need something to print for Daycare

Alright, I've got someone at the daycare on the ball about carseat safety, and i told her that I'd try to find something better she could put out to parents, especially the ones who are going to boosters to soon, or worse, 2-5year olds in the front seats in adult seatbelts. (seen by her, me and my husband)

this is a serious issue in our town, way to many parents go to boosters between 3.5 and 4 years old, or younger. I have seen 2 kids in my son's group at daycare 2.5-3.5 y/o in no back boosters (which is when I brought the issue into the daycare)

I talked to the daycare administrator on Friday, and she said she'd look into it, talked to her again today and they can't do a seat check through the health unit, unless the parent goes to the health unit (they're more focused on health than safety), and the RCMP said to just report the vehicles as it happens. We've decided to put out information in parent's mailboxes at daycare, she said she'd copy it and put it out, I told her I'd try to get something to her.

So I'm not focussing on ERF, as that's going to fall on deaf ears(I know of 4 parents in town who ERF, despite my enthusiasim, and myself and my best friend are 2 of them), I need printable/copiable material, that will get these parent's attention. the pamphlets they hand out at the health unit in Alberta are already going out, but we want better, any suggestions, help, the kids in my town desperately need it.

Here are a few printable items (as well as one brochure to request) which you can look at to see if one or more might work for your situation. I included some ERF info as well, but you can ignore those if they won't work in your situation.

The below links are from US sources, but maybe they might work for Canadian parents as well. I have no idea if you can request that USAA booklet in Canada, but it might be helpful to someone else viewing this thread.

Extended Rearfacing Info:
http://www.carseatsite.com/RF_Handout2.pdf
http://www.cpsafety.com/PDFfiles/RearFacingBrochure.pdf
http://carseat.org/Resources/633.pdf
http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

Extended Harnessing Info:
http://www.carseatsite.com/EH_handout.pdf

Danger of Shield Car Seats:
http://www.cpsafety.com/PDFfiles/ShieldSeatBrochure.pdf

Boosters are for big kids:
http://carseat.org/Boosters/630.pdf

Used Carseat Checklist:
http://carseat.org/Resources/15_recycled_seats.pdf

Various other handouts:
http://www.carseat.org/Resources/Repro_Mat_Lst.htm#parents

For distributing to people, I really like the free booklet you can order from USAA (here is the PDF version: http://www.usaaedfoundation.org/pdf/544.pdf). It has a lot of proper use/misuse pictures in it which is really handy.
To get it, go to: http://www.usaaedfoundation.org/
Select the "Order Publications" link at the top of the form.
Select publication "544 - Installing Child Safety Seats"
You can order up to 100 brochures at a time and they are free (might not be available in Canada though)

I would not use any of the US links in the post above. The US info re TTs and certain weights are actually illegal up here (ie., a FFg harnessed seats must be TT'd here, there are no legal boosters below 40lbs, etc).

I would use the TC links: http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/safedrivers-childsafety-car-index-873.htm

But, honestly, *I* wouldn't do anything. If I had a dime for all the car seat issues I see on a daily basis (at daycare and elsewhere), I'd be a millionaire.

JMHO.

Thanks, I printed one, but we'll have to call, if we want to order the brochure, it said you could in canada, but won't let me enter the post code, because it has letters in it, I've written the information down for her though.

I don't like the canadian stuff, it's too general, and hardly promotes the harness at all, (though it is better for ERF than I remembered)

I haven't given up on these kids, DH saw a 2 and a 5 year old buckled in the front seat of a truck the other day, leaving the daycare, together, in one seatbelt, Those kids deserve better than that, that makes 3 families, for sure, putting their kids in Danger, and those are only the ones DH and I have seen.

These are kinda lame, IMO, but it might help:
http://www.albertaseatbelts.ca/files/Forward_YES_Test1.pdf (note the second check box - there is no law in Alberta stating that the minimum is 40lbs to move into a booster, but no booster allows it)
http://www.albertaseatbelts.ca/files/Booster_YES_Test2.pdf (note the line in bold at the bottom of the 2nd page)

Also of note; the only law in Alberta on car seats is this: "Children must ride in a car seat until they are a minimum of 6 years old or over 40 pounds (18 kg)." (From Traffic Safety Act – Vehicle Equipment and Regulation Section 78(2)(a)(b).) This considers a booster seat as a car seat, note it is an OR statement so if you have a 5 yr old who weighs more than 40 lbs, its not illegal, just unsafe for them to be in an adult seatbelt.

HTH,
Melissa

ETA: I also found this; its old but contains some relevant info that you could cut and paste if you wanted: http://www.albertaseatbelts.ca/files/EnglishReport_BoosterSeats.pdf or print the whole thing...

dd9736 said:

I talked to the daycare administrator on Friday, and she said she'd look into it, talked to her again today and they can't do a seat check through the health unit, unless the parent goes to the health unit (they're more focused on health than safety

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IIRC you are just outside of Edmonton, aren't you? If your health unit is part of the old Capital Health region, I'd check again to see if the injury prevention staff there can do a little car seat clinic for your daycare.

When they ended the car seat clinics in the old Capital Health region, one of the reasons was to move resources away from public clinics & use them to hold small community clinics for "at risk" populations. One of the Edmonton health units just held a car seat check-up this week at my DS's daycare site, because the society that runs the daycare also offers programs to lower income & immigrant populations. Maybe someone would be willing to do the same at your daycare?

shauburg said:

IIRC you are just outside of Edmonton, aren't you? If your health unit is part of the old Capital Health region, I'd check again to see if the injury prevention staff there can do a little car seat clinic for your daycare.

When they ended the car seat clinics in the old Capital Health region, one of the reasons was to move resources away from public clinics & use them to hold small community clinics for "at risk" populations. One of the Edmonton health units just held a car seat check-up this week at my DS's daycare site, because the society that runs the daycare also offers programs to lower income & immigrant populations. Maybe someone would be willing to do the same at your daycare?

Click to expand...

thanks, I'm from a small town just outside of the old capital health region, they won't do one at the daycare, but they are doing a carseat clinic at the Sobeys in June (I work that day, but they handed out flyers at the daycare, 1 per child, not just per parent) It's sponsered by the health unit, the RCMP, and Sobeys, so something might have gotten through to the powers that be.