Most parents think, “I got this,” when they look at a carseat. I mean, really, it’s just some straps that go over your kid, right? Everyone who has a kid has to use a carseat, and we all know there are some parents out there barely qualified to have kids in the first place who are able to get from point A to point B and keep their offspring alive, so it’s not rocket science, right? Wrong. Sometimes we make mistakes that we look back on and say, “I can’t believe my child survived my parenting!” It’s a saying in our house that we’re not saving for college; we’re saving for the therapists’ bills, lol. Let’s look at some very common carseat mistakes and see their simple fixes so your offspring can ride safely enough to make it to college… or therapy sessions—whichever way your family sways.
Loose Installation
Whether using the lower LATCH connectors or the seat belt for installation, your carseat moves more than 1” when you give a tug at the belt path. Make sure you tug at the belt path only; that’s the only place where the carseat is connected to the vehicle. If you check for tightness anywhere else on the carseat, it’s going to move more than 1″. There’s nothing holding it to the car there, right?
Let’s define “tug”. A tug is like a firm handshake or a shake on a shoulder that doesn’t move someone’s head back and forth (heh, you don’t want to give them whiplash). You use your non-dominant hand to give this tug so you’re not tempted to shake the rivets out of the seat.
Can’t Lock the Seat Belt (Loose Installation Corollary)
Sometimes your installation is loose because you can’t figure out how to lock your seat belt to keep it tight on the carseat. Seat belts lock either at the retractor or at the latchplate. All model year 1996 and newer vehicles must have locking seat belts and some vehicles manufactured before 1996 have them as well. The retractor spools up all the length of the belt and is hidden inside the wall of the vehicle or inside the vehicle seat back. At least 90% of all modern vehicles have switchable retractors that can lock the seatbelt to hold a carseat tightly in place.
This is how you test for a switchable retractor: Pull the shoulder belt portion of the seat belt out of the retractor slowly and smoothly until you reach the end and can’t pull it out any further. Then feed a few inches of the belt back into the retractor. You may hear a ratcheting sound as the seatbelt feeds back into the retractor in the locked mode (although some retractors are very quiet most will make a noticeable clicking sound once they are switched into locked mode). Stop after feeding a few inches of the belt back in and try to pull it back out again. If it won’t come back out, it’s locked and now you know that this seat belt has a switchable retractor that you must switch to the locked mode if you are installing a carseat in this seating position.
Other seat belts lock at the latchplate (male end of the seat belt). These are mostly found on Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. To see if your seat belt locks in these vehicles, buckle the seat belt and pull up on the lap belt. If it holds tight, your latchplate locks.
If you can’t get your seat belt to lock because your car was made before 1996, you have to use either a carseat with a built-in lockoff or a locking clip. If you want to read more about locking clips, you can click here. Lockoffs that are built into certain carseats are much easier to use than a locking clip and worth the extra price. Read about which carseats have lockoffs here.
Loose Harness
Yeah, you can’t just buckle the harness, it has to be snug on the kid or they’ll go flying out of the seat. If you can take a pinch of the harness above the chest clip, the harness is too loose so pull it tighter.
Chest Clip or Belly Clip?
You know those plastic pieces that clip together across the kid’s middle? That’s called a chest clip. Some carseat manufacturers’ get all uppity and call it a harness retainer clip. Call it what does and where it goes and you’ll never forget! Chest clip. The top of the chest clip is placed at the armpits. Any higher and it’s at the kid’s throat, especially for babies. Any lower and it may not be able to do its job as a pre-crash positioner.
Trusting Your Pediatrician for Carseat Advice
Do the initials “CPST” follow your pediatrician’s MD after his name? If not, he’s not qualified to give you carseat advice. Just like I’m not qualified to give you medical advice on your child’s rash (gee, that really does look like Ichthyosis en confetti—you should have that checked out), your ped is not qualified to give you advice on vehicle safety matters. Between charting, keeping up with ever-changing youth medicine, and making hospital rounds, most peds simply don’t have the time to keep up with the dynamic field of child passenger safety unless it’s a special interest. That’s why you come to us for answers on vehicle safety.
Turning Forward Too Soon
You may not admit it online, but turning your wee one forward before age 2 is really dangerous. I’ve heard all the arguments in my 18 years of tech-ing: my child’s legs hurt because they’re scrunched, my best-friend’s-mother-in-law’s-phlebotomist’s-daughter’s-pediatrician told her to turn her son forward at 9 months because of a risk of hip injury, my child has to be able to see the iPad screen we spent top-dollar for, and so on. The truth is, if you turn your kid forward before age 2, *you’re* the one who is uncomfortable with the idea of rear-facing, not your child. Studies and years of rear-facing children have shown that rear-facing is not only safe, it’s loads safer for kids.
It’s so important to rear-face your toddler that some carseat manufacturers now mandate it, at least for some of their carseat models. Britax requires a 2-year and 25 lbs. minimum on all of their forward-facing harness-2-booster seats. And Evenflo says that your kids must be 2 before they can be turned forward-facing in their convertible seats. I’m not pulling your leg—it’s right there in the manual.
