March 3, 2021 • 39 mins
It’s one of the most important purchases you’ll make for your baby - a car seat. This week, Heidi is joined by pediatrician Dr. Alisa Baer, known as ‘The Car Seat Lady’. Alisa breaks down how to choose a car seat that will work for your car and your lifestyle, how to know if it’s installed correctly, and the best ways to make sure your baby is buckled in safely. Heidi and Alisa also tackle the biggest questions from the WTE community, including the differences between an infant seat and a convertible seat, the truth about car seat mirrors, and the surprising ways to know if your child has outgrown their car seat.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh baby, a baby, I need you? Oh how I
need you? What you expect? As a production of I
Heart Radio, I'm your host Heidi Murkoff and I'm a
mom on a mission, A mission to help you know
what to expect every step of the way. There's no
(00:26):
more essential item to buy before you bring your baby
home from the hospital. In fact, the hospital won't let
you leave without it. A car seat, of course, But
with so many car seats on the market, how do
you pick the one that's best for you and your baby?
Safety's job one for any car seat, with baby's comfort
and your convenience running a close second and third. But
(00:49):
will it fit your lifestyle, your car, an airplane seat
or an uber Will you need a different seat for
each of your cars or just an extra base? Will
it be heavy lift and will you be able to
lift it up neatly and snap it into the matching
stroller base without waking your sleeping bundle? Can you use
it with a stroller at all? Can you borrow car
(01:11):
seat from your friend or use the one your preschool
or outgrew. Should it be for newborns only? Or a
convertible that fits your baby as she grows and most
of all, will you need to go back and get
an engineering degree or even one in rocket science just
to be sure you're installing it right? Today, we've got
all your car seat bases and basics covered. I am
(01:35):
so excited to welcome the world expert on car seats.
She's a pediatrician who has also been studying car seats
for over twenty years and says she has installed over
fifteen thousand of them, which honestly is fifteen thousand more
than I have. Dr Lisa Bear, who you might know
(01:56):
as a car seat lady. She is a legend and
a savor literally, and she does all of this for
one reason only to help parents keep their little ones safe.
She has absolutely no financial ties to any car seat manufacturers,
which only makes me love her more. At lasta first,
(02:18):
of all, car seats run in your family. I've heard, yes,
you got the car seat bug from your mom, correct,
who was a trailblazer in car seat safety, which is
awesome in and of itself. So tell us a little
bit about how you became the car seat lady. After
first being a pediatrician, I got involved with car seats
(02:40):
pretty early on, and that uh, my mother has been
involved since I was around four or five years old,
originally just helping parents become aware that car seats were
out on the market and encouraging them to use them,
and then uh it evolved to helping parents use them properly.
She would have families come over to her house almost
(03:00):
every day and help them install the seats properly, so
I would get to play with the kids so that
the parents could pay attention. And then my senior year
of high school, I went to a school where for
a month we had to do an unpaid internship. We
didn't have classes that month, and I didn't know what
I was gonna do. And my mother is a laboring
deliver readers. My mother kept saying, why don't you just
work on the nursery floor of the hospital where I
(03:21):
work and just teach the parents what to do with
their car seats. And my friends were shadowing doctors or
lawyers or accountants, and I could do that for two hours,
but not a whole month, and I didn't know what
I was gonna do. And so it came the day
where you had to put down on the form what
you were going to do, and I put it down
that I was gonna help the parents with their car seats.
And we're now this month, this twenty three years later,
(03:42):
and that internship completely changed my life because before that
I had never actually helped the parents with the seats,
and I really wasn't that interested in it, but it
got me hooked. It was it's really it's an interesting
opportunity to be able to work with parents at special
moments in their life. And it's also instant gratification and
(04:02):
that you take a seat that usually has several errors
that you know could cause harm, and you educate the parent,
You give them information and skills, and then they're able
to make the changes to keep their child safe. There
are plenty of things about being pregnant and having a
baby that are inherently overwhelming. Um, but right up there
(04:24):
is figuring out which car seat to buy. First, You've
got to figure out which one to buy and then
how to install it. So what are the top things
parents should consider when making that super important choice. So
I think it's important to stress that the car seat
is the only product you're going to buy for the
sole purpose of saving your child's life. Hopefully you'll never
(04:48):
need to use it in that capacity, but that is
the reason you're buying it. So when thinking about budget
and priorities, I think the car seat should be one
of the most important purchases that you make and money
should be allotted to that rather than some of the
other accessories that maybe you don't need as much of.
And when choosing a car seat I think it's important
(05:10):
to choose the car seat first and then the stroller.
A lot of times parents choose a stroller and then
are like, well, the cars that they wanted doesn't fit
onto my stroll, or so I'll pick a different seat.
I would prioritize the car seat first. With that said,
options for car seats are plentiful, way too plentiful, and uh,
it's hard to choose. So on our website, which is
(05:32):
the car seat lady dot com, we've done things differently
than most sites, where most sites will give you ten
to fifteen seats and they'll give a brief review of
each one. We have picked three seats in each category
that we think are great options that fall on different
price categories, and we tell you why each of them
is going to be an excellent choice and help you
(05:54):
know that whichever one of those you choose, they're going
to be solid choices that are going to be compatible
with a wide range of vehicles and many different children.
So it's just starting with basics. There are two types
of seats that you could potentially use for a newborn. Um,
can you take us through what those two types are
(06:16):
and what the differences and also why you would recommend
one over the other. Yeah, So the one people are
going to be most familiar with will be the infant seat,
and some parts of the country it's called a pumpkin seat.
That's the seat that kind of looks like a bucket
with a handle. It's the one that clicks in and
out of a base typically that stays in the car
(06:36):
and the carrier can click on and off of a stroller. Typically,
those are often called infant seats. I prefer to call
them rear facing only seats, and that many of them
last beyond infancy. Some kids will get beyond their first
birthday in them. Uh, those seats. Reasons to choose an
infancy seat would be for convenience, that's the first thing.
(06:58):
And you can buckle the baby up in the house
straps nice and snug, and then bring them out to
the car and just drop the carrier into the base.
And also in cold climates it can make things easier
to do. So it can be much easier to dress
the baby in the house, get them in thin, tight layers,
buckled snug, and then put blankets on top to bring
(07:19):
the child out to a cold car, rather than having
to bring the child to the car take off the coat.
