A big thumbs up to CT AAA!

Our department gets a copy of the CT AAA newspaper that comes out every month or so...in it they generally post the dates/times/locations of their car seat clinics in this area so I cut it out and have it handy in case a resident calls who needs a date/time for an install/inspection and we can't accomodate them. Anyway, there's usually a little article along with the schedule and this month it's titled 'How long should babies ride rear-facing in car seats?' Hooray!!

The article is factual and accurate, with the first line stating that riding rear-facing as long as possible is recommended by the AAP and other safety experts. It goes on to explain the perils of forward facing, describing internal decap...and also describing how the baby is cradled rf in a frontal crash. It further goes on to state that rf also protects baby better in other types of crashes, particularly side impact.

And then it encourages parents to come to a car seat clinic to learn more, etc.

The only thing I felt might have made it even better would have been to stress that convertibles go to 30-35lbs and that translates to 2.5-3+ years and about the feet crunching thing that parents are always remarking about. But other than that I thought it was great! :thumbsup:

oh where would i find a car seat chck scheduled in arround torrington ct. i have a few friends who would like theres checked. i told them to call the fire department but it would be nice to know. plus my daughters preschool always likes to know these things.

In Torrington car seat clinics are scheduled every month by the Police Dept. They have techs that come in. (I just spoke to one of the techs to confirm.) And if it's an emergency I'm told you can ask to make an appt. sooner than the regularly scheduled check. The Torrington PD is located at 576 Main St and their phone # is 489-2046. And as I understand it you can't just show up on a clinic date, you have to call in advance for an appt.

The AAA checks aren't very close to Torrington...the closest is either North Haven on April 10th or Hamden on April 14th. The # for AAA to make an appt for either of those clinics is 203-765-4222 x3142.

I just checked the CT Safe Kids site for you and there is a clinic coming up THIS Saturday in Southington (which isn't too far I don't think):

March 29, 2008
10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Southington Fire Company #2
120 West Main Street
Plantsville, CT 06479
Contact: Karen Brock, Safe Kids Connecticut, 860-545-9977

And one that's coming up in Torrington:

May 3, 2008
10:00am to 1:00pm
Early Head Start
350 Main Street
Torrington, CT 06790
Contact: Patti Palermo, Safe Kids Litchfield County, 860-482-5286

And here's the link to the CT Safe Kids site with a whole list of other clinics...some are close(ish) to Torrington.

http://www.ctsafekids.com/carseat_info.htm

Hope that one of those options will work for your friends!