Fox News "Car Seat Conundrum' video....

[beebear23]

Has anyone seen this yet?

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/launch...ch%20Page&News

[tjham]

Rats! I can't get it to work. What does it say?

[Patriot201]

It wouldn't launch correctly for me.

[Morganthe]

see if this link works.

The two hosts are interviewing Lori Walker from SafeKids.
I don't know either of the hosts names, but the woman is a mom of 8? kids, drives an Econoline Van, and was using her situation with carseats to ask if she's doing it correctly. She showed 2 of her kids:
3 year old definitely under 35lb boy in a booster seat. She pulls the shoulder harness behind him because it's too tall and he houdinis out of it.

4 year old daughter AT 40lbs using a backless booster in one of the middle seats -- LAPBELT ONLY!

Informative AND disapointing at the same time Ms Walker mentioned that there are several carseats available over 40lbs and even one that's 'up to 80lbs'. Glossed briefly over how kids should be in a booster until at least 4'9.
But basically told the world that rear facing until 1/20lbs is standard, then kids can be turned around in a harness seat. She did point out that there were 'even an infant seat available to 30lbs', but never once did she say that rear facing is so much safer than forward for young children.

I really hope that the female host was NOT hooking her kids in like this and just playing ignorant to fit the 'average' parent. I didn't see one harnessed seat in her car, nor any other boosters or buckets. In fact, it was pristine. Not what I'd think that carried so many passengers on a regular basis. But that could just be me

[joolsplus3]

That reporter is the dumbest woman I've ever seen. Unless she's faking it for the camera? (And Dr Manny Alvarez has been known to say the Baby B'air is a great solution for flying with a lapbaby... he doesn't have an autoresponder for when you email to complain about his crappy advice...)

[wondering1]

Short coverage just doesn't work. A plug for going to a car seat check wasn't made.

[Jeanum]

I too wonder if the reporter staged it or if she really had her kids riding around like that, ay yi yi. I think Lorrie Walker was amazingly diplomatic and collected in light of the horrid bpb misuse the reporter showed in the video clips. I'm not given to public outbursts of profanity, but I would have been bleeped for most of the segment if I had been in that t.v. studio when the clips were shown. It would have been nice to see a plug for extended rear facing as well as harnessing, but I imagine time constraints/editing played a role, and hopefully some booster misusing parents were enlightened as to the errors of their ways.

[cpsaddict]

OMG! When that reporter was putting those in, I was thinking, "This is a joke, right?" It was such bad misuse!

I would have to be bleeped or arrested for hitting that woman upside the head.

[ShumNum]

That seemed very staged to me...but I guess you never know. One can only hope.

[mimieliza]

I don't like how they harped on "it's so hard, it's so confusing!" I think a lot of parents have heard it's hard and confusing and have just given up trying to get it right. Or they think that it's so confusing that no one really knows what's best, and it doesn't matter anyway.

Really, it's not that hard to at least master the bare minimum, basic standards for safety!

-Rear facing, five point harness from birth until 1 year AND 20 lbs.
-Forward facing, five point harness from 1 year/20 lbs. until the limits of that seat (usually 40 lbs.)
-High back belt-positioning booster for 40 lbs. and up in a seat with lap and shoulder belt.

I know we would like to see much more than these minimal standards of safety, but I think it's pretty simple to understand at least those basic guidelines, unlike that host!

[Niea]

I think for a short segment aimed at regular jane, it was fairly decent.

Sure, she could have talked about extended rear-facing and harnessing all kids longer, but that probably would have fallen on deaf ears. We're talking about people who don't read the instruction manuals, don't know which seats are appropriate, and don't understand how car seats and vehicle seatbelts work.

She focused on the most important things I thought -- using the child restraint properly, using the correct vehicle seatbelts for the child restraint, and making sure the restraint fits the child.

If people aren't following the law as it currently stands, that needs to be addressed before focussing on the above-and-beyond.

[KAK22]

Sadly, that's probably how too many people use seats!

[skaterbabscpst]

If people aren't following the law as it currently stands, that needs to be addressed before focussing on the above-and-beyond.

I disagree. If we give people Best Practice they are more likely to at least MEET the minimums. By telling them the minimums, they think they're doing GREAT! when the meet the minimums, and it makes it that much harder to explain to them that their kids are not as safe as they should be.

[papooses]

Ditto Rebekah -- a very good way to improve enforcement of current standards is to increase/enhance/redefine them to reflect a higher level of safer practice....

[Niea]

Originally Posted by skaterbabscpst

I disagree. If we give people Best Practice they are more likely to at least MEET the minimums. By telling them the minimums, they think they're doing GREAT! when the meet the minimums, and it makes it that much harder to explain to them that their kids are not as safe as they should be.

I agree in general, yes. But when you only have 5 minutes to explain proper use of all child restraints on the market you have to start somewhere. If there was more time, then of course it's necessary to tell parents how to make their child safest, not just meet the minimums. But I think she did alright for just having 5 minutes.

[skaterbabscpst]

Again, no. You mention Best Practice and don't say anything about the minimums.

[papooses]

I'm still going with Becky here -- people who too often fail to meet the minimum even though they know what it is (you'd have be very sheltered + ignorant not to) need to see that there's more than a minimum that they should be striving for: this is what finally gets them to meet the minimum....