And it's important to point out, as you did, that
the layers should be thin. I just want to reiterate
that because you know it's not safe to have the
extra padding on the baby. Because the car seat, it
won't be a snug of fit exactly. The straps of
(07:43):
the car seat have to be really snug. I like
to remind parents that this is the harness the child's
life depends on, because oftentimes parents their first reactions, oh
my god, that's really snug to the body, or they'll
say it's really light. It is supposed to be tight,
like if you were going to jump out of a plane.
No one says, I think my harness is a little tight,
let's loose send it up a little bit. That's but
(08:03):
the forces that the body feels at thirty miles an
hour or the same as if you jumped out of
a third story window, so you would want that harness
to be really snug and puffy clothes. What happens is
when you buckle the baby in a puffy coat or
snowsuit and you tighten the straps, you're not able to
take most of the puff out, but crash forces are extreme.
They crumple the steel of the car and they easily
(08:25):
push all the extra puff, which is just air, out
of the clothes uh, and then leave the straps way
too loose for the child's body when it most counts.
The other carsiat option, of course, is the convertible convertible seat. Yes,
so a convertible seat is one that starts out rear
facing and then converts to forward facing. Some of those
will also have later stages as well. They might be
(08:47):
called three and ones or fourign ones, where sometimes the
third or fourth stage is a booster stage as well.
The convertible seat or the three and one in fourign
ones uh, those are seats that are designed and to
go rear facing for much older kids as well, so
they'll usually have starting weights around five pounds. But it's
(09:09):
important to note that just because a seat says it
starts at five pounds. Whether it's an infant seat or
a convertible seat, some of them are going to fit
a five pound baby better than others. Just like when
you buy clothes for the baby, and you buy three
outfits at all, say newborn size, and one is too small,
one it's just right, and one is swimming on the baby.
You don't realize that sizing is a an imprecise science.
(09:33):
So it doesn't matter the size of the seat you pick.
It more matters how the internal dimensions are of the straps. Uh,
And just some of the contouring of the seats. Some
are going to be better for head position for a
small baby. Um, if there's a headrest in the seat
that pushes the child's head forward, that's gonna be more problematic.
And that it tends to push the chin down to
(09:53):
the chest on the little ones. Uh. Some convertible seats
work fabulously for newborns, some don't. Some infant seats work
fabulously for small babies, and some don't. So all car
seats go through rigorous safety testing, but can you tell
us a little bit about how those tests actually work.
(10:14):
The government has what's called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
there's many of them. TO thirteen is the standard that
applies to car seats, and TO five as well, in
that it details not only the crush testing that the
car seat has to undergo, but other regulations such as
the labeling. You might notice that some of the wording
(10:36):
on the car seats labels is the same between seats.
That's because the government sometimes specifies the exact sentence that
must appear in the manual or on the stickers. But
let's talk about the crash testing. So car seats in
the US are required to pass a frontal crash test
at approximately thirty miles per hour. And the way it
works is the car seat manufacturer sends their car seat
(10:58):
to an independent, government approved arash test lab and if
the car seat passes, then the manufacturer is allowed to
sell it in the US, and then the government will
come back within a year or two usually of the
car seat hitting the market, they'll buy the seat from
Target or Bye Bye Baby or wherever. They'll send it
to an independent government grove crash test lab won the
(11:18):
same test and make sure that the manufacturer was on
the up and up with the seat truly passing. One
thing to be aware of for parents is that they
should not be getting seats from Ali Baba or other
places that are shipping directly from China. Um are often
shipping seats that are not crash worthy. Crash Worthy means
(11:41):
does the seat protect in a crash? Uh? And so
they should be getting seats from places that they know of.
So target Walmart, Bye bye baby. Try to support local, independent,
family owned store. So there's a whole network called brick
See which is into pendant stores. Okay, so parents beware,
(12:03):
that's very important information to have. Now you touched a
little bit about the head position, and it's something that
I always warn parents about if the baby is spending
a lot of time in an infancy or in a
car seat or in a swing that sometimes the head
position is unsafe. And this is of course especially to
(12:24):
in a car seat. Can you talk us a little
bit about how we know babies positioned properly in a
car seat. Yeah, So first let's talk about what is
and is not a safe head position. So one dangerous
position for a baby is when their chin is down
on their chest, and that means like the bony part
(12:46):
of the chin, not all the extra rolls of fat
that they've have safe positions for the head. Looking straight
ahead is perfectly fine, but so has turned the side.
And I mentioned that because a lot of parents feel
like the head has to be immobilized in a direct
head on straight position, but that does not have to
be turned to the side is fine. So what's going
(13:07):
to keep the child's body and head in a good position.
The first thing is when you sit the baby down
in the seat, you want to make sure that the
child is sitting all the way back. A lot of
babies are put in in a slouched position. You want
to make sure that before you start tightening the straps,
take the child's little thighs and push them back and
down so that they are flushed with the back of
(13:29):
the seat. Whether the child is in the car seat,
in the car, or in the house, or on the
stroll or wherever it is, it's critically important that the
child remains buckled snug and when we're tightening the straps.
The first thing I want to go over is how
to tighten the straps because a lot of parents know
one of the steps, but there's two other steps that
are commonly forgotten, which leaves slack in the belly and
(13:52):
the hip area inadvertently. So when you buckle the baby,
everyone is familiar with the tail at the bottom of
the seat that you use to tie in the straps.
But if all you do is tighten that, you'll get
the straps snug at the shoulders, but there will be
lots of slack in the belly and the hip area.
So here's the two extra steps I want you to add.
And we have a video that shows how to buckle
(14:13):
a newborn that goes over this because it's easier to
see it than to hear it. So you're gonna push
the chess clip all the way down to the belly
right after you buckle the baby's straps. We want to
get the chess clip out of the way, so shove
it down all the way towards the crotch buckle. Then
take the shoulder straps right near where the baby's chest
is and pinch the straps and pull firmly upwards. That's
(14:36):
going to gather all the slack out of the hips
and the belly area. It gathers it to the shoulders.
And now when you pull the tail, it's going to
remove the slack. Then we're gonna repeat those steps. We're
gonna push the chess clip down to the belly. We're
gonna pull the shoulder straps up to gather the slack,
and we're gonna pull the tail. We're gonna do that
a few times until when we pull up on the
(14:57):
shoulder straps we find no more slack. Pull link up.
That's our first sign that things are in the home stretch.
