Bringing a new baby home is exciting and nerve-racking, especially when ensuring their car seat safety during those first few car rides. When it comes to car seats, you need to get it right.
Which is the best car seat? How much should you spend? Can you buy a used one? How do you install it? Which side of the vehicle does it go in? There are nuances galore.
Adelle Zocher, AAA Northeast safety specialist, will guide you through everything you need to know.
I’m not against it, but I am for safety. And when I look online, there are different ranges for different seats and weights and heights. This is an important one to get right, but I’m finding it really hard to get straight answers about when to change your child’s car seat.
I think back to the early days when I was pregnant, somewhere between those two phases of quiet contemplation and panic and fear. There are so many things to think of and plan for, but even at that time I knew there was only so much I could do to prepare.
Buying stuff was one of the few ways. There was the crib, a changing table, diapers, clothes, toys, so much stuff. But I can vividly remember strolling through the car seat section, picking out the biggest and best toddler car seat I could afford because I wanted my baby to be safe and secure like all parents do.
But just like I’m finding out now, there’s more to it than I thought. Even in those early days. There are things to consider past buying the “good” seat, like installation.
We know they work. So join me while we get answers to all the questions around how to use them properly, including the big one at my house.
READ MORE
[00:02:25]
Amanda’s Daughter: When can I get a booster seat?
[00:02:28]
Amanda Greene: Let’s bring in an expert who has installed some car seats.
[00:02:32]
Adelle Zocher: Many, many seats, hundreds and hundreds, definitely hundreds.
[00:02:35]
Amanda Greene: That’s Adelle Zocher, a public affairs specialist with AAA Northeast. She’s seen some stuff because there is no messier place than that of a child’s car seat.
[00:02:45]
Adelle Zocher: All kinds of messes, which people are always, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. Oh, there’s food.” Listen, you have kids, I understand. No problem. So I’ve seen some gnarly stuff, but people shouldn’t be embarrassed. It’s fine. They’re cars, they’re lived in.
[00:02:58]
Amanda Greene: I think I’d sooner make my browser history public than let someone look in and behind my kids’ car seats, but I’m happy to know this is a shame-free zone. So first things first, what kind of car seats are there?
[00:03:11]
Adelle Zocher: So we have rear-facing convertible seats. That’s that little bucket that we pick up baby in and we click it into the base, which remains in the vehicle. That’s typically our first step.
Then as the child gets a little bit bigger, we’d still like to keep them rear-facing for safety reasons, following rear-facing car seat guidelines. So they’ll transition into a convertible seat and a convertible seat converts from rear to a forward-facing car seat. The next step would be to turn that seat forward-facing or move up to a combination seat, which is a harness, which then becomes a booster. And from there we transition from that five-point harness car seat into the booster seat and beyond. These are the main car seat stages by age.
[00:03:41]
Amanda Greene: So I know a lot of the safety rules and regulations vary from state to state, but are there any general universal rules that people should follow?
[00:03:50]
Adelle Zocher: So for new parents, the NHTSA is a good resource and it’s a .gov. The NHTSA works closely with an organization called Safe Kids Worldwide and Safe Kids Worldwide is actually the certifying body for car seat safety. These two work together to create the curriculum for the technicians to set these guidelines, working with organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and hospitals all over the nation, to collect data and basically find, where is the misuse? What’s happening here? What do people need? Where are we falling short and how can we fill those gaps?
[00:04:22]
Amanda Greene: Okay, I found the site here. It asks for age, weight, height and then gives a graph of all your options. We’ll be sure to put a link in the show notes for anyone who needs it because that’s really helpful.
[00:04:32]
Adelle Zocher: I would also seek out a technician – so myself, a certified car seat technician. I’m also an instructor, so I certify those new technicians.
Personally, in the classes I teach, I see a lot of law enforcement, first responders, so there’s all sorts of people in the community, all sorts of organizations that involve child passenger safety. And a really great start is to find that technician so you can have them help you assist you and show your way around the seat.
My first step, I think if I had no idea, would be to familiarize myself with the types of car seats and then from there maybe, what am I going to buy? And then maybe I’m going to talk to a technician and they’re going to help me get that in the car.
[00:05:09]
Amanda Greene: Are there any particular models you like? What is the best car seat?
[00:05:11]
Adelle Zocher: The best seat is always the seat that works best for the family, fits their price range, fits their vehicle, can be installed and used correctly every time. And any seat that a person could purchase on the market is going to meet those requirements and be safe for their child.
