Buckle up basics: keep kiddos safe by ensuring car seats are properly installed

Over 1,000 children under the age of thirteen were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2016. Of those children, at least one third were either not using, or were improperly restrained within car seats.

As vehicle safety technology continues to develop, and child restraint regulations become stricter than ever, experts believe that many of these tragic deaths could have been avoided through the proper education, installation, and use of child car seats.

According to Advocate Children's Hospital injury prevention coordinator Alix McNulty, child seat installation mistakes and misuse are more common than you may think. "You can never truly generalize installation with a car seat," McNulty says. "You have to evaluate both the vehicle and the seat because they are not always compatible."

With the Center for Disease Control reporting that approximately 59% of car seats are currently being misused in ways that limit their ability to fully protect a child in a crash, McNulty's advice rings truer than ever.

Luckily, parents can now take some of the guesswork out of ensuring that their children are safely secured. Over the past three years, Advocate Children's Hospital has established car seat safety checkpoint programs at five Advocate hospitals in the Chicagoland area. After scheduling an appointment, parents throughout the community are encouraged to come in for a complimentary one-on-one review of their car seats as relates to their child's safety. The appointments, which last approximately fifteen minutes, have benefitted over 1,000 families just in 2018.

Alix also emphasizes, however, that the program is not meant to be an easy alternative to parents installing the seats themselves.

"My intent is not to install the car seat for the parent," McNulty explains. "I will teach them to install their own seat, because when you change cars or buy a new seat, you can't always come back and have someone install it again. We want parents to understand and be knowledgeable in installing the seats themselves and keeping their children safe."

As for the most common installation mistakes? McNulty admits that many problems are quick fixes, such as harnesses needing to be tightened to the child's body or chest plates moved into the proper position. Others may require more work.

"People forget to install the tether cord when they switch their children to forward facing seats," McNulty says. "This piece of equipment is essential, as it anchors the top of the car seat to the seat back, preventing the seat and in turn your child from falling or flipping forward in a crash."

Overall, Alix encourages parents to get their children's seats checked, regardless of their comfort level.

"Out of over 1,000 seats this year, I have only seen two seats that were installed correctly," McNulty says. "The small amount of time it takes to get the seats checked could make all the difference in the life and wellbeing of a child in the event of a crash."

Advocate Children's Hospital provides complimentary car seat check appointments at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. To make an appointment call 708-684-7019.

For more info visit www.AdvocateChildrensHospital.com/care-and-treatment/injury-prevention/.