Then we're gonna put our index finger right at the
baby's collar bone area. The first thing we're going to
check is that it's not too tight, because I know
that's what everyone worries about. So if you put your
index finger at the collar bone and you can push
it all the way through and see your fingertip out
(15:17):
the other side, that means that it is not too
tight and then too loose. Um. I like to while
my finger is there, I lift my finger up and
away from the body, keeping it under the strap. Uh.
If I can imagine that I could get a second
finger like a salute at the collar bone area, then
that would be too loose. But either way, you really
want to make sure there's no slack anywhere in the harness.
(15:40):
Got it now? A lot of parents on what to expect.
Instagram did ask about inserts and howls to support the head. Yes,
So in terms of the head support, the key thing
is going to be choosing a seat that's fitting your
baby properly. So the seat having a good internal dimension
(16:04):
is is really important. Besides that, um, as far as
putting towels or inserts alongside the baby's body or head,
the first thing is you should not be buying anything
separate for the car seat that did not come with it,
So you'll see an entire market of products extra head inserts,
extra covers for the straps, sleeping bags for the winter,
(16:26):
if it did not come in the original box with
your car seat, and it is not in some way
directly made by your car seat manufacturer for that specific
car seat, despite what the marketing on the product might
say it is not safe to use. It's a completely
unregulated market, so you're gonna see a lot of them
sold because that is where companies can make money. So
(16:48):
I think it's important for parents to be aware of
where they're being up sold on things that are not necessary.
So anything that you're putting in the car seat besides
the baby and a few thin layers of clothes should
be able to be put on completely after the child
is buckled and buckled snug. That's really important because so
many parents worry about that. Now we thought bass and
(17:22):
seatbelts and latches. There are so many different ways to
install a car seat, So what makes the most secure installation?
Would it be a car seat with a base or
installing it without a base? How would you go about
choosing the best system for you? So for a parent
(17:44):
who has their own car, they're going to find that
having a seat that stays installed is going to be
the most convenient. So either the base that you then
click the carrier in and out of where you're hopefully
going to read the manual and you're going to take
the time and make sure even ald it properly and
then have it checked by it certified car seat technician UM.
(18:04):
Or you're gonna have a convertible seat which will do
the same thing and leave that installed. Using a carrier
without the base can be very safe. And so if
a family lives in an urban environment like in New
York City for example, and wants to take an uber,
or you're flying across the country to visit grandparents, you
know when COVID is hopefully over in those situations, taking
(18:25):
the carrier without the base is really convenient assuming you
have a seat that can be installed without the base.
There are a few seats that cannot, but most infant
seats can be installed that way without the base. Then
you use the seat belt, and there's a belt path
around the carrier that can allow the carrier to be
(18:45):
a standalone car seat, but you do have to install
it every time you get in the car when you're
using without the base, And so that can be inconvenient
if you're, you know, running seven errands that day, but
if you do travel a lot on airplanes, for instance,
and a baby should have their own seat with with
a f A A approved car seat correct buckled into that,
(19:08):
and then you can take that car seat. Yea. So
if you are a family who's going to be traveling
in other cars or taking frequent airplane trips where you're
gonna be wanting to use the carrier without the base,
we're gonna recommend that you choose a carrier that has
what's called a European belt path, that's the path that
the seat belt is going to take around the car seat,
as opposed to one that has an American belt path,
(19:29):
and it sounds really cool. Yes. Can you explain the
latch system just a little bit. So, latch is an
acronym that stands for lower anchors and tethers for children.
So latch has parts in the car and parts on
the child's car seat. So first, the parts in the
car UH in basically every car in the US since
(19:50):
two thousand and three. If you sit in the back seat,
typically just on the two side seats. Let's say you
sit on the back passenger side of your car and
you stick your hand into the seat crack right on
either side of your hip, you're gonna feel a metal
you shaped bar. UH. Those are the lower anchors, and
then the part the tether is an anchor that secures
(20:13):
the head of the car seat to the car. And
the tether anchor is a little more variable in its
location in the car. If you have a sedan, it's
easy to find the tether anchor. It's always located on
that shelf right below the rear windshield, the package shelf,
and there's one for each of the seating positions. Typically
UH in that the cars are required to have the
(20:34):
lower anchors in at least two seating positions, and the
tethers in at least three seating positions. So usually in
the average car, the center will have a tether anchor
but no lower anchors, and the side seats will have
both tether anchors and lower anchors. For families who have
minivans and SUVs with a third row, do not expect
(20:55):
to find the latch system in it, possibly any and
almost certainly not in all of the positions. Just because
you have a tether anchor in that position does not
mean you'll have lower anchors. Now, how confident can a
parent be that their seat is correctly installed? Um, if
they do it themselves. Now, there's the myth that you
(21:18):
go to the fire station or the police station and
they're going to know exactly whether the seat is properly
installed or not. Who should you trust? There are some
police officers and firefighters who are nationally certified Child Passengers
Safety technicians, But if they're not trained, it would just
be like going to your plumber or your electrician or
(21:40):
the server at the Delhi for help with your car seat.
So what I want to stress is that knowing how
to install a car seat properly is a learned skill.
It is not an aid. It does not come as
part of the job description for anyone's job. And so
just because you're wearing a police officers uniform does not
mean you know what to do with a car seat.
And just because you work at a car deal ship
does not mean you know what to do with a
(22:01):
car seat. So with that said, we have numerous studies
that show that parents confidence in their car seat installation
there's no correlation with how well they actually installed it.
Many parents are very confident in seats that they have
installed very improperly. So what I want to suggest to
(22:21):
the parents listening to this is whether you are sure
you've done it right or sure you've done it wrong,
Please have it checked by someone trained in that. Our
misuse rate has been over for decades now. Please do
not assume that it is correct, because in all likelihood,
if you were a betting person, it is not correct.