[00:05:23]
Amanda Greene: So you’re saying when it comes to car seats, it may be isn’t worth splurging on the higher end model?
[00:05:28]
Adelle Zocher: No, I wouldn’t say so. It’s so personal. If you want to splash out on the $400 infant seat, that’s great if that’s in the budget. Or a lot of people get them as gifts. To me – because that’s the seat that they’re going to be doing all that good stuff when they’re little – I always say, if you’re going to get a cheaper seat, do that. Get your use out of that. Let them grow out of that seat.
[00:05:49]
Amanda Greene: Smush Cheerios into it.
[00:05:50]
Adelle Zocher: Exactly. And then transition to that convertible at a little bit later of a date because that’s a seat that could potentially take your child all the way to the end of needing a restraint, right?
AAA Car Seat Safety
[00:06:02]
Amanda Greene: Adelle, this is obviously something parents want to get right, and NHTSA says almost half of all seats are installed incorrectly, but I read that even more seats are misused. What are people getting wrong with car seat safety??
[00:06:14]
Adelle Zocher: Depending on where you look, you’ll see maybe around 60%, sometimes 70% or more of misuse. But that could be something really simple, right? The car seat may be installed correctly, but the harness is not used correctly. If you’ve got a little bit too much slack in that harness, right there is small misuse.
Everything may be done perfectly, but that seat might not be tight enough. It might not be pulled in and ratcheted in. So there’s a misuse right there. They can be very small. But again, the right seat is the seat that is used correctly and works for that family every single time, which is why a tech is such a great resource to go to. Once you do it, practice it a couple times you’ll have it down pat.
[00:06:48]
Amanda Greene: So this is not the time to take the Ikea furniture approach, pulling out the instructions and hoping for the best. This is the time to do it right. So how do we find a car seat technician in our area?
[00:06:58]
Adelle Zocher: Awesome question. That information is available to you on cert.safekids.org, and from there there’s a little tab to click, find a tech, and from there you can put your area. So for me, Connecticut, I’d put in Connecticut and it would list all the technicians and their contact information.
[00:07:14]
Amanda Greene: How about new parents with new babies? Any safety tips for them to keep in mind?
[00:07:19]
Adelle Zocher: Well, one of the things, a lot of people are tempted to put some all sorts of little accoutrements in the seats – little cute fuzzy teddy bear things and like something so they can play with. And then we got the mirror.
We as technicians will not recommend any of that stuff because if it has not been crash tested alongside that car seat, we can’t be sure that in the event of a crash, any of those objects may not compromise the integrity of that seat, how it’s working. Is it tight enough? Might those objects come loose and become a projectile and injure the child or somebody else in the vehicle? We do not know unless it’s been crash tested. So that’s why we don’t recommend aftermarket products like that.
Of course, it’s people’s prerogative. If you want the mirror, if you did your research, that’s something you want by all means. But that’s the reason why.
Another thing, projectiles are a big danger in the vehicle. Something even like a tissue box with those sharp edges going flying through the air as the vehicle screeches to a halt at 50 miles an hour can go flying through that vehicle and could cause an injury certainly to a baby or even an adult.
[00:08:20]
Amanda Greene: I never really considered that and I am someone who drives around with just a lot of stuff in the car because we’re driving from here to there and everywhere. So, limiting the amount of stuff in your car is probably a great tip.
[00:08:32]
Adelle Zocher: Less is more. We don’t want little ones bundled crazy tight. We want them to be able to be harnessed in nice and tight. When we show new parents, I have these little training dolls. A lot of technicians will have these little squishy training doll babies. We put them in the seat and we pull the harness tight, we show them this is where we want it on the shoulders. And I always tell them they’ve been snuggly snuggled up for nine months. They like being cozy and tight. So if they become used to a nice tight, snug fit right from birth on, that’s not ever going to be a problem.
What we want is to not be able to pinch any of that mesh, any of the webbing from the harness. So if your fingers kind of slip over the mesh without pinching a little piece of it, that’s how you know it’s tight enough.
[00:09:12]
Amanda Greene: I’ve had ladies in the grocery store parking lot comment that my kids don’t have a proper coat on in the winter after getting out of their car seat because you’re not supposed to wear a bulky coat, right?
[00:09:23]
Adelle Zocher: Exactly. Say pish posh. This is all by design. It’s exactly what we tell people. Put them strapped in and put that coat on backwards, right? Slip their little arms through, have it on backwards, lay a little blanket over top of them once they’re safely strapped in. But absolutely do not feel bad at all. Parents out there trying to wrestle with kids in the coats, you are doing the right thing by not strapping them in all bundled up.
