Pictures of your kids in car seats...

Baylor

New member
So this morning looking through pictures, I found some pictures of my kids in car seats.. For the most part.. They were good .. HOWEVER.. Then I came to the winter pics.. and there are my kids in their big winter jackets from last year strapped in..

OYYYYYY...

Did some wincing this morning!
 
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fyrfightermomma

New member
Many of us have some awful car seat pictures :)

My favorite was my oldest, in her Portabout infant seat she had outgrown, in a giant pink snowsuit that the straps didn't fit over WITH a bundle me. I mean, how cold did I think the kid was going to get??

My not so great usage seemed to die off after she was a year old and I found this site. :)
 

Baylor

New member
My summer pics are pretty good.. but the winter ones.. REALLY...

I am so glad I found this place.

It is really an eye opener!
 

HayleyCPST

New member
before I found this site I did not have a safe situation for my nanny kids. I think the worst was when I had Lucia FF at *just* 2 yrs (ok not that bad) but complete with a kiddopotomos inside her EFTA, mighty tite and bundleme- don't ask me how but it didn't look right... I don't have any pictures. A mental image is enough to make me sick.

Runner up was when Levi was in a BPB at barely 3 maybe 30lbs. Shoulder portion not routed through. Milo was FF at barely 1, prob 25# Chest clip probably too low and too loose. this I have a picture of. :(
 

myliljunebugs

New member
I used a 3pt infant seat with rear adjust and then followed up with an OHS AO for my oldest. He also FF'd too young. The good news is it was always in tight and harness snug with chest clip on chest. I don't really have misuse pics with DD since I found this site before she was born.
 

urchin_grey

New member
Yeah, mine wasn't too bad either (tight harness, chest clip generally in the correct area) but I did FF him way too soon. He RF until 15m when he had surgery on his hips and he wouldn't fit in his Snugride in the spica cast. We had assumed the hospital was going to rent us a spica carseat but they told us to lay him across the back seat and put the seatbelt around him. :eek: DP and I didn't know what else to do so we got a cheap combo seat that didn't really have any sides. I was really upset because he was only about 18-19lbs so I didn't want to FF him but the hospital staff kept telling us "well he'll be 20lbs with the cast on". :rolleyes: I was terrified the whole way home and we didn't go ANYWHERE else but the hospital for cast change and then removal. After he was out of the cast, he was right at 20lbs, so I thought he'd be okay to stay FF. Later I learned a bit about how it was safer to keep RF past 1 and 20 so I attempted to install the COMBO seat RF. :eek: Obviously I couldn't figure it out so I just kind of let it go. Then when he was 2.5 I started reading more about it and then I saw the video about Joel. So I posted a thread on MDC to try to get some help turning his seat and that's when I figured out I had a harness to booster seat, not a convertible AND the minimum on our seat was 22lbs/34in and DS was not even 21lbs and 31in tall. So, even though I was incredibly broke because DP and I had just separated at the time, I went out and bought a Scenera.

Oh, and lets not forget the time DP installed the combo seat with all 3 seatbelts (his reasoning since we didn't have a top tether anchor) and the time I put a locking clip on a lap belt, and the RF tether on the Scenera. :eek::eek::eek:
 
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autumnlily

New member
I found some in my DD1's photo book. I kept them there and added a photo caption: Car Seat Misuse... even by your mom :rolleyes:

It's a great conversation starter when others look through it...
 

Twinklefae

New member
Well, there were the kids I nannied for

-little baby had a badly installed bucket.
-Middle baby was turned FF at 11 months and 18 lbs so that she could see the DVD player and would stop screaming on the way home from vacation.
-Oldest girl was out of a booster long before I arrived at age 6.

DS came home from the hospital in a three point harness. And then rode around in a known crashed 5 point Evenflo that didn't have the handle locked down, was tied down with a cargo strap and the belt not locked at all. When he was about 2 1/2 months old I found out more about CPS and moved him to a bought new Scenera. With the belt threaded through the FF belt path.

We got there eventually.
 

Mommy2Marcus

New member
I bought & used several used seats before I knew better. My harness usage was always pretty good, but only b/c I got lucky before leaving the hospital & was showed how tight it should be as well as where the chest clip should sit. It was not to to loose, but loose enough not to be good enough.

I also used a seat protector mat under my seat before I knew better.

A couple of times I had bad installs that I caught later. Forgot to buckle my son up once or twice.

Installed a FF seat with the RF belt path.

