#When should baby change car seat how to#
#When should baby change car seat install#

Installing a car seat seems like it should be simple enough: Attach the universal anchorage system (UAS-also known as LATCH in the US) connectors to the corresponding anchor points in your car, or thread the lap belt through the base, pull the straps tight, and away you go, right? Not so much.

#When should baby change car seat how to#

Wouldn’t you rather head out on the road knowing your seats are installed right and your kids are properly buckled in? Read on to find out what the most common errors are and how to fix them. Unless you’ve had your seats checked by a certified child passenger safety technician, there’s a good chance your kids aren’t riding as safely as they could be. According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, as many as 80 to 90 percent of car seats are used incorrectly. Yet a recently published Nova Scotia observational roadside study found that 55 percent of car seats and booster seats were installed or used incorrectly-and that number would be higher if the standard for correct use had been based on the latest safety recommendations rather than the provincial car seat laws. Studies show that the correct use of car and booster seats can reduce the risk of death by up to 71 percent and of serious injury by up to 67 percent in a crash. While getting the car seat checked wasn’t a good experience for Cheung, it was the right thing to do. “We thought we had done our homework,” she says.

#When should baby change car seat install#

We wouldn’t be able to return it.”Įventually, Igel was able to install the seat securely with the help of a cut-up pool noodle wedged under the base, but Cheung left feeling disheartened. “He suggested we return it and buy another one, but we had purchased the car seat months before.

“One volunteer told us that perhaps this was just the wrong car seat for our car,” says Cheung. But it quickly became clear to clinic staff that the seat was too loose, and though two different volunteers tried to install it tightly, it just wasn’t working. Heading to the clinic, Cheung felt prepared she and her husband, Aaron Igel, had looked at Transport Canada’s website, carefully read the car seat manual and watched several installation videos on YouTube. “But the possibility of putting our little one’s life at risk was not something we were willing to do.” “Some of our friends thought we were being too intense, that it was overkill,” says Cheung. After finally deciding on and purchasing one, Cheung signed up for a free car seat clinic to have the installation checked. When Monica Cheung was pregnant with her now-four-month-old son, Elliott, she spent months researching car seats, asking friends for recommendations and reading online reviews.