[00:09:45]
Amanda Greene: Even just like a fleece zip up is better than wearing a bulky winter coat, right?
[00:09:49]
Adelle Zocher: Yes. We just don’t want any compression space underneath. So ,in the event of a crash, we want that harness to be able to restrain the child in the way that it’s meant to. And if there’s a bunch of fabric that’s getting compressed down, then that means there’s space between the child’s body and that harness. So it’s not restraining them as adequately as it should be.
[00:10:10]
Amanda Greene: Are there any other dos and don’ts you have for parents? From a technician’s point of view?
[00:10:15]
Adelle Zocher: We go by good, better, best in terms of practice, right? So good practice is we have a car seat, we’re putting our child in it. We are seeking out information, we’re doing the best we can. You’ll never come to see a technician and be shamed. They’re going to say, “Good on you for trying better on you for coming here and we’re going to get you correct,” and you’re going to leave knowing exactly how to do it correctly and they’ll get you comfortable.
We always make people play around with the seat. We always say, have the families put their hands on the seat, have them practice lifting it up, practice with the baby doll, feel your way around the car. We ask questions like, “Do you park on the street? Are you going to be opening that door where your child is out into the street?” And if so, maybe we’ll put it on this side so that you can be on the curb here and you won’t be having traffic to the side of you.
[00:10:59]
Amanda Greene: You really think of everything.
[00:11:01]
Adelle Zocher: Not every vehicle and every seat is perfectly wonderfully compatible, but that best seat is the one that is installed correctly a hundred percent of the time, used correctly a hundred percent of the time. And that’s another great one for parents every single time. So they see right from the jump, right, that this is something we do. Parents wear seat belts, children are buckled in, and that becomes a habit and that becomes a safe life.
And when we do that, we’re just increasing the likelihood that if, God forbid, we were involved in a crash, that there would be reduction in injury. The incidence of fatalities for children involved in crashes with proper car seat use is reduced significantly.
[00:11:33]
Amanda Greene: I know many parents consider buying a used car seat to save money. Are used car seats as reliable as new ones? And also what kind of precautions and used car seat safety checks should you take if you’re going to buy a used one?
[00:11:45]
Adelle Zocher: Please don’t purchase a used car seat unless it’s a transaction between you and someone that you trust implicitly, right? Going online, finding maybe a Facebook marketplace thing, not that the person might not be trustworthy, but you cannot know without a shred of doubt that that seat has not been compromised in any way. So, is it safe to buy a used car seat? Only if you know its full history.
In that process of the crash. The forces being exerted upon where it’s restrained, right, down at those lower anchors or the seatbelt hasn’t compromised the seat in some way.
That being said, if you know the source, trust the source, the seat is not expired. All seats have expiration dates and that’s another thing a technician will look that up. If it’s missing labels. If the straps, any pieces are a little wonky and you can’t guarantee that that seat has not been involved in a crash or compromised, we would not recommend using that used seat.
But it’s a great option. Seats last typically six years, some of them longer. So if you know a trusted source and they say, “Hey, I’m ready to pass this along, still in good shape, there is no problem with that at all.”
[00:12:42]
Amanda Greene: And you could have some peace of mind that, yes, you did it correctly or maybe it just needs a little tightening here or there. This is really good information.
Can you walk us through how car seats help protect kids if there, God forbid, happens to be an accident?
[00:12:59]
Adelle Zocher: Vehicle restraints, they’re meant to kind of counteract physics, right? An object in motion moving. So we need to slow down. We need to ride the crash force down. So in a short stop or in the event of a crash, that seatbelt rides the force down by stopping us.
In a rear-facing seat. The seat itself is what takes on the force of the crash. Small pro-tip, when you do install that infant seat, the bucket seat, we do not want that resting on any part of the seat in front of it, which is why I often have people do it on the passenger side if we need the driver’s seat to be a little further back. Because even if it’s just a small enough gap to pass a hand through, that’s adequate because if the back of the car seat rests on the back of the seat, the seat cannot move.
So in the event of a crash, the seat would move up, rock back and forth and ride the force, the crash down on the seat itself and not the child’s body. When we move forward-facing in the five-point harness seat, the force gets ridden down basically on the child’s body, but it is distributed differently because of that five-point harness. And because we tether that seat in the back of the headrest, the physics of a crash is basically why we would say rear-facing as long as possible because the force of it is on the seat and not the body of the child.
