As part of Child Passenger Safety Month in February, the North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) emphasizes the importance of registering car seats and reminds caregivers that unregulated products should not be used with their car seats.
“Registering a car seat is very easy to do and essential to a child’s safety,” said Dawn Mayer with the Division of Injury Prevention and Control. “It is also important to use best practices with car seats, which includes not modifying them or adding items that may affect their integrity or ability to prevent injury in an accident.”
There were numerous car seat recalls that occurred in 2014, which emphasized the need for caregivers to register car seats. Registration of car seats makes it possible for manufacturers to notify consumers if there is a safety issue with their car seat. Car seats, by federal law, are sold with a registration card that the consumer should use to register their seat.
If consumers do not register the seat, they may not hear of a recall, which may put children at risk. Data collected from car seat checkups conducted by the department in 2014 showed that 40 percent of the car seats checked had not been registered with the car seat manufacturer. These consumers would not have been notified if their seat had been recalled. Consumers, who want to register their car seats now can visit www.safercar.gov or contact the car seat manufacturer directly.
The Department of Health would also like to remind consumers that they should not use unregulated products with their car seats, because they may affect the integrity of the safety features of the seat. Examples of products that should not be added to car seats include head pillows/body blankets, harness covers, vehicle seat protectors, mirrors and extra padding.
According to data collected from the same car seat check-ups in 2014, approximately 20 percent of the seats checked had an unsafe product added. Of the 20 percent that were found, only 61 percent of the caregivers removed the unsafe product.
NDDoH recommends following these best practices when it comes to transporting children:
• Children younger than 13 should ride in the back seat.
• REAR-FACING: Children should ride rear-facing until at least 2 years of age (following car seat instructions)
• FORWARD-FACING: When children are at least 2 years of age or have outgrown the highest rear-facing limits of their car seat, they may ride forward-facing in a car seat with a harness. Use the seat until the child reaches the harness’s highest weight limit allowed by the manufacturer.
• BOOSTERS: When children have outgrown the harness in their forward-facing car seat, they may be moved to a booster. The child should be at least 40 pounds and at least 4 years of age. Keep the child in the booster until about 4’9” tall.
• SEAT BELT: Children should use a seat belt when it fits over the body correctly. For a seat belt to fit properly, the lap belt must lie snugly across the upper thighs and be snug across the shoulder and chest. It should not lie on the stomach or across the neck.