Car Seat Installation Woes

If you are a first time parent and have purchased a great car seat for your child, learning car seat installation techniques can be a bit confusing. We have all seen the frazzled and stressed parents in driveways struggling with snaps and buckles, trying to do the dreaded car seat installation. Millions of new parents sweat, grunt and groan as they battle with the car seat. They know that the seat can save their child\'s life and they struggle to install it correctly.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA has done research that suggests that as many as 80 percent of car seats are not installed correctly. That is a scary number indeed! This is perhaps a contributing factor as to why car accidents are the top killer of kids under the age of fourteen.

The difficulty surrounding car seat installation stems from the fact that there are a wide variety of both car seats and types of vehicle seats. Some vehicles have seatbelts that automatically lock, lock upon emergency or the types of belts that switch between these two modes. Car seat cushions are flat or rounded, narrow and wide. The newer vehicles have middle seats with shoulder belts while older cars do not. Combine this confusion with the varying dimensions of car seats and you end up with car seat installation frustration.

To help consumers with car seat installation the U.S. Government has set a standard that says new cars have to feature LATCH. This stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. If you have a car and a child seat that are equipped with LATCH, this means that you do not have to use the car seatbelts in order to do the car seat installation. This standard was designed to rid parents of the frustration and to ensure that car seats are installed properly so that your child will be protected in the case of an accident.

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A great way to check to see if you have finally installed your car seat properly is to take it to a safety seat inspection station. There are now hundreds of such stations set up across the United States. The people who work at these stations are expertly trained technicians who will assist you and instruct you as to how to install your car seat.

Car seat installation can be a true nightmare. Take the time to find the nearest safety seat checkpoint in your area. The folks there are ready and very willing to help you. Once you are shown how to put the seat into your vehicle correctly by an expert, the task should not be so daunting the first time you have to do it alone. Remember, your child\'s life could depend on it.

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