So, it’s been a while since I’ve written… I have been a bit consumed with motherhood and writing has taken a “backseat”.
Speaking of backseats… (Haha) Today I was inspired to write, for I had the most interesting and important experience yesterday.
For whatever reason, I felt inclined to schedule an appointment for a free car seat inspection at a local Children’s Hospital (Joe DeMaggio’s Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, FL to be exact).
I had heard the staggering statistics that the majority (like more than 90%) of car seats are installed improperly and needed to confirm that I wasn’t one of them.
I assumed that since I am highly educated, fairly intelligent, was extremely thorough in reading the instructions and most importantly, I love my child more than anything in the world, that I would just show up, and she would tell me I did everything right, and I’d be on my way.
Man, was I wrong!
I was greeted by the kindest, most informed, helpful woman, who spent close to an hour taking my car seat out, readjusting, refitting and teaching me more car seat information than I could have ever imagined existed.
Apparently she had spent over 40 hours in training to be a car seat inspector! I couldn’t believe there was so much information that I had never heard about, not even in any of my child safety classes!
A few things I learned…
Did you know that any object hard, soft, heavy, light becomes like missile if you’re in a crash? Something as light as a Kleenex box has seriously injured a baby when moving at such fast speeds.
As a new mommy, eager to entertain a fussy baby, I purposely kept the floor in my backseat covered in toys that, should the car rollover, could all seriously hurt my child…
Also, as a means to keep the car seat even more secure, my front seat was pushed all the way back to help hold the car seat in place. Good thinking right? Wrong!
Apparently the car seat’s ability to bounce up and down a bit creates suspension, which keeps the car seat bouncing instead of your baby’s head and neck if in a collision.
Car seat moving from side to side however, is not okay!
I thought that I had the base of the seat in strapped as tight as possible. It seemed to move less than an inch, as had been instructed by the manual, but when she got in there and put all of her bodyweight on top of the base in order to tighten strap just a little bit more, I realize that my car seat was definitely not as secure as I thought it was.
Not to mention the shoulder straps, which, I thought were fine, but apparently were were all sorts of confused. She needed to re-adjust and fix it all!
All in all, clearly I am not a car seat specialist (hopefully a bit more knowledgeable now than previously), but I do recommend that everyone go see one. The knowledge and learning I received truly blew my mind, and made me realize that this is something everyone should know!
For more information, ask your local pediatrician, fire department and I think even huge toy stores, if they know of a car seat inspector. If you can see the one that I saw (Andrea), even better, she was amazing!
Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s Hospital (954) 265-3482
Keep those kiddos safe!