Turned him FF to soon. But later turned him back.
 

andre149

New member
My niece was turned ff at a year. I was 16 at the time and didn't know any differently. At the time I was driving a 95 Jimmy, which doesn't allow seats to be installed in the center because it was so crazy narrow. Of course I didn't know this, thought I was doing well by having my nieces seat installed there. We turned a corner and I heard her start making all sorts of noise. I look back there and her seat is literally halfway on it's side (there was a gap between the middle and side seat about the size of a saucer that the foot of the seat had sort of fallen into)... apparently this is why they didn't want you putting seat there :( She rode outboard from then on... but still ff :(
 

luckyclov

New member
I turned my oldest (now 8 years old) FF at 20 lbs...not 20 lbs *and* 1 year (he was 10 months old :( ).

He also rode in his infant seat with the harness adjusted too high (good chest clip, though) - above his shoulders - and in bulky outerwear...down outerwear, no less.
 

Baylor

New member
It is just amazing.. Here we are trying to be safe and missing it. It would be really really nice if there was a car seat safety course offered for parents. Not to be certified but a class you could take that would just go over basics.. show you how to check your own seat.. stuff like that.

i just feel like when it comes to baby preparation, Car seat safety is really at the end of the line...
 

CTPDMom

Ambassador - CPS Technician
It is just amazing.. Here we are trying to be safe and missing it. It would be really really nice if there was a car seat safety course offered for parents. Not to be certified but a class you could take that would just go over basics.. show you how to check your own seat.. stuff like that.

Most people just aren't interested...they don't think they need it.

Last year I offered the exact class you just posted...for FREE...at the local library. Exactly ZERO parents showed up. :rolleyes:

When it was suggested at the preschool my ds went to that I do a class, the parent advisory group (PTA) said they know it would be worthwhile but didn't think anyone would come out for that.

I think it's really a case of 'ignorance is bliss'. People have no clue they aren't doing the best by their kids.
 

Baylor

New member
Most people just aren't interested...they don't think they need it.

Last year I offered the exact class you just posted...for FREE...at the local library. Exactly ZERO parents showed up. :rolleyes:

When it was suggested at the preschool my ds went to that I do a class, the parent advisory group (PTA) said they know it would be worthwhile but didn't think anyone would come out for that.

I think it's really a case of 'ignorance is bliss'. People have no clue they aren't doing the best by their kids.

That is awesome that you offered!!!.. I am of the opinion that one parent means one more safe child.

I don't know what the answer is. but it needs to be part of that whole prep for new babies. It needs to have more importance than it does now.
 

ConnorsMommy

New member
When my son was born, I had a fairly good idea how to install his seat and buckle him up in it, but I have learned more since then. I have some pictures of him when he was a few months old in his SnugRide and he is buckled in properly. I had him RF in a Roundabout for a short time after he turned one. I found pictures recently of him in it and the straps were about 2 inches above his shoulders for RF. Oops! Later, when he was in his ComfortSport RF, he was buckled in right with the straps in the right place. He was RF in my car until he was about 26 months old. Now, I always have him buckled in right.

With the kids I nannied for before my son was born, I did some things wrong. The boy was FF at a year old. I remember always wondering where the chest clip was supposed to go. I think I out it somewhere around his upper stomach area. I also think I put him in his seat with his coat on. Once, I forgot to buckle him up. (After that, we did a "seat belt check" every time we were in the car so that wouldn't happen again). With his younger sister, I put her FF at 11 months old because the seat I bought was FF only:( and I didn't know any better.
 

mydogteaser

New member
I got bitten by the car seat bug in 2003 when my nephew was a baby. My sister did not always follow best practice, but her ds was safeR because I educated her. So, with my own kids I didn't screw up. However, when I was a teenager and baby-sat, I FF a 9 month old that was in a convertible because I did not realize her seat RF, too. I felt like garbage when I discovered that. When I was a nanny, I FF the little girl at 11 1/2 months because she was "so close to her first birthday" and because I thought her feet hitting the back seat was dangerous. I then moved her into a BPB at almost three because she outgrew the harness on her convertible. I shudder when I look at pictures of her like that.
 

mamakc

Active member
when my DS was born, they made us take a class before we could leave with him about "purple crying" or something like that. Basically aiming at preventing shaken baby syndrome. I think they should do something like that with car seats!

Pictures of DD were mostly loose harnesses. Chest clip was in the right place mostly. And I turned her at 1 year in a seat that she wasn't supposed to FF in until 34 inches (which was at like 2.5!) W/ DS I "splurged" and got a kiddopottomus snuzzler for his seat. Sigh. That was my big thing I wanted to get before he was born. Babies look so cozy in them. I only used it for about 3 weeks because that's when I started learning everything. That thing badly re-routed the straps. :(
 
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supermomof3

Guest
I was such a bad mom! I had my 2 boys (now ages 12 and 8) turned FF at 6 mos as soon as they hit 20 lbs and the oldest was in a booster at 3..thank God for education and now I hope I am way better than I was.
 

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