Safety alert for parents of bebésFollow

That's why we keep the baby locked down in the spare tire port of the trunk.

In more serious news, I own one of of the two that were recommended. Go Me!

Edited, Jan 5th 2007 1:55pm by Frakkor

50 Fluffy goose-down pillows are less likely to cause accidental asphyxiation than bubble wrap.

Did the kid make it?

I remember see an SUV go around a corner, a car seat complete with kid come flying out and the bady landing on it's head on the tar. This was quite a few years ago.

It was a residential road so the car wasn't going that fast. We were on foot and so the first ones at the baby. It was crying..(shew), but had lots of nasty skid marks on it's head. No one dared move the thing til the professionals got there. Word was that there was no permanent damage of any sort,,,sure was a shocker to see though.

Turns out the mother hadn't bothered strapping the seat into the car. Apparently the biggest failure of car seats is people not using them right.

Nah. He was brain-dead, and they turned him off. He was in a seat, but not strapped in.

My mom is certified by the state to inspect carseat installation. Every 3 months or so they have a safety inspection at a AAA or CHP office. Her top three issues are 1) seat not secured properly to the car, 2) carseat in the front seat in cars with airbags, 3) people who buy broken seats from a "friend".

She said one person had rear facing carseat duct-taped, facing forward in the front seat. The car didn't have any working seatbelts either.

Edited, Jan 5th 2007 11:39am by BloodwolfeX

You probably already know this, but a general FYI: There are people certified to put in car seats at most fire departments and police stations and they do it for free. I had mine installed at the police department the first time, and my ex-husband went through it with the officer to learn how to do it the right way for future reference.

Nexa

I bet that expanding spray foam stuff would work really well too in conjunction with teh bubble wrap and duct tape!

saw this last night and the safety seat I have, the Baby trend Flex Loc, was one of the two that passed this inspection. There was a video on CNN that showed a couple of the tests and it was horrific to watch. If I had had any of the other seats, I would have been buying a new one today.
Go go Baby Trend!

Do you know how obvious it is that the seat is "broken"? We actually wound up with a used carseat.

Also: this is for the infant carseats and our baby outgrew that really quickly.

There are two items that you should never get used: cribs and carseats. If you read the book Baby Bargains (a book that breaks down baby products by best value--i.e. the best quality and durability for the lowest price) it has sections explaining why this is just never a good idea.

With both items, there's a chance it may be under recall and you will get it without being aware of the recall. Also, missing hardware or instructions can lead to incorrect or incomplete installation or assembly, making them dangerous. Furthermore, it's possible it was manufactured before the latest safety standards were implemented.

Unfortunately, I keep having to explain this to Mr. Ambrya, who keeps asking why we can't just get a used crib.

As for carseats, the aforementioned book also says that it's safer to get a infant seat and then make the transition to a toddler seat when the baby outgrows the first one--the combo seats that supposedly can be used the entire way through are sort of a "jack of all trades, master of none" option--they do both jobs, but they don't do them as well as the seats specifically designed for a certain sized baby.



Edited, Jan 5th 2007 2:37pm by Ambrya

There are 3 immediate fixes for this:

A. Remove windshields from vehicles
B. Remove seatbelts from vehicles
B. Insert parachute and mars rover like airbags into car seats

Now baby gets a fun safe ride during the accident and is thrown clear of the flammable remains of the vehicle in question.

Seriously though, people worry too much. I'm sure car seats now are safer than they've been for the last 50 years (or whenever they came out). NOW everyone panics about how unsafe they are because of some test that was done? Now everyone is going to run out and buy the 2 brands that passed, only to find out that they are actually worse during an angled impact than the other ones (not confirmed just saying you can't take these tests at face value). All because of some test at "35 miles/hr"...directly head on into a BRICK FRICKEN WALL...how many people hit BRICK walls.

These tests are rediculous. They're the equivalent of someone throwing you into a wall compared to someone holding the back of your head and smashing your face into a fire hydrant. They compare apples to oranges.

Not saying there's not a problem, just saying it's not as big an issue as the media makes it out to be.

I have. Well it was actually granite, but it's close enough. I was certainly doing over 35 mph as well.

No, it really isn't. The difference is that these tests are done in a controlled environment so the evaluations aren't based field tests. Granted, the chances of being hit head on at an exact angle to reproduce what happens in a lab are fairly slim but that doesn't mean that a slightly different angle wouldn't produce the same results. Go study the physics behind vehicular injuries and then come back and say the tests are ********* The science behind what makes those child seats fail in certain conditions doesn't change just because you happen to be driving through grass doing 40 mph and hit a tree instead of a steel plate. If it's ******* it's *******