Potential hazards with child car seats

1. Child Car Seat Hazards
Manufacturers have quality controls to ensure seats are properly put together and
packaged. However, it is not guaranteed that the included instructions are always adhered
to and correctly followed. Up to 95% of the safety seats that are installed may not be the
right seat for the child, may be hooked into the vehicle loosely, may be hooked with an
incompatible belt in the vehicle, may have harnesses incorrectly fastened in some way, or
may be incorrectly placed in front of air bags. In 1997, six out of ten children who were
killed in vehicle crashes were not correctly restrained.
Along with the problem of instructions not being followed properly, there are other
hazards that can affect children involving these safety seats. A recent study attributed
many cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) to the prolonged sitting or lying
position these infants are in when putting the safety seats to use. When researchers
reviewed more than 500 infant deaths, it was found that 17 of these deaths occurred while
the infant was in a device such as a child safety seat. The age of the most occurring rates
of death by SIDS in a child safety device was found to be less than one month, having six
of the 17 deaths happen in this age group. Although SIDS has been found to be a high
risk regarding child safety seats, a coroner in Quebec also stated that “putting infants in
car seats…causes breathing problems and should be discouraged." His warning came
after the death of a two-month-old boy who was left to nap in a child safety seat
positioned inside his crib rather than the crib itself. The death was linked to positional
asphyxiation. This means that the child was in a position causing him to slowly lose his
supply of oxygen. The coroner said that it is common for a baby’s head to “slump
forward while in a car seat and that it diminishes oxygen”. It is recommended for drivers
to make frequent stops during trips to prevent an infant sitting in a slumped forward
position for any length of time. Also, using a rear-facing seat for as long as possible
according to the manufacturer’s instructions can help prevent slumping since the baby’s
head, which is naturally heavy, tends to lean backwards towards the direction of travel
due to inertia. These are just a small example of the many things that could possibly go
wrong with any child safety seat. It is suggested that every parent look into the product
they are buying to gain knowledge of how they work and the ratings they have received.
Some resources that can be used for this include The Latch Manual which demonstrates
the knowledge of installing different child restraints, newsletters such as “Safe Riders
News”, and fact sheets that can be printed offline as PDF files, etc.