Car Seat Safety

I have a solution for correcting the "millions" of carseats that are improperly installed in parents/caregivers cars. It is "mandatory" that you have a carseat to take your prescious new baby home from the hospital, and it is only "recommended" that you have your carseat checked by the fire dept., or police dept., or etc. to ensure that the car seat is properly installed. It seems to me if an improperly installed carseat is one of the leading causes of fatalities to infants and children, why isn't it "mandatory" that your carseat be inspected AT THE HOSPITAL before you leave? Just think how many improperly installed carseats would be caught? And potentially the lives that could be saved???? Seems like a win-win to me...now how to implement? Suggestions?

The problem is that the vast majority of hospitals not only don't want to fund this kind of injury prevention program, but many see it as more of a liability risk than having no program at all.

There are plenty of hospitals that have model programs, but for the rest it takes one person in a position of power and funding to make it happen

You have to convince hospitals that they would not face huge liability lawsuits should something happen and a baby were injured in a carseat that they had inspected/installed. Some hospitals are on the ball, they do lots of education and inspections and realize it'll save them money in the long run (cheaper to check a seat than treat a kid in the ER), but others are lagging behind and I'm not sure what the answer is to get them doing things the right way (I'd also love it if big baby gear stores always had techs on staff...that's another front line situation that would keep lots of people from buying seats that won't work for them at all).

I definetely think alot of the problem is the stores selling the seats. I drive an hour to go to bru to buy my seats unless I get them online but usually I still try them out first, and it amazes me how many uninformed people they have working there. Alot of them are younger guys that don't have kids and have no idea how carseats even work. Or you get the older ladies who will tell you you don't REALLY need a booster seat and are still in the same mode they were twenty years ago when they had their kids. And what kills me at walmart is if you go there to get a seat you can't even try them out or look at them. They have them strapped to the upper shelf.

Cheaper to pay for the full amount of training hours, too -- a hospital sort of near me gives their L&D nurses only 1/2 the training, then expects the job to be done correctly without liability.... What scares me about that is at least 1 of such nurses has her 10 month old FF at barely 20# & almost 3 year old in a backless booster: it's not very likely such a person is going to insist on installation/use perfection for the L&D babies!

My daughter was born in a military hospital. It was mandatory to have the carseat + child in it checked at time of discharge. I ended up having to move her harness slots from the lowest to the next highest over her shoulder despite showing the nurse the instruction manual where it specifically said not to do this. She also insisted on loosening her harness because it 'felt tight'. I also had one of those full terry inserts with the head roll under her body. No one even thought of checking to see if the car base was secured correctly in my car.

Medical staff are not certified seat inspectors. They're extremely busy people and this is an additional item to check off their lists. This experience gave me such a false sense of security, it didn't occur to me that I might have some unsafe set ups in my car. I was informed by family support center that the fire dept. on base only checked if the car seat was tight was tight in your auto. They weren't certified as experts on individual car seat characteristics or to aid you in installation.

Personally, I believe that the government AND car seat manufacturers need to work together to make carseats almost idiot proof. With over 80% installed incorrectly, something definitely needs to be figured out. Laws can be made, but until it's determined why there are so many adults out there having such troubles correctly installing a child seat, they're basically useless.

I think the reason that people have so many problems with carseats is because they dont put any effort into it. I was showing houses all day friday with a family with a 6 yo and a 4 yo. These were little girls, probably both of them under 40lbs, neither of them in a carseat in their mom's van. Well, they decided that they wanted to ride with me and I told them that they had to sit in carseats in my car. Their mom looked at me like I was crazy. So I turned my blvd around and had the 4 yo in that one and the 6yo in the husky and they spent all day riding around with me and never complained. I think so much of it is the parents, they say their kids won't sit in the seat, well of course they won't if you don't make them. You are the parent, your supposed to be the one doing research and making sure your kids are safe, not the other way around.

Not nurses God No, they have enough to do and wouldn't care. Independent inspectors, like the police, or fire, instead of at them doing it at babys r us, just at the hospital. Anyway, still think it makes sense.

DiDi888 said:

Not nurses God No, they have enough to do and wouldn't care. Independent inspectors, like the police, or fire, instead of at them doing it at babys r us, just at the hospital. Anyway, still think it makes sense.

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I am a CPST at a major public hospital here in my area. We have over 300 deliveries a month. There is just not enough of us techs on staff to be able to check every single seats. We do strongly urge our parents to be to have their seats check but we suggest they do this "BEFORE" the baby is born. We talk about car seat safety during our baby classes (child care, baby care, CPR, breast feeding, etc...). But trying to do 300+ car seats a month is just not physically possible on our staff.

I also work at a major hospital chain here in Michigan. I have to check each and every discharged babies seat before they are complete with their discharge education. We fit the seat to the baby, show the parents how to use it, discuss extended rearfacing, aftermarket products, bulky clothing etc.. I check for recalls and expired seats. If the family requests it, or seems confused, we go to the car and also check the base. Our program has been cut from two of our three hospitals for next year. The funding just isn't there, and dispite the praise the families have for the program, it is the first to go when there is less funding coming in for education. We work everyday and don't leave till all the babies being discharged that day have been checked.

At the hospital where both my daughters were born, they used to have this type of program, but discontinued it due to liability concerns. They still employ a tech, but he's not always available. When my 1st daughter was born, they insisted her tight harness straps weren't tight enough and had my husband reinstall the base more tightly (I'm not sure, but it probably did need improvement). They didn't talk about what to do next that I remember, but I was not well after my 1st daughter's birth (significant anemia and 3rd degree tearing) and did not feel at all ready to go home. When I brought my younger dd home, I was expecting them to do the same thing, but they told me they have a policy of not even touching the car seats anymore out of liability concerns.

I do want to say we do require all babies leaving our hospital must have a car seat. We do require the parent to bring the carrier up to the room before we release to verify they have a seat. But, Our nurses that are not CPST are not allowed to instruct a parent on how to use their seat due to liability. Now if the nurse is a CPST she can only advise/recommend but not physically touch the seat.