This week(Sept 12-18)is National Child Passenger Safety Week. Car seat safety is SOOOO important to me so I talk about it quite a bit. I wish I knew 8 years ago what I know now about keeping kids safe. I remember being so excited about turning Ian forward facing promptly at his first birthday and then moving him to a booster seat when he was four. What exciting milestones!! Right??? WRONG! One thing about child safety is that every "milestone" is actually a step down in safety for that precious cargo so in the best interest of our children we should push those milestones out as far as we can.
Car seat laws and recommendations are constantly changing and I feel it's imperative that as mamas we keep up to date on what's best practice, not just what the current law is. Laws are often WAY out of date. For instance, here in Minnesota a three year old could legally ride with nothing but an adult seat belt until this summer. Obviously, that was never safe, but it took decades for the laws to catch up with the statistics. In the state of Michigan it is STILL perfectly legal to this day for a mother to remove a child from their car seat to nurse. Can you imagine going down the interstate at 70mph holding your newborn in the front seat? YIKES!
So, what is "best practice"? See my CPS page for more info...
4 comments:
Courtney,
I LOVE your enthusiasm for keeping your kids safe in the car!
This is one of those issues that I waver back and forth on... I know that they need to be kept safe, but on the other hand, I wish there were more "freedom" in the car. Some of my best memories as a kid are from cross-country road trips. My brother and I would crawl into the back of our station wagon and play for hours. It was great fun!
When I read the bit about Michigan allowing moms to breastfeed I told Tim -- "We're moving to MI!" LOL I'll admit to having done this on more than one occasion... tho usually not in the front seat, and not while we're on the freeway.
In all seriousness, I am so glad that YOU are up to date on everything and can recommend good options for keeping our kids safe in the car. I would love to keep Jericho rear-facing for as long as possible and will be needing a convertible seat before too long.
And, I just have to share one of my favorite stories my mom tells... When my brother and I were small (over 30 yrs ago) and there were no seatbelt laws (much less car seat laws!) my brother would stand on the front seat between my parents. On one occasion he fell asleep standing up, and eventually slumped over onto my mom. :)
A special thanks for recommending a seat that is "trim"! As you know, I'm in desperate need of something slimmer, given my situation. :)
Love you!
~k
Thanks for the great information! Mitch and I had to complete a car seat safety course for daycare licensing, and even those "rules" were a little behind the times (yet still ahead of laws, thankfully). There was SO much emphasis on just making sure the seat was installed properly, and great videos and testimony surrounding that. It's great to look at the carseats you recommended...even those have come a long ways since Micah was a baby. I'm drooling a little over the Sunshine Kids Radian carseat. SO cool!!
You said CPS week and I was immediately started wondering what you had to do with Child Protection Services. I'm a little slow.
Great post.
I am also an extended rear facing, extended car seat mom. My kids at ages 6, almost 4 and almost 2 are all in forward facing traditional car seats for now. My almost 2 year old reached the rear facing height limit a while ago (around 18 months) so we switched him forward. My 6 year old is 3' and 29 lbs, still not ready for a booster. We take flack for it from friends, but I think safety is more important that "giving a kid a sense of accomplishment" or whatever. Thanks for the great post and encouragement :)
Shellie
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