(22:43):
Just statistically. So it's the car seat itself to not
be able to move more than an inch in either
side or or front to back. Correct. Uh. And I
think what's important for parents to remember is crash forces
are extreme. You want it to be really tight to
the car. The looser the car seat is, the more
it moves, the less it's able to absorb the energy
(23:06):
of the crashed into its shell. And it also means
that the child's body moves more and it's more likely
to hit hard sitting, So tighter is better. How long
are newborns supposed to say in their infant seat? And
how do you know that baby is ready to graduate
to a convertible seat in a rear facing position? Uh huh,
(23:28):
So infant seats the rear facing only seats are basically
always outgrown in height before weight. Like you could have
the Pillsbury dough Boy of babies and you will still
have a baby that's too tall before too heavy, in
that you'll see high weight limits of thirty to thirty
five pounds on most of these seats, but children are
(23:49):
typically too tall somewhere between nine to fifteen months. It
varies by seat. Obviously, some kids are too tall sooner
than that, and some kids get longer. But somewhere around
your baby's for spur, they anticipate that they're too tall.
And what two tall means is that the child's head
is within one inch of the top of the car seat.
The reason for that one inch rule is that a
(24:10):
child who's rear facing. The crash forces are typically going
to pull the child's body up the shell of the seat.
As the child's body slides up, the head starts to
slide up as well. We don't want the head to
slide off the seat in any way, and so that
one inch is kind of a margin of safety. And
one thing that is not a marker of being too
tall is your legs hanging off the edge of the seat.
(24:33):
The legs being long does not matter. The legs can
do whatever they want to do. They can sit cross legged,
frog legged, put their legs straight up, drape one over
the side on their toes. I want to stress this
and that we know that it's a common misconception about
when a child is too big for the infant seat.
And then it's also something that drives people to turn
(24:55):
children forward facing and their convertible seat much too soon.
So the is in the legs are not an issue. First,
it is not uncomfortable. Children's bodies are not the same
as adult bodies. They're not just smaller versions. Children who
have not gone through puberty yet have very different bone
structure and ligaments. They have a lot more range of
motion in their joints, especially in the infinite toddler age.
(25:19):
They can bend their ankles, their knees, and their hips
in ways that even if you're very proficient at yoga,
you simply cannot do because your body is not the same. Yeah,
how many of us could put our foot in our
mouth exactly. It's also not dangerous for the legs. And
I want to stress this as well, and that when
it's child is rear facing. Let's take a frontal crash.
(25:39):
Everything moves to the front of the car. So a
forward facing child or adult is going to get held
back by the shoulder straps, the seat belt, or their
car seat straps, but nothing holds the head back, and
so the head gets whipped forward and whipped back in
a way that is not very pleasant. Um. Young children
have a difficult time withstanding that up, and it can
(26:01):
result in injuries to the spinal cord if the child
is too young. So that's why we keep them rear facing.
When the child is rear facing, they still moved to
the front of the car, but now what happens is
that the shell of the seat cradles the child's head,
neck and back, kind of like if you watch a
baseball game and you watch a catcher catch a fastball,
they catch the ball into their glove. Their glove goes
(26:22):
back a little bit to cradle it because there's a
lot of force with that, you know, ninety mile prower fastball.
In a similar way, the child's body gets cradled by
the shell of the seat, the shell of the seat
being like the catcher's glove um. And so what's gonna
happen is the child's legs are going to kind of
tuck up into like a cannonball position during a crash.
That is not a mechanism of injury. And so what
(26:45):
ends up happening is the child's legs or legs are
super scrunched in the moment of impact. It does not
cause any injuries to the child. And so, however scrunched
the legs start out while you're driving, they get even
more scrunched, and it does not hurt the child. So
(27:12):
we have a ton of questions from what is that community?
Not surprisingly, the first one is can I reuse a
car seat from one baby to the next end? Can
I borrow from a friend? Okay, so seats expire. It
ranges between typically six to ten years, So first make
sure it has not expired. You also need to make
(27:34):
sure it was never in a crash. So if you
get it at a thrift store, you can't ask the history,
whereas if you get it from your sister in law
and she was the only one who had used the seat,
you can ask the history of it. And then you
want to make sure that all the parts are there
and in good working order, and if it was recalled,
that the recall was addressed and fixed. What's the safest
place to put a car seat in the vehicle? Whatever
(27:57):
spot you get it most tightly installed is going to
be the safest spot. So you don't have to worry
about side air bags or versus. No, as long as
the child is properly restrained. We haven't seen any indication
that side airbags are dangerous to children, and in fact,
they are almost certainly beneficial to a child who is
properly restrained. Is there a maximum length of time you
(28:20):
can be driving around with your baby in the seed
if you're on a really long trip, how often did
you plan on stopping for breaks to give baby a break?
And you The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies
stay in their car seat for no longer than ninety
minutes at a time. Uh Now, there's nothing magical between
(28:40):
eight minutes. So if you're driving and the next rest
stop is ten minutes away and you're at the ninety
minute mark, don't freak out. But this also counts when
you're using the car seat, not in the car. So
when you get home and the baby's fallen asleep in
the car seat, we want you to take the baby
out of the car seat and put them into their
safe sleeping environ meant their best snet or crib. We
(29:01):
don't want you leaving the baby in the car seat. Yeah,
and it's not the best place for a nap as
well as babies often sleep in a semi reclining position.
Not the best place for a nap. Our cars e
Mirrors a safety risk or are they safety use? So
not only mirrors, but now there's a lot of targeted
ads to moms with cameras that can let use the baby. Um,
(29:25):
the most important thing to think about is driver distraction
that is the root cause of a large majority of crashes.
I do not recommend mirrors, cameras or any other thing.
I want the driver to completely ignore the baby. That
might make many drivers nervous whether the driver is the
only adult in the car or there's other adults. The
(29:47):
baby does not need to be monitored by the driver
and everyone will be safer. Both those in the car
and those sharing the road with you will be safer
if the driver pays no attention to the baby. Absolutely,
And speaking of keeping a baby happy in a car seat,
some babies love it and some babies hate it. And yes,
(30:09):
what are your best tips? I have a whole toy guide. Actually,
I've put my pediatrician skills to use and have a
travel toy guide on my website to help guide parents
to choosing toys will be good for travel, and they're
all battery free, educational and engaging. Other things to think
about is to use music that your child enjoys that
(30:31):
can be very soothing for young babies. You'll see in
the video that shows you how to buckle the baby
that I then swaddled the child over the straps so
they're fully bubbled and fully stuck, and then swaddled over top. Swaddling,
especially in under two months old in the car seat,
can often keep them much calmer than they would be otherwise.
