Baby I Love You!

Baby Car Seats

The leading cause of death for children between three and fourteen years old is motor vehicle accidents, and baby car seats could have saved many of those lives. While laws vary by country, the use of rear facing safety seats for children weighing less than 20 pounds is mandatory everywhere. Parents may choose to use them for far longer, however. Longer child restraint use saves lives.

The legal requirements for safety seat use are minimums. Statistical evidence suggests that where they are required for larger children, mortality rates fall. In Sweden, where children ride in rear fa...(scroll down to read on below the product list)

ing car seats until they are five years old, only five children died in motor vehicle accidents between 1992 and 1997. In the same period in the US, between 4500 and 5000 children died in auto accidents. Since Sweden has a total population of around nine million people, that comes out to one death per ten million people annually. The US has about three hundred million people, so the equivalent rate is 30 deaths each year per ten million in population.

Types of safety seats:

Children should use up to four car seats of different types before they graduate to adult seat belts. Each is appropriate for children of a specific size. While this generally equates to kids of a particular age, exceptions in the case of large or small children should be resolved by size, not age.

* Prone position rear facing baby seats should be used up to a weight of 20 pounds. Many such seats are now rated for children up to 35 pounds in weight.

* Convertible seats with a five point harness for seated children are the next step. While these seats may be used for infants, the restraints may not be properly positioned for very young children. Such seats are usually rated for children from 20 to 40 pounds.

* Forward facing seats that use adult seat belts as restraints also provide side protection in case of accident. Children up to 55 pounds may use seats of this nature.

* The last car safety device most children will use is the booster seat. This serves to elevate the child so that standard seat belts restrain the body properly. In the US the recommendation is to use booster seats until the child is 57 inches tall.

A safety seat is one of the most essential items a parent will purchase. Not only are they a legal requirement, they are also the best guarantee of a child's safety. Baby car seats should be used by every child who has not physically outgrown them.