How to install your baby’s car safety seat

Your car seat installation guide

Simply using a car safety seat when you drive your baby in the car is no guarantee she’ll be protected in a traffic accident. You need to ensure it’s correctly installed and that your child is buckled in snugly for it to do its job properly…

Figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that around 7000 lives have been saved by the proper use of child restraints during the past 20 years

Is it securely fixed?

• Check which way it’s facing It needs to face in the right direction for your child’s age and size. Babies need to use a rear-facing infant seat fitted in the back seat of your car from birth until they’re at least 12 months of age and weigh at least 20Ib.
• Check the seat belt routing Refer to the instructions to ensure the adult seat belt is correctly threaded through the slots in the car seat shell. Never use a lap belt along if your car seat is intended for use with a three-point lap-and-shoulder belt.
• Using LATCH? This stands for lower anchors and tethers for children and the system is intended to make it easier to secure child safety seats without seat belts. All vehicles and most car seats manufactured after 2002 incorporate tethers and anchor straps that can be used to secure the safety seat independently of the car seat belts. If using this, be sure you attach the safety seat straps to the correct anchor points in your car and that they’re tight enough – if you can move the seat more than an inch side to side or front to back, it’s not tight enough.
• Lock it down Use the locking clip that comes with all new car safety seats to fix the seat belt in position if it moves freely even when you’ve tightened it.

Is your baby buckled in correctly?

• Adjust the harness height to fit him properly, always use the chest clip to hold the shoulder straps in place if your seat incorporates one and pull the harness tight enough to secure your baby snugly (you should be able to slip your fingers between his body and the straps – any more space and it’s too loose).
• Check the harness every trip You may have loosened it to make space for a few extra layers of clothing the last time you used it.
• Baby slouching? Most seats have a recline mechanism you can adjust so your baby isn’t slouching and his head isn’t lolling to one side. If the seat doesn’t recline, wedge a rolled-up towel at the sides of the seat to help support him.

 

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