needs to maintain its shape to function properly, hang it to dry overnight – do not put it in a dryer. This will reduce the possibility of shrinkage.
Jay K. | Matthews, NC; Sun., Aug. 15, 2010
This is clearly over-due ! ! The sooner the better ! !
Ruth T. | East Islip, NY; Thu., Aug. 5, 2010
As a nurse, I have ridden ambulances that do not have a way to secure small children and infants. I strongly support this necessary improvement to our EMS system.
Michael M. | Valley Cottage, NY; Thu., Aug. 5, 2010
Parents – as well as society – ought to know that injured or sick children will be safely transported in an ambulance.Flag Comment
