When you’re traveling in your vehicle, your safety is paramount. One crucial aspect of child passenger safety is properly harnessing your baby seat. Federal regulators say that improper car seat installation is a significant factor that contributes to child deaths in vehicle crashes. In this article, we’ll cover why you should correctly secure your child in a car seat, provide a step-by-step guide on how to do it, and address common problems associated with seat straps.
How To Properly Secure Your Baby to the Car Seat
Proper use of the car seat shoulder straps, buckles, and clips can be a matter of life and death. In an accident, the harness is meant to spread the forces of the crash evenly over the stronger, bony parts of the child’s body, specifically the shoulders and hips. This prevents the child’s head and body from being thrown across the vehicle, significantly reducing the risk of blunt force trauma.
Position the Straps Correctly
Make sure the harness straps lie flat against your child’s chest and shoulders, with no twists or knots. If a harness is slack, your child might slide out of the car seat harness and be thrown out in the event of a collision.
Both shoulder straps should be properly tightened. If one side is too slack, crash forces won’t be evenly distributed across the child’s body. This increases the injury risk to the side of the body that absorbs more force.
How Tight Should Car Seat Straps Be?
Both straps should be snug but not too tight, allowing you to slide a finger between the strap and your child’s chest.
You should fully loosen the harness first to evenly tighten both shoulder straps. If you’re unsure about how to loosen your car seat straps, you need to find the harness release button. This is typically found in the front of the baby seat. You typically need to insert your hand into the hole where the harness adjustment strap protrudes from. Press on the harness release button so that you can adjust the length and tightness of the shoulder harnesses.
After loosening the straps, slowly pull on the harness adjustment strap while putting one hand under the shoulder straps to gauge their tightness.
Remember that your car seat’s strap height needs to be adjusted as your children grow. The harness height of a rear-facing seat should be at or just below the shoulders. On the other hand, the harness height in a forward-facing seat should be at or just above the shoulders.
Poorly fitted straps can also make it difficult to get the child in and out of the seat, potentially making rescues after a crash harder.
Always Secure the Crotch Buckle and Chest Clip
The chest clip connects the two shoulder harnesses on the baby’s chest, while the crotch buckle connects the shoulder straps to the buckle located near the baby’s pelvis.
The chest clips ensure the shoulder harnesses are properly positioned on your child’s torso. The chest clip is also typically wider than the harnesses, so that crash forces can dissipate over a wider surface area.
You might think that the car seat shoulder straps provide sufficient protection in a crash. However, this isn’t the case. In the event of a crash, your child can slide down out of the seat and get tangled if the crotch buckle isn’t locked. This can concentrate crash forces on some parts of a child’s body, increasing the likelihood of injury. Some children have even gotten strangled by sliding down their seats and getting their necks caught on the chest clip.
You should always remember that the chest clip should be armpit level. If the clip is positioned too high up the child’s chest, the clip could injure the child’s throat or neck. If the chest clip is too low, too much force will be concentrated on the child’s belly. Crashing with a strap that’s too low will concentrate crash forces on the soft parts of the abdomen, which will be more painful.
A low chest clip position also increases the space between the harness straps, increasing the possibility of the straps sliding off the child’s shoulders and ejecting the child from the seat.
When it comes to child passenger safety, the importance of correctly harnessing your baby seat can’t be overstated. The way you secure your child’s car seat straps can make all the difference during a vehicular accident. Improper harnessing can lead to catastrophic consequences, while the right approach can provide crucial protection by evenly distributing crash forces. Remember, securing the straps correctly, adjusting their tightness, and positioning the crotch buckle and chest clip are all vital. By following these guidelines, you’ll safeguard the life of your precious little one.
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