And like we said, they’re top-heavy, they’re a little neck and spine are a little bit weaker as they’re growing and stretching into themselves. And so that’s just all the more reason to keep them rear facing and then five-point harness as long as possible.
[00:14:19]
Amanda Greene: It’s so interesting you say that because my daughter is desperate to get out of her five-point harness car seat and into a booster car seat, but I’m just not sure that she’s ready. How do I know?
[00:14:30]
Adelle Zocher: So state laws vary depending on where you are. The requirements for turning your child forward-facing in that five-point harness seat may be more lax than say Connecticut, where we have pretty strict child passenger safety laws.
But that best practice is always going to be: keep that child rear-facing longer because that offers better protection, superior protection.
When they go forward-facing, let’s try to keep them in that five point harness as long as they can to try to max out in the height and weight requirements of the seat because it’s offering them superior protection. And it’s a hard struggle with kids because they want to get big, they want to ride in the booster, but-
[00:15:04]
Amanda Greene: They see their friend moving up to the next level.
[00:15:07]
Adelle Zocher: Exactly. But each child is so different in how they grow and what their needs are. And ultimately, since we are responsible for their safety, this is just the best thing we can do. Seek out that information. Practice, practice, practice, ask questions, and we will provide that information and those resources and be there for people.
[00:15:23]
Amanda Greene: You have shown us how important it is to get this right. Thank you so much for being here and sharing all of your knowledge.
[00:15:30]
Adelle Zocher: Pleasure.
Car Seat FAQs
[00:15:32]
Amanda Greene: I’ve learned a lot today. We’re talking about child safety here, so knowing this stuff is super important.
Okay, everyone, pop quiz.
In a perfect world, how long should a child stay in a five-point harness safety seat?
If you said until they max out on car seat height and weight limit requirements and the earliest they can move into a boosters when the state law allows it, you’d be right. Good job, you were paying attention.
Next one. What’s the best way to install a safety seat and perform a car seat safety check?
If you said, with the guidance of a technician, you would be correct. One can be found by going to safekids.org/inspection-stations, which lists car seat inspection locations.
Another question for you. Can a parent purchase a used car seat?
If you said yes, that’s correct, but only if you can be completely sure that the seat has never been in an accident. The best way to do this is by buying from someone and trust. And again, get a technician involved to make sure it’s installed properly, still in working order and isn’t expired.
Okay, next question. Big warm winter coats and car seats. Yes or no?
No. Dress your child lightly so they can be buckled snugly in the seat. Ignore the lady at the grocery store in the parking lot who’s commenting that your child doesn’t have a bulky coat on in the winter? They’re fine.
Next one, because I love to be prepared, so I always have a tissue box handy. Things to keep the kids occupied, teddy bears. Is this recommended in your car?
No loose items in your vehicle. They turn into projectiles if you come to a sudden stop. These items have also not been crash tested with your child’s seat. So it’s best to keep the inside of your car as free and clear as possible. Hopefully Cheerios and Goldfish don’t apply.
And last question. When it comes to buying safety seats, do you look for the biggest and most expensive?
According to Adelle, buy the seat that fits your vehicle and your child. As long as you properly install it and can use it properly every single time, it’s the right seat for you. These are the most important car seat installation tips.
And as Adelle says, you don’t have to spend a fortune on a seat that will probably be a little questionable as the months tick by. Speaking from experience, those things can get pretty gross and the car seat suffers the consequences.
So that’s it for today. I want to thank AAA Northeast Public Affairs specialist and safety seat expert extraordinaire, Adelle Zocher.
You’ve been listening to Merging Into Life where we navigate life’s milestones, one episode at a time. Brought to you by AAA Northeast with production assistance from JAR Audio. I’m your host, Amanda Greene. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review. We’d love to hear what you think. Send your thoughts to podcast@aaanortheast.com. Talk to you next time.
Hey, so I checked with an expert and she said that until you get a little bit bigger, this seat that you’re in right now is a lot safer.
[00:18:30]
Amanda’s Daughter: Oh, really? Mommy, please?
[00:18:33]
Amanda Greene: Can we agree that since it’s safer to stick with this seat, that we’re going to stay in this one for a while?
[00:18:39]
Amanda’s Daughter: Okay, fine. Whatever you say.
[00:18:41]
Amanda Greene: Love you. Give me a high five.
