In the July 2008 edition of SafetyBeltSafe News, there was an article about a woman in Oklahoma who wants all car seats to have occupant identification labels on them. I think this is a great idea! I’ve had make your own labels on my web site since before it became CarSeatSite.com–it just seems obvious to me that you’d want something on the seat identifying your child if you are incapacitated.
Some car seats, such as the Sunshine Kids Radian seats, have special pouches and cards in them for identifying your child. That’s fabulous! That’s exactly the type of thing all car seats, including boosters, should have. Think about how many kids out there have some kind of special need, such as a food allergy or medicine allergy, that an emergency worker would need to know about after a crash.
My reasoning for having the labels on my seats is pretty simple: I have an overly-anal type A perfectionistic personality which means that I often over-worry ;). What if I’m in a crash and I’m incapacitated and can’t communicate with emergency workers? What if my kids are transported to a different hospital than I am? How would the hospital workers know who to contact? If my kids are OK, how would they know that my baby drinks only Nutramigen formula or that if they want to get my dd to drink milk, they’d have to first lace it with strawberry syrup (thankfully, those days are long gone now–whew!)? A friend of mine was in a crash a few years ago where someone hit her van at an intersection and it rolled. Her child was transported to a different hospital but fortunately she had printed one of my labels and attached it to her car seat and the hospital used it to call family members. My friend told me about it later and it gave me warm fuzzies :). Of course I was glad, too, that her dd wasn’t seriously hurt.
There are labels that you can order online. There’s the WHALE Program: We Have A Little Emergency. Or you can just print your own, like from my web site, use a label maker, like my favorite label maker (my dog’s lucky she doesn’t have a label on her!), or just handwrite something on a piece of paper and tape it to the seat. Whatever gets the message across. In a crash, you want emergency workers to know who to contact in case you aren’t there to advocate for your child. It’s all about peace of mind and for those of us overly-anal type A perfectionistic personality types who over-worry and can’t sleep until all the “i’s” are dotted and the “t’s” are crossed, this is one thing you can cross off your list very easily with little effort.
Thanks Heather! I think so too. Pretty ingenious.
Neat idea, Amy!
A better solution to decals is a “SquID” from My ID Square ( http://www.MyIDSquare.com ) which allow you to maintain all medical and contact information in the cloud – no need to update stickers when medical history or contact information changes. And emergency contacts are automatically contacted via text and email if the “SquID” is scanned or the emergency medical information is accessed by an EMT or other emergency responder. They are innovative Medical IDs that you can attach to anything.
I just had to check out these SquID tags. I was sold until I saw the price.
A good alternative that is still durable but much cheaper would be to use a custom dog tag machine (you can find in most chain pet stores and some Wal-Mart’s) and make a custom, double sided I.C.E. tag to attatch to the seat, they can also be worn on outings incase a child is separated from caregivers.
The site for the program is whaleprogram.org
oh and the thing about the Radian seats that have the info in a little pouch..I’m still trying ot figure out how emergency personnel will have the time to unknot the cord/bungee thingy from two ends (the end where it attaches to the car seat and the end where it slips through the pouch) in order to get at the info..
-N
Ketchupqueen- Sweet! Which car seat do you have that RF that long and is available here in the US??
Thanks!
N
Great idea, Cherry!
I am thinking if your kid switch carseat often, you can:
1. Make your own ID card
2. Laminate it
3. Punch a hole for easy attach to the carseat, or double sided velcro should work out pretty well when you have to switch the id card. Hope this helps
Yeah, I’ve avoided the glove box for that reason. I just don’t know where to put them. Duct taped to the back of the front seats? It would at least be noticeable. A sticker on the seat saying “info at xxx” is a good idea.
I guess I’m just praying that if I’m ever unconscious or worse and unable to identify my kids, give contact and allergen info, my almost 6 year old will still be talking and able to recall it (she knows all that info and to share allergies with whoever is in charge if there is ever an emergency and they are separated from me) since she’s still rear-facing. 😉 I need a better plan, I think!
Thanks for the reminder to label seats. We’re good about giving the kids id at places like amusement parks (we have them put a business card with DH’s office phone/pager and our cell phones in their pockets), but I haven’t remembered to do their seats.
Pictures are a great idea too. I have darkly tinted windows and no one can see inside, but I imagine I’d want something like that more hidden than being on the side of the seat.
Thinking out loud here: you could make a sticker that says, “Emergency contact info. in glove box,” but when I had my one and only crash (knock on wood), the glove box was pushed in and wasn’t openable. Well, I supposed they could have used the Jaws of Life to open it, but I’m not sure emergency responders would do that. It’d be nice to hear from some of our emergency responders to see what they think.
(Also, these are only the seats in my car. If I’m not with them they’re usually in different seats– and that varies depending on what car they’re in, who’s going, etc.
I guess my problem is that I have too many car seats. LOL.)
My problem is that my kids switch seats. There are seats in the car that fit all 3 of them, and they switch around as desired/depending on who is in the car.
I know there was at least one child care provider I’ve read about who had a laminated card for each child that she put under their rear end in the seat before buckling them in. That could be a good idea. I just don’t think my kids (2 of whom have sensory disorders) would put up with it, or I would like doing it each time.
I’ve so far settled for having a child ID kit with their name, address, allergies (one has a severe medication allergy, one a severe food allergy), emergency contacts, and other important info that has their picture on it in the car. I should find a noticeable place for it though I guess.
There is also the C.H.A.D program which can also provide you with stickers. Here’s the link…
http://www.mindspring.com/~tpatxdiv/chad.htm
We have the W.H.A.L.E stickers on all of our vehicles and car seats. It really freaked out the CPST’s around here out when they saw I knew about it and wasn’t one of them. lol. They also give out stickers similar to C.H.A.D when you bring your seat in to be checked.