Friday, June 27, 2008

Public Service Announcement

Before I write anything for the day I usually go onto my bloglines and read all of the updates. I do this 1) to see what everyone is up to and 2) to possibly get some ideas of what to write about.

Today, I'm going to take a moment to re-iterate something I saw on Kristi's blog this morning. Yesterday she was in a car accident. A minor accident but it reminded her that her daughter had outgrown her car seat and that she had not yet made time to purchase a new one. Luckily, her daughter was not hurt and they immediately purchased her a new car seat. A seat with a 5 point harness up to 65 lbs.

And that, dear friends, is the message of my public service announcement today. There have been some new studies out that have shown that it is NOT as safe to move smaller children up to booster seats as was once thought. Adult seat belts can hurt children under five and even children over five who are small for their age.

I know a lot of parents who move smaller children up thinking the age restriction is all they need to follow or they move the younger child up sooner because they throw a fit and want to be like their older sibling. Please don't do this. The booster seat we got for Zack allows him to be in a five point harness until he is 65 lbs. I plan to leave him in that seat until he is 65 lbs. (Which at this rate might be next year!! LOL)

I also plan to reposition his seat this weekend to tether him into the car. I have not done this and noticed when I got into a friend's car this weekend she had her seats tethered in. That is one more safety measure that I need to take to protect my son. After watching the video's below I realized that one inconvenience for me is NOT worth risking his life.

If you have the time, watch the videos below (possibly with some Kleenex). Seriously what's a little crying and fit throwing about being in a "baby" seat when you are trying to save your child's life?

This has been the end of your public service announcement. We will return you to your regularly scheduled programing next week.

5 Year Old Kyle Miller


3 Year Old Isabelle

2 comments:

Brandy said...

I have known for a long time that I would keep my son rear-facing for as long as possible and then in a 5-point harness for as long as possible but these videos just strengthened that resolve. My SIL turned her son around forward facing at 9 months because she didn't know any better and since he'd met the weight requirement to stop the use of his infant seat she thought that's what she was supposed to do. When I told her all of the dangers she immediately turned him around.

Thanks for sharing this!

Creative Genius? said...

Avi (our son) is 19.5 months old and his car seat is still rear facing. We have a Britax that allows us to keep him rear facing up to 35 lbs and since that is the safest way for him to ride in a car - that is the way he will continue to ride.

Is it the most comfortable for him? No - I am sure he'd like it better if he could ride forward. Can we reach him? Not that well - I am sure we could reach him better if he was forward facing. Can he see ok out the front? Nope - not at all.

But he is safe. Just watching the crash test comparisons could turn your stomach - which made me realize that it is not time to turn his seat around.

I have seen the Britax Regents in person (it's HUGE) and it rocks! When Avi finally outgrows his current Britax seat we'll go with the Regents or whatever is the best at the time! So thank you for posting this - I'll be passing it o for sure!

-AL