What You Need To Know When Purchasing Baby Car Seats
We all want to keep our children safe, and when they are just babies it’s important to find the right baby car seats for your vehicle. Unfortunately a lot of parents don’t have enough knowledge about them outside of looking for the best price. Today we want to help you learn more about finding the right car seat, and what your choice should include.
When you first start doing your research we recommend addressing the basic safety issues. You need a baby car seat that can connect the seat belt securely. The right choice will come with a LATCH system or Lower Anchor and Tether for Children. This is the system that fastens the car seat to your car. Without it your child won’t be as stable as you might think, even if the regular seat belt is being used.
The best baby car seats out there also come with a Versa Tether Energy Absorbing system. It’s what holds your baby in place in case there is a sudden stop. In fact, it’s built to keep the baby seat from moving anymore than six inches. A good example would be the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat. If you have a LATCH system this is usually an integrated part.
EPS foam is another safety measure for your baby’s car seat. You can also find this in bicycle helmets. If an accident occurs, the foam diverts the forces of the crash away from the baby. The idea is to put an extremely forgiving barrier between them and any type of hard surface. There is also a HUGS harness that is build to prevent movement. This is helpful for even a side car crash or a little fender-bender.
While each one of these safety measures are extremely important, the safety harness is on of the biggest benefits. When you have found the right baby seat for your car it should come with a 5-point system. It should also be form fitting to compact their range of motion, and it should latch down to the seat itself. Check out the Graco Nautilus to get an idea. Since children want to learn unintentionally, the latch should be out of reach when your child is harnessed into the seat.
Comfort for your baby is also something to consider, so the car seat should have plenty of cushioning such as the Graco Nautilus Car Seat. We recommend finding something that can be detached in case it gets dirty. Therefore it should be allowed to be placed in the washer for a proper cleaning. During this time we recommend wiping down the body of the seat and using anti-bacterial wipes to get rid of any germs. A good choice is the 3-in-1 seats. They can change from rear-facing to front-facing, and basically complement your child as he or she grows. Eventually you can transform your baby car seat into a booster seat and still get the same support in the process.
While your budget may not allow you to spend hundreds of dollars on a car seat, that doesn’t mean you should buy some cheap seat, or buy from a second hand store. Buying used seats, is not a good idea, because they have had a lot of use, and may not have the same structural integrity as a new seat. It is important to know that a good quality seat is going to range from one to two hundred dollars.
