Parents Magazine

kmcenery · Mar 15, 2009

the April 09 issue has a pretty good write up about car seat. It could have used moving a child out of a harness to soon but all the info seems to be great.

I dont have time now but tonight if its ok I can type it up tonight and post it here. Im not sure if thats ok or not.

Simplysomething · Mar 15, 2009

It seems like they've been hanging out here, because it hits some c-s.org advice "greatest hits":

making sure your car allows usage of the center, for lower tether usage.
talks about not using thick coats, or extra padding
the "least protected child in the most protected spot" thing.
forward facing "at about age 2". But says that's when they've outgrown the infant seat.
not using both seat belt and lower anchors to install
using the top tether for forward facing

It is organized oddly, I think, starts with rear-facing, then forward facing, then booster...THEN combo seat.

Even with any of it's problems, it does better than many other articles I've seen on car-seats and child passenger safety.

tjham · Mar 15, 2009

I wish they had that article online.

SafeDad · Mar 15, 2009

In fact, someone from Parents contacted me a few months ago in reference to an article to be run around now. They never got back to me. Did they copy anything verbatim from here?

BW1426 · Mar 15, 2009

I was going to post this and got side tracked. I thought they did a very nice job. I feel like we don't get to say that very often :thumbsup:

ctbcleveland · Mar 15, 2009

I found the article to be perfectly on-point - but they had the darn Sonic ad (posted in another post this weekend) on the page following the carseat article with three kids who clearly ought to be in boosters - one of which has no lapbelt on.

serabi · Mar 15, 2009

ctbcleveland said:
I found the article to be perfectly on-point - but they had the darn Sonic ad (posted in another post this weekend) on the page following the carseat article with three kids who clearly ought to be in boosters - one of which has no lapbelt on.

I noticed that too!

I do wish they'd talked about harnessing past 40lbs but that was honestly my only quibble.

Simplysomething · Mar 15, 2009

CPSDarren said:
In fact, someone from Parents contacted me a few months ago in reference to an article to be run around now. They never got back to me. Did they copy anything verbatim from here?

I don't know if anything was copied verbatim, could scan the thing and send...

SafeDad · Mar 15, 2009

Nah, no worries. If they did use Car-Seat.Org, Car-Safety.Org or Seatcheck.net as part of their research, it was very unprofessional not to mention us.

fyrfightermomma · Mar 15, 2009

ksera05 said:
I noticed that too!

I do wish they'd talked about harnessing past 40lbs but that was honestly my only quibble.

Yeah, the only thing they mentioned is in the combo seat section they said "some harnesses can go to 65 or 80 lbs" but that was the only mention. After their "head is to the top of the toddler seat" they can go in a booster. Hmmmmmm

mum2two · Mar 15, 2009

I guess I had issues with 'at 40 lbs time for a booster', that's quite a blanket statement and then they really didn't differentiate between backless and high back boosters, they made them seem pretty much the same thing and didn't explain how a high back booster can provide much more protection, especially in that child (often 3 and 4 year olds who reach the magic 40 lb mark).

Melizerd · Mar 16, 2009

It was better then most articles. I give them credit for doing SOMETHING more than the usually crappy article. Now we can work on them for an EH article too. One step at a time.

What Marathon cover was that? It was a cute couture one.

mum2two · Mar 16, 2009

My question is, if you're researching an article for work (or researching anything for a job) you can do a better job, there are plenty of places out there to find out about all types of car seats/booster and they should have contacted folks here or other car seat specific sites. If I did my job that poorly (ex. only getting about 60% of the info accurate and complete) I'd probably lose my job.

My other issue is that so many parents see Parents Magazine (and the Today show and their Pediatrician) as THE authority on all things related to children and so I really feel it's their job to do a complete job, at least they are finally getting the ERF word out, it's only been about 3 years!!!

JerseyGirl'sMama · Mar 16, 2009

CPSDarren said:
Nah, no worries. If they did use Car-Seat.Org, Car-Safety.Org or Seatcheck.net as part of their research, it was very unprofessional not to mention us.

Nah. They mentioned seatcheck.org though. I can't believe they quoted somebody from Consumer Reports and noboby from here!

SafeDad · Mar 16, 2009

JerseyGirl'sMama said:
Nah. They mentioned seatcheck.org though. I can't believe they quoted somebody from Consumer Reports and noboby from here!

Yeah, that is pretty sad, considering that CR isn't even remotely considered an authority on the topic.

Simplysomething · Mar 16, 2009

CPSDarren said:
Yeah, that is pretty sad, considering that CR isn't even remotely considered an authority on the topic.

It is by parents, of course. A mention of c-s.org would have been nice, because I do think they definitely got some of their information from here.

Aw well, like I said before, it was way better than most other car-seat articles.

SafeDad · Mar 16, 2009

I'd much rather have seen advice from Safety Belt Safe or Safe Ride News than Consumer Reports. Oh well, as long as the advice was good, it's not worth the time spent complaining lol.

Evolily · Mar 16, 2009

Outside of the bit about a kid outgrowing an infant seat around 2 y/o (um...) and the part about boostering at 40 lbs, it was decent. I wish they would have touched on car seats expiring, though.

emandbri · Mar 17, 2009

I thought it as very well done. I agree with Darren though that saying kids outgrow an infant seat at 2 is really strange.

I wish it said something about not putting a child in a booster until at least 4, I don't like hearing about 3 year olds in boosters, and HATE hearing about 1 and 2 year olds in them!

Kat_Momof3 · Mar 17, 2009

I reread that part about age 2 and I think they meant to include rearfacing convertible seats, because it says that, at that time, you would "buy a forward facing seat (or turn your convertible seat around)"

you could email them if you want to see a correction made... but I don't think it's worth it.

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