One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your children safe when riding in a vehicle. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of two and 14. Each year, thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes because they weren’t wearing their seat belt or were not positioned properly in a car-safety seat. It’s important to know the correct way to use a car-safety seat in order to keep your children protected.
The type of seat your child needs depends on several things, including your child’s height, weight and the type of vehicle you are driving.
“Nine out of ten car-safety seats are installed incorrectly,” said Maureen Donnelly, RN, MSN, NPC, Coordinator, Safe Kids Southern New Jersey, led by the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper. “Children are either too big for the child restraint that they are using or have been moved to the next seat prematurely.”
Here are a few guidelines you can follow based on your child’s age to determine which product is right for them:
- Infants. Use infant seats or rear-facing convertible seats until the infant reaches the highest weight or height allowed by their car-safety seat’s manufacturer. At a minimum, children should ride rear-facing until they have reached at least one year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds.
- Convertible Seats. When they have outgrown the rear-facing seat, toddlers/preschoolers should use forward-facing convertible seats with a full harness that attaches at the shoulders, hips, and between the legs.
- Booster. When a child outgrows their convertible seat, booster seats are designed to raise the child up so that the lap and shoulder seat belts in the car fit properly. Children should stay in a booster seat until a regular belt fits correctly (between 8 and 12 years of age).
- Seat Belt. Once children have outgrown their booster seats, they should ride in the back seat of the car until 13 years of age and use the car’s lap and shoulder seat belts.
Safe Kids Program at Cooper
Safe Kids Southern New Jersey is a local branch of Safe Kids USA, an organization dedicated to unintentional-injury prevention in children 14 and under. Safe Kids Southern New Jersey is led by the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper, and performs car-seat inspections to determine if children are properly restrained in the car.
For more information, contact Maureen Donnelly at 856.968.8687.