Commercials on TV claim that the best way to start your baby’s life is to use the best diapers or best formula (if you can’t breastfeed, of course). We feel the very best thing you can do for your kid in the child passenger safety world is to use an appropriate carseat or booster on every single ride. After the infant seat is outgrown, continue to rear-face your child until they reach the rear-facing height or weight limit of their convertible carseat. And install the seat tightly. And tighten the harness appropriately. And make sure the chest clip is properly placed. The crazy thing about kids and carseats is that there are so many things that can go wrong with them that we need an entire profession to help parents get it right! I remember making some of these mistakes—and more. Aye yi yi. It’s amazing we’re all still here.
We had to move our son to front face big at around 18 mo old (he’s 8 now) due to his outgrowing his rear-facing car seat and not being able to physically fit a larger rear-facing seat in our vehicle and still allow my 6’2″ husband to drive the car!
I personally think it should be required for ALL parents to have to go to classes pertaining to car safety, car seats, boosters, etc. Parents who adopt have to, but those of us who are able to conceive do not have to go to these classes. Just because a parent is unable, etc. to conceive does not mean they do not know the logistics of car safety. There is so much I do not know. I hope that makes sense. I just know that classes would help me. Because of the ever-changing laws, it should be required for each child. Just my thoughts.
Hi Jody ! We are in the same boat with the tall skinny kid. Too tall for the “car seat” but too light for the shoulder strap recommendations. We recently switched her over to the shoulder strap “booster” due to where the car seat straps were hitting her body. If they are pulling down behind your child’s shoulders and not laying flush against them, then I would move your kid too.
I am curious on your thoughts regarding moving from a car seat with a 5 point harness to a booster. My daughter is 4 years and 8 months. She is 102 cm (40″) tall. So far so good, she is too tall for her car seat and the right age and height for the boosters we see in the stores. The problem is that she only weighs 34 pounds and all the boosters we see start at 40 pounds. Do we really need to buy an expensive car seat online that will accommodate her height until she reaches 40 pounds, or can we switch to a booster now?
Hi Jody. I’m guessing you’re in Canada? Age-wise, she’s on the cusp of being old enough to sit in a belt-positioning booster. She’s right around that age where maturity takes a leap and lets kids be old enough to be aware that they have to sit still in a seat belt and not mess around. With some kids, that maturity comes a bit earlier, with others, it’s later. You have to be the judge of your child.
However, in Canada, the minimum weight limit for boosters has been set by law at 40 lbs.; that’s why you haven’t been able to find any that start at a lower weight limit. She’s still on the small side for me to feel comfortable to move her to a booster, even if you found a highback booster that started at 30 lbs.
I would look at a combination seat for her that would last her several years. The Graco Nautilus or Argos, Britax Pioneer or Frontier CT, or the Evenflo SecureKid are all worthy contenders. The Nautilus and Argos have the advantage of being used as a backless booster once she’s too tall for the back.
The only thing I will say is the training for returning your child forward could be for safety reasons before they are 2. Fit example I am a mother of 3 soon to be 4 children all of whom are quite safe in their car seats. (5,3&2) I turned all my children around at 1. Not until my 3 rd did the recommend waiting till 2 to turn around, but he was not a happy camper facing rear. I take my children by myself in the car often as we live on a farm and for me to be distracted as a driver by a very cranky 2 year old putting everyone on the car at risk didn’t make sense so I turned him around so I wouldn’t hit the dutch trying to get him his soother, blanket, book , toys, snacks…. You name it! He was in properly just not backwards. What are your thoughts on this??
Hi Janelle. I get it. My first was a screamer. He’s 15 now and much easier, lol, but in those early days, it was hit and miss–sometimes an Enya CD would work, sometimes it was Raffi (if I wasn’t falling asleep, I was losing my mind!). We persevered, though and made it to 15 months when he outgrew his convertible carseat rear-facing–remember, this was 14 years ago and seats were a lot smaller.
In a case like yours, I’d probably do what I could to keep rear-facing to that bare minimum of age 2. If basics like distraction don’t work, then I’d look at adjusting the carseat angle, if possible. I’d move to a different carseat next. Kids definitely have their comfort preferences! At some point, if he’s dropping his things and expecting you or others in the vehicle to pick things up right away, then his expectations need to be changed because it’s become a fun game. When my kids thought it was fun to toss things over the side of the high chair, I stopped picking them up (same for doing their laundry–haha!).
Their spine/neck/back are not developed to handle the impact if you get hit head on and they are front facing. Lucky you didn’t get hit head on and snap your baby’s neck. Some studies recommend rear facing til 5 years old for this reason. Safety over comfort.
I am a mother of three (9,7 & 5) a paramedic and a car seat technician instructor.
I know what it is like to have the screeming children, I understand that not all parents know everything they need to about car seat but try their best. And I have seen what happens to kids that are in car seats that are not utilized properly.
From a legality point of view, one has to understand that the laws change very slowly in caprisson to the data regarding safety. Yes the age for rear facing was just legally changed, however, the evidence has ALWAYS shown that rear facing is the safest way to travel. My 5 year old is still rear facing and my 7 year old just turned around to face forward. My 9 year old is still in a 5 point harness where most of his friends are out of boosters. This video explains why rear facing is best in just over a minute.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sssIsceKd6U
In regards to making it easier to hand your child items, for goodness sake PULL OVER! It is not safe for anyone if the driver is distracted, fumbling about trying to sooth a child with items. Yes I am a parent, and yes I know what it is like to get to the cottage after a 6 hour trip when it is meant to take 2. It takes but a fraction of a second for your life to completely change.