Keeping in mind that every baby's difference. So there there's
(30:53):
some who love the car seats, someone hate the car seats,
some who love swaddling, some hay swaddling. So you're just
gonna have to figure the that as you go along. Yes,
for children who are in the like over six to
nine month age group that are in an infant seat
and have started to really not like it, a lot
of times that child can be made happier being moved
(31:14):
into a convertible seat where some of the convertible seats
will allow them to sit higher up off the vehicle
seat and slump more upright now that they can sit
up right unsupported, and so it will get a better
view out the windows. But like you said, music sues
the savage baby, right, Yes, often depending on you know,
babies like different kinds of music. So experiments and you
(31:36):
know old McDonald had a farm and my sister, who
is a neanatologist, gave me this trick with her kids.
She said, you know what, just go through the alphabet
and if you can't think of an animal with that name,
make it up and make up the side you're the better.
And you know what, it works. Baby won't know the
difference exactly how do you know it's time for your
(31:59):
child to ace forward? Now? I mean, I have one
super tiny grandson who's about to turn eight. I'm not
sure if he should be facing for it at this point,
he's so tiny. And I have one two and a
half year old grandson who's like he's about four and
a half. So what, what specifically should you look for? Yes,
(32:22):
So when we talk about rear facing to forward facing,
we want the child to have outgrown their convertible seat
rear facing before they turn forward facing. So we are
not talking about being too big for the infant seat.
We're talking about the convertibles. So the first thing is
too big for a convertible seat rear facing is either
too heavy, which is usually somewhere between four d two
(32:45):
fifty pounds is the weight limit for most seats. Now
there are some differences, uh, and then too tall is
usually how the child is going to outgrow it where
it depends on your seat, but typically when the head
is one inch below the top of the seat, then
they're too tall. The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending
that kids remain rear facing until they've reached the height
(33:06):
or the weight maximum for their convertible seat before it
turns forward facing. The longer the better. Many states, about
a third of them, now require children to remain rear
facing until at least age two, but ideally too should
be thought of as a minimum. Is there a maximum?
The maximum for that child seat? Got it? When is
(33:27):
it time to switch to a booster seat? Again? It's
a matter of weight and size. Yes, weight and size
factors then, as well as some other things. So I
wanted to define what a booster is first because a
lot of parents are confused. So a booster seat is
any seat where the child sits on it and wears
the vehicle seatbelt across them as their restraint. That's in
(33:49):
contrast to a car seat. A car seat is any
seat that child sits on and uses the five point
harness that comes with the car seat as their restraint.
So children will swim which from a car seat to
a booster seat when they've met the following three minimums.
They should be at least five, they should be at
least forty pounds, and most mortally, they need to be
(34:12):
mature enough to sit properly in the booster seat during
the entire ride. So when they're sitting. They should not
be slouching, they shouldn't be leaning over, they shouldn't be
messing with the seat belt. Uh. And then a child
will remain in the booster seat until the seat belt
fits them properly without the help of the booster, and
their body fits properly on the vehicle seat without the
(34:33):
help of the booster. The lap belt is the most
important thing that's going to depend on whether your child
comes out of the booster seat at the right time,
in that it is the lap belt being in the
wrong place. The wrong place being across the child's belly
rather than low on the lap where it will catch
the hip bones during a crash. There's something called the
five step test that talks about five questions to assess
(34:57):
whether the child is ready to ride without a booster.
Just know that for the average child around age ten,
about fifty percent of kids can ride safely without a booster.
So it is a lot later than people think. Even
though your state law might say six or seven or
eight your child can come out of a booster, most
kids needed a lot longer than the state laws, and
(35:19):
back seat until age thirteen is what's recommended by the
American Academy of Pediatrics. And when the child does move
to the front seat, not only should they be at
least thirteen, they should be mature enough to not be
a driver distraction. Okay, so typical teenagers to be a problem.
That child in a few years is going to be
in the driver's seat, and so that's a teaching moment
(35:42):
for the parent to set expectations for what is the
behavior of the driver by helping the child learn what's
the proper behavior of the passenger so they're not endangering
the driver. So I gotta put it out there because
we got a lot of pregnant moms on what to expect,
and I would love for you to remind expecting moms
(36:02):
why it's important to wear a seatbelt, as uncomfortable as
they might feel it is, and the proper way to
wear one when you have a belly. So the seatbelt
goes the same part of your body at all times,
whether you're pregnant or not. The lap belt needs to
go low and flat on the tops of your size.
The shoulder belt goes across your chest and rest between
(36:22):
your neck and your shoulder, never under your arm, never
behind your back. Those make the seat belt completely ineffective
and increase your risk for head injury and chest injury.
So think of your seat belt worn properly as your
baby's first car seat, because studies show that the risk
of mom or baby being hurt while babies in utero
(36:45):
or significantly reduced by mom wearing a seatbelt. So, uh,
one thing I want to address because there's a lot
of targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram, there's a lot
of seat belt positioners for pregnant moms. They should not
be used. I cannot be clearer about this. They're completely
unregulated by the government. Where the seat belt as it
(37:07):
was designed, simply lift up the belly, put the lap
belt low, snug it up, and put the belly on
over top. And I just want to ask the most
common question we have in the community is does expensive
mean better and safer? In fact, right now in the US,
the most expensive car seat performs the poorest in the
government's crash testing. So no. Now, some safety features do
(37:32):
add cost to the seats, so steel is more expensive
than plastics. So some safety features require steel, like a
load leg or rigid latch. So you will notice that
some of those seats are more expensive than other seats,
but price is not an indication of safety. Alisa, thank
you so much for all of this important information and
(37:54):
for being here today and for everyone listening. Tell us
one more time. Where we can find you and all
of that great information about car seats. So our website
is the car seat Lady dot com. We're also on
Instagram the car Seat Lady, and we have a YouTube
channel with lots of installation and instructional videos. That's the
(38:15):
car Seat Lady with the number one at the end.
That's great. You're gonna hold our hands through this whole process. Yes, yes, awesome. Well,
thank a lot and big hugs. Yes, thank you so much.
Who baby love, my baby love. I need you, Oh
(38:35):
how I need you. Thanks for listening. Remember I'm always
here for you. What to Expect is always here for you.
