There should be more info about car seat safety!

Happytobeme

New member
Ok, I am probably not the most experienced person to be writing this so bear with me.

I think that each place that sells car seats should be responsible and accountable for putting up a sign saying "buying a car seat is the first step, now learn HOW to use it". "Correct installation is of the utmost importance"

Personally I am a research freak so nothing I do is without many hours on the computer etc, but I know of so many people who just do not fully understand the importance of car seat safety.

Yes I know that it comes with parenting that we should all look closely at everything we do when it comes to our children, and even though there are a lot of ignorant people out there, there is also many more who would take safety more seriously if it was brought to their attention when buying seats and so forth.

I am not making excuses for anyone, but I did not have a clue about the extra measures that I should take when we first started looking for seats. If there had been something to grab my attention BEFORE I purchased my seat then it would have been a whole different process.

How about supplying buyers with a leaflet everytime a seat is purchased??
What about a website address' or contact numbers be placed on cartons so they can't be missed?? Like a seal or something. And I mean in BOLD print, not just off to the side somewhere.

So I am probably grabbing at straws here, but from a new parent who is extremely active about my childs safety, I say that there is no way enough "IN YOUR FACE" info out there.

People either read instructions or they don't, the ones that do, will have a chance to get the installation correct, the ones that don't haven't got a chance.

I am not starting an argument here about being a responsible parent, just stating that from a rookies point of view, there is not enough education readily available to purchasers of car seats.

Well I feel better now, what do you think??
 
ADS

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
I agree. I think there should be a large sign explaining the inherent risk of crashes (how often they happen, how many kids suffer death or injury & common misuse errors) + the toll free number to find local techs > 1.866.SEATCHECK & schedule of local Defensive Driving courses :eek:

Even better, I think stores should staff only CPSTs for this department & require the techs to perform a seatcheck before the family leaves :rolleyes: (probably not realistic, but I never said I wasn't idealistic)
 

Tiffanie

New member
I totally agree also. So many people out there are not informed. My BIL just learned from me yesterday that carseats have expiration dates and only are good for certain weights and heights...and he's a rocket scientist! (Yes, really that is his career, a rocket scientist) But he doesn't have kids yet so he's off the hook for now.

I think there should be more info in magazines too. Yes they have their little articles but I want to see a real carseat safety article.
 

katiesmommy

Active member
Even better, I think stores should staff only CPSTs for this department & require the techs to perform a seatcheck before the family leaves :rolleyes: (probably not realistic, but I never said I wasn't idealistic)

Tiffany, I know what you mean. I am dying to take over my NEX's carseat department. They have a grand total of 3 good seats, two of which are infant seats. Combi connection, keyfit, and FPSVD. Plus they are trying to sell the floor model keyfit which is over 2 years old already, for $10 off. Are you kidding me. I went on a rant about this to DH while looking at it yesterday. Someone was restocking the bottles and such one aisle over when I did it.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
I totally agree! Retailers are the 'front line' in this education war, and it's pretty much intolerable that they don't have information packets, CPST's on staff, signs up everywhere...whatever it takes to get the information out there. At least some seats have leaflets in the boxes (Graco sponsors www.seatcheck.org and advertises it well), but it hardly makes up for the bumbling incompetents (mean? maybe, but seriously, if you are selling a product, you need to have basic information on it, whether your employer provides it or not) that babies r us (and other stores, but most people complain most about them, and they really ARE the store that needs to have a clue) hires for their baby gear department :(

It's money. Where's the incentive to advertise safety? How can we find it? What is the capitalist motivation we need here to get things rolling? (I think the government does enough, I don't want any more tax dollars going to them, personally...I'd rather some nice smart entrepreneur figures it out: makes money AND prevents injury!)

Ok, that's enough from me, glad to have you here :)
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Even better, I think stores should staff only CPSTs for this department & require the techs to perform a seatcheck before the family leaves :rolleyes: (probably not realistic, but I never said I wasn't idealistic)

Totally! I think Britax used to have that as a standard, at least it's on their registration form: Did someone teach you how to install this seat?... I mean, wow, if the stores didn't do it, how cool was it for Britax to insist that you teach customers to do it if you want to be an authorized retailer?
 

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
It's money. Where's the incentive to advertise safety? How can we find it? What is the capitalist motivation we need here to get things rolling? (I think the government does enough, I don't want any more tax dollars going to them, personally...I'd rather some nice smart entrepreneur figures it out: makes money AND prevents injury!)

:yeahthat::bow:
 

chickenman

New member
we do advertise safety in our store, but things like consumer reports or books reaches the masses better, like bargain baby books and so forth. I am a certified tech and I work monday through friday, and pretty much hang out by the car seat department all day as well as do orders for car seats. I like to teach people who have the time, and patience, and I always bring up the point about extended rear facing. I think there should be a consensus and realistic ideas put to paper that could be handed out to every car seat dealer. I mean things like children should be rear facing for at least 24 months as long as there weight permits it, for such and such and such reasons 2) children should be in a 5 point harness to 5 years old before they use a booster, as long as there height and vechile permit the seat for such and such reason, 3) children should be in a pooster until they pass the 5 step test which is such and such. if there was literature like that available i would make sure it got into every welcome packet. And there are the times where I cant force it on a parent where they will say its the decision i have made if they choose to do something or use a certain product.

I understand most new parents go to a place like bru and there are 18 years trying to tell you how one car seat is better then another, but they dont really have enough life experience to do that. Some people are just never around kids and dont know about anything to expect, i think information should also be at hospitals and maybe the hospitals should actually check to make sure your car seat is installed properly versus just checking that you have one. But kids safety isnt only about car seats, there are miss reports on bottles leaching chemicals, and safety boarding up the house, and a ton of stuff to consider and present to the parent and let them make the choice that they feel is correct. Its time consuming and i think hard on women that are pregnant and can only think about there feet hurting or other things.

Everytime I sell a car seat I ask questions about teh car the child and i will tell teh parent if i believe this is the right car seat or not, but we techs dont know everything and i am still learning new things everyday while being on here and watching crash test videos and understanding dynamics

but everything that we sell in the store is carefully evalutated by us, we mainly only carry britax for convertible seats, and a variety of infant and booster seats as well.
 

elle7715

Member
I think it would be great if every seat sold was required to have a pamphlet attached. Like "This is a rear facing only restraint. Use for ___ ages and ___weights." in bold and then explain best practices. "Keep your child rear facing as long as possible", "Buy a convertable seat after this seat is outgrown" etc. Manuals give basic information but no statistics. It'd be nice if there was a standard pamphlet stating how dangerous it is to have young children forward facing and in boosters to early, with facts to back it up.
 

elle7715

Member
Now if there was only a way to attach that to all rear facing car seats and stick a NHTSA and SafeKids label on there!
 

chickenman

New member
i think the most benefit a parent would get it is if they were used to being around kids, seeing car seats, understand how life changing it can be in a good way, and not have everything so foreign.
 

Happytobeme

New member
Just wanted to say "thanks for reading"! I sort of got incredibly busy and was unable to see what you all had to say any earlier than this.
Thanks again
Have a wonderful evening.
 

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