We're all in this together. For more on what you
heard on today's episode, visit what to Expect dot com
slash podcasts. You can also check out what to Expect
when You're Expecting, What to Expect the First Year, and
(38:57):
the what to Expect app. And we want to hear
from you. Connect with us on our community message board
or on our social media. You can find me at
Heidi Murkoff and Emma at Emma bing wt E and
of course at What to Expect. Baby Love is performed
by Riley Peterer. What to Expect is a production of
(39:21):
I Heart Radio. From more shows from I Heart Radio,
check out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In my Arms,
what don't just stay Leja Nja Baby Baby
Oh baby, a baby, I need you? Oh how I
need you? What you expect? As a production of I
Heart Radio, I'm your host Heidi Murkoff and I'm a
mom on a mission, A mission to help you know
what to expect every step of the way. There's no
(00:26):
more essential item to buy before you bring your baby
home from the hospital. In fact, the hospital won't let
you leave without it. A car seat, of course, But
with so many car seats on the market, how do
you pick the one that's best for you and your baby?
Safety's job one for any car seat, with baby's comfort
and your convenience running a close second and third. But
(00:49):
will it fit your lifestyle, your car, an airplane seat
or an uber Will you need a different seat for
each of your cars or just an extra base? Will
it be heavy lift and will you be able to
lift it up neatly and snap it into the matching
stroller base without waking your sleeping bundle? Can you use
it with a stroller at all? Can you borrow car
(01:11):
seat from your friend or use the one your preschool
or outgrew. Should it be for newborns only? Or a
convertible that fits your baby as she grows and most
of all, will you need to go back and get
an engineering degree or even one in rocket science just
to be sure you're installing it right? Today, we've got
all your car seat bases and basics covered. I am
(01:35):
so excited to welcome the world expert on car seats.
She's a pediatrician who has also been studying car seats
for over twenty years and says she has installed over
fifteen thousand of them, which honestly is fifteen thousand more
than I have. Dr Lisa Bear, who you might know
(01:56):
as a car seat lady. She is a legend and
a savor literally, and she does all of this for
one reason only to help parents keep their little ones safe.
She has absolutely no financial ties to any car seat manufacturers,
which only makes me love her more. At lasta first,
(02:18):
of all, car seats run in your family. I've heard, yes,
you got the car seat bug from your mom, correct,
who was a trailblazer in car seat safety, which is
awesome in and of itself. So tell us a little
bit about how you became the car seat lady. After
first being a pediatrician, I got involved with car seats
(02:40):
pretty early on, and that uh, my mother has been
involved since I was around four or five years old,
originally just helping parents become aware that car seats were
out on the market and encouraging them to use them,
and then uh it evolved to helping parents use them properly.
She would have families come over to her house almost
(03:00):
every day and help them install the seats properly, so
I would get to play with the kids so that
the parents could pay attention. And then my senior year
of high school, I went to a school where for
a month we had to do an unpaid internship. We
didn't have classes that month, and I didn't know what
I was gonna do. And my mother is a laboring
deliver readers. My mother kept saying, why don't you just
work on the nursery floor of the hospital where I
(03:21):
work and just teach the parents what to do with
their car seats. And my friends were shadowing doctors or
lawyers or accountants, and I could do that for two hours,
but not a whole month, and I didn't know what
I was gonna do. And so it came the day
where you had to put down on the form what
you were going to do, and I put it down
that I was gonna help the parents with their car seats.
And we're now this month, this twenty three years later,
(03:42):
and that internship completely changed my life because before that
I had never actually helped the parents with the seats,
and I really wasn't that interested in it, but it
got me hooked. It was it's really it's an interesting
opportunity to be able to work with parents at special
moments in their life. And it's also instant gratification and
(04:02):
that you take a seat that usually has several errors
that you know could cause harm, and you educate the parent,
You give them information and skills, and then they're able
to make the changes to keep their child safe. There
are plenty of things about being pregnant and having a
baby that are inherently overwhelming. Um, but right up there
(04:24):
is figuring out which car seat to buy. First, You've
got to figure out which one to buy and then
how to install it. So what are the top things
parents should consider when making that super important choice. So
I think it's important to stress that the car seat
is the only product you're going to buy for the
sole purpose of saving your child's life. Hopefully you'll never
(04:48):
need to use it in that capacity, but that is
the reason you're buying it. So when thinking about budget
and priorities, I think the car seat should be one
of the most important purchases that you make and money
should be allotted to that rather than some of the
other accessories that maybe you don't need as much of.
And when choosing a car seat I think it's important
(05:10):
to choose the car seat first and then the stroller.
A lot of times parents choose a stroller and then
are like, well, the cars that they wanted doesn't fit
onto my stroll, or so I'll pick a different seat.
I would prioritize the car seat first. With that said,
options for car seats are plentiful, way too plentiful, and uh,
it's hard to choose. So on our website, which is
(05:32):
the car seat lady dot com, we've done things differently
than most sites, where most sites will give you ten
to fifteen seats and they'll give a brief review of
each one. We have picked three seats in each category
that we think are great options that fall on different
price categories, and we tell you why each of them
is going to be an excellent choice and help you
(05:54):
know that whichever one of those you choose, they're going
to be solid choices that are going to be compatible
with a wide range of vehicles and many different children.
So it's just starting with basics. There are two types
of seats that you could potentially use for a newborn. Um,
can you take us through what those two types are
(06:16):
and what the differences and also why you would recommend
one over the other. Yeah, So the one people are
going to be most familiar with will be the infant seat,
and some parts of the country it's called a pumpkin seat.
That's the seat that kind of looks like a bucket
with a handle. It's the one that clicks in and
out of a base typically that stays in the car
(06:36):
and the carrier can click on and off of a stroller. Typically,
those are often called infant seats. I prefer to call
them rear facing only seats, and that many of them
last beyond infancy. Some kids will get beyond their first
birthday in them. Uh, those seats. Reasons to choose an
infancy seat would be for convenience, that's the first thing.
(06:58):
And you can buckle the baby up in the house
straps nice and snug, and then bring them out to
the car and just drop the carrier into the base.
And also in cold climates it can make things easier
to do. So it can be much easier to dress
the baby in the house, get them in thin, tight layers,
buckled snug, and then put blankets on top to bring
(07:19):
the child out to a cold car, rather than having
to bring the child to the car take off the coat.
And it's important to point out, as you did, that
the layers should be thin. I just want to reiterate
that because you know it's not safe to have the
extra padding on the baby. Because the car seat, it
won't be a snug of fit exactly. The straps of
(07:43):
the car seat have to be really snug. I like
to remind parents that this is the harness the child's
life depends on, because oftentimes parents their first reactions, oh
my god, that's really snug to the body, or they'll
say it's really light. It is supposed to be tight,
like if you were going to jump out of a plane.
No one says, I think my harness is a little tight,
let's loose send it up a little bit. That's but
(08:03):
the forces that the body feels at thirty miles an
hour or the same as if you jumped out of
a third story window, so you would want that harness
to be really snug and puffy clothes. What happens is
when you buckle the baby in a puffy coat or
snowsuit and you tighten the straps, you're not able to
take most of the puff out, but crash forces are extreme.
They crumple the steel of the car and they easily
(08:25):
push all the extra puff, which is just air, out
of the clothes uh, and then leave the straps way
too loose for the child's body when it most counts.
The other carsiat option, of course, is the convertible convertible seat. Yes,
so a convertible seat is one that starts out rear
facing and then converts to forward facing. Some of those
will also have later stages as well. They might be
(08:47):
called three and ones or fourign ones, where sometimes the
third or fourth stage is a booster stage as well.
The convertible seat or the three and one in fourign
ones uh, those are seats that are designed and to
go rear facing for much older kids as well, so
they'll usually have starting weights around five pounds. But it's
(09:09):
important to note that just because a seat says it
starts at five pounds. Whether it's an infant seat or
a convertible seat, some of them are going to fit
a five pound baby better than others. Just like when
you buy clothes for the baby, and you buy three
outfits at all, say newborn size, and one is too small,
one it's just right, and one is swimming on the baby.
You don't realize that sizing is a an imprecise science.
(09:33):
So it doesn't matter the size of the seat you pick.
It more matters how the internal dimensions are of the straps. Uh,
And just some of the contouring of the seats. Some
are going to be better for head position for a
small baby. Um, if there's a headrest in the seat
that pushes the child's head forward, that's gonna be more problematic.
And that it tends to push the chin down to
(09:53):
the chest on the little ones. Uh. Some convertible seats
work fabulously for newborns, some don't. Some infant seats work
fabulously for small babies, and some don't. So all car
seats go through rigorous safety testing, but can you tell
us a little bit about how those tests actually work.
(10:14):
The government has what's called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
there's many of them. TO thirteen is the standard that
applies to car seats, and TO five as well, in
that it details not only the crush testing that the
car seat has to undergo, but other regulations such as
the labeling. You might notice that some of the wording
(10:36):
on the car seats labels is the same between seats.
That's because the government sometimes specifies the exact sentence that
must appear in the manual or on the stickers. But
let's talk about the crash testing. So car seats in
the US are required to pass a frontal crash test
at approximately thirty miles per hour. And the way it
works is the car seat manufacturer sends their car seat
(10:58):
to an independent, government approved arash test lab and if
the car seat passes, then the manufacturer is allowed to
sell it in the US, and then the government will
come back within a year or two usually of the
car seat hitting the market, they'll buy the seat from
Target or Bye Bye Baby or wherever. They'll send it
to an independent government grove crash test lab won the
(11:18):
same test and make sure that the manufacturer was on
the up and up with the seat truly passing. One
thing to be aware of for parents is that they
should not be getting seats from Ali Baba or other
places that are shipping directly from China. Um are often
shipping seats that are not crash worthy. Crash Worthy means
(11:41):
does the seat protect in a crash? Uh? And so
they should be getting seats from places that they know of.
So target Walmart, Bye bye baby. Try to support local, independent,
family owned store. So there's a whole network called brick
See which is into pendant stores. Okay, so parents beware,
(12:03):
that's very important information to have. Now you touched a
little bit about the head position, and it's something that
I always warn parents about if the baby is spending
a lot of time in an infancy or in a
car seat or in a swing that sometimes the head
position is unsafe. And this is of course especially to
(12:24):
in a car seat. Can you talk us a little
bit about how we know babies positioned properly in a
car seat. Yeah, So first let's talk about what is
and is not a safe head position. So one dangerous
position for a baby is when their chin is down
on their chest, and that means like the bony part
(12:46):
of the chin, not all the extra rolls of fat
that they've have safe positions for the head. Looking straight
ahead is perfectly fine, but so has turned the side.
And I mentioned that because a lot of parents feel
like the head has to be immobilized in a direct
head on straight position, but that does not have to
be turned to the side is fine. So what's going
(13:07):
to keep the child's body and head in a good position.
The first thing is when you sit the baby down
in the seat, you want to make sure that the
child is sitting all the way back. A lot of
babies are put in in a slouched position. You want
to make sure that before you start tightening the straps,
take the child's little thighs and push them back and
down so that they are flushed with the back of
(13:29):
the seat. Whether the child is in the car seat,
in the car, or in the house, or on the
stroll or wherever it is, it's critically important that the
child remains buckled snug and when we're tightening the straps.
The first thing I want to go over is how
to tighten the straps because a lot of parents know
one of the steps, but there's two other steps that
are commonly forgotten, which leaves slack in the belly and
(13:52):
the hip area inadvertently. So when you buckle the baby,
everyone is familiar with the tail at the bottom of
the seat that you use to tie in the straps.
But if all you do is tighten that, you'll get
the straps snug at the shoulders, but there will be
lots of slack in the belly and the hip area.
So here's the two extra steps I want you to add.
And we have a video that shows how to buckle
(14:13):
a newborn that goes over this because it's easier to
see it than to hear it. So you're gonna push
the chess clip all the way down to the belly
right after you buckle the baby's straps. We want to
get the chess clip out of the way, so shove
it down all the way towards the crotch buckle. Then
take the shoulder straps right near where the baby's chest
is and pinch the straps and pull firmly upwards. That's
(14:36):
going to gather all the slack out of the hips
and the belly area. It gathers it to the shoulders.
And now when you pull the tail, it's going to
remove the slack. Then we're gonna repeat those steps. We're
gonna push the chess clip down to the belly. We're
gonna pull the shoulder straps up to gather the slack,
and we're gonna pull the tail. We're gonna do that
a few times until when we pull up on the
(14:57):
shoulder straps we find no more slack. Pull link up.
That's our first sign that things are in the home stretch.
Then we're gonna put our index finger right at the
baby's collar bone area. The first thing we're going to
check is that it's not too tight, because I know
that's what everyone worries about. So if you put your
index finger at the collar bone and you can push
it all the way through and see your fingertip out
(15:17):
the other side, that means that it is not too
tight and then too loose. Um. I like to while
my finger is there, I lift my finger up and
away from the body, keeping it under the strap. Uh.
If I can imagine that I could get a second
finger like a salute at the collar bone area, then
that would be too loose. But either way, you really
want to make sure there's no slack anywhere in the harness.
(15:40):
Got it now? A lot of parents on what to expect.
Instagram did ask about inserts and howls to support the head. Yes,
So in terms of the head support, the key thing
is going to be choosing a seat that's fitting your
baby properly. So the seat having a good internal dimension
(16:04):
is is really important. Besides that, um, as far as
putting towels or inserts alongside the baby's body or head,
the first thing is you should not be buying anything
separate for the car seat that did not come with it,
So you'll see an entire market of products extra head inserts,
extra covers for the straps, sleeping bags for the winter,
(16:26):
if it did not come in the original box with
your car seat, and it is not in some way
directly made by your car seat manufacturer for that specific
car seat, despite what the marketing on the product might
say it is not safe to use. It's a completely
unregulated market, so you're gonna see a lot of them
sold because that is where companies can make money. So
(16:48):
I think it's important for parents to be aware of
where they're being up sold on things that are not necessary.
So anything that you're putting in the car seat besides
the baby and a few thin layers of clothes should
be able to be put on completely after the child
is buckled and buckled snug. That's really important because so
many parents worry about that. Now we thought bass and
(17:22):
seatbelts and latches. There are so many different ways to
install a car seat, So what makes the most secure installation?
Would it be a car seat with a base or
installing it without a base? How would you go about
choosing the best system for you? So for a parent
(17:44):
who has their own car, they're going to find that
having a seat that stays installed is going to be
the most convenient. So either the base that you then
click the carrier in and out of where you're hopefully
going to read the manual and you're going to take
the time and make sure even ald it properly and
then have it checked by it certified car seat technician UM.
(18:04):
Or you're gonna have a convertible seat which will do
the same thing and leave that installed. Using a carrier
without the base can be very safe. And so if
a family lives in an urban environment like in New
York City for example, and wants to take an uber,
or you're flying across the country to visit grandparents, you
know when COVID is hopefully over in those situations, taking
(18:25):
the carrier without the base is really convenient assuming you
have a seat that can be installed without the base.
There are a few seats that cannot, but most infant
seats can be installed that way without the base. Then
you use the seat belt, and there's a belt path
around the carrier that can allow the carrier to be
(18:45):
a standalone car seat, but you do have to install
it every time you get in the car when you're
using without the base, And so that can be inconvenient
if you're, you know, running seven errands that day, but
if you do travel a lot on airplanes, for instance,
and a baby should have their own seat with with
a f A A approved car seat correct buckled into that,
(19:08):
and then you can take that car seat. Yea. So
if you are a family who's going to be traveling
in other cars or taking frequent airplane trips where you're
gonna be wanting to use the carrier without the base,
we're gonna recommend that you choose a carrier that has
what's called a European belt path, that's the path that
the seat belt is going to take around the car seat,
as opposed to one that has an American belt path,
(19:29):
and it sounds really cool. Yes. Can you explain the
latch system just a little bit. So, latch is an
acronym that stands for lower anchors and tethers for children.
So latch has parts in the car and parts on
the child's car seat. So first, the parts in the
car UH in basically every car in the US since
(19:50):
two thousand and three. If you sit in the back seat,
typically just on the two side seats. Let's say you
sit on the back passenger side of your car and
you stick your hand into the seat crack right on
either side of your hip, you're gonna feel a metal
you shaped bar. UH. Those are the lower anchors, and
then the part the tether is an anchor that secures
(20:13):
the head of the car seat to the car. And
the tether anchor is a little more variable in its
location in the car. If you have a sedan, it's
easy to find the tether anchor. It's always located on
that shelf right below the rear windshield, the package shelf,
and there's one for each of the seating positions. Typically
UH in that the cars are required to have the
(20:34):
lower anchors in at least two seating positions, and the
tethers in at least three seating positions. So usually in
the average car, the center will have a tether anchor
but no lower anchors, and the side seats will have
both tether anchors and lower anchors. For families who have
minivans and SUVs with a third row, do not expect
(20:55):
to find the latch system in it, possibly any and
almost certainly not in all of the positions. Just because
you have a tether anchor in that position does not
mean you'll have lower anchors. Now, how confident can a
parent be that their seat is correctly installed? Um, if
they do it themselves. Now, there's the myth that you
(21:18):
go to the fire station or the police station and
they're going to know exactly whether the seat is properly
installed or not. Who should you trust? There are some
police officers and firefighters who are nationally certified Child Passengers
Safety technicians, But if they're not trained, it would just
be like going to your plumber or your electrician or
(21:40):
the server at the Delhi for help with your car seat.
So what I want to stress is that knowing how
to install a car seat properly is a learned skill.
It is not an aid. It does not come as
part of the job description for anyone's job. And so
just because you're wearing a police officers uniform does not
mean you know what to do with a car seat.
And just because you work at a car deal ship
does not mean you know what to do with a
(22:01):
car seat. So with that said, we have numerous studies
that show that parents confidence in their car seat installation
there's no correlation with how well they actually installed it.
Many parents are very confident in seats that they have
installed very improperly. So what I want to suggest to
(22:21):
the parents listening to this is whether you are sure
you've done it right or sure you've done it wrong,
Please have it checked by someone trained in that. Our
misuse rate has been over for decades now. Please do
not assume that it is correct, because in all likelihood,
if you were a betting person, it is not correct.
(22:43):
Just statistically. So it's the car seat itself to not
be able to move more than an inch in either
side or or front to back. Correct. Uh. And I
think what's important for parents to remember is crash forces
are extreme. You want it to be really tight to
the car. The looser the car seat is, the more
it moves, the less it's able to absorb the energy
(23:06):
of the crashed into its shell. And it also means
that the child's body moves more and it's more likely
to hit hard sitting, So tighter is better. How long
are newborns supposed to say in their infant seat? And
how do you know that baby is ready to graduate
to a convertible seat in a rear facing position? Uh huh,
(23:28):
So infant seats the rear facing only seats are basically
always outgrown in height before weight. Like you could have
the Pillsbury dough Boy of babies and you will still
have a baby that's too tall before too heavy, in
that you'll see high weight limits of thirty to thirty
five pounds on most of these seats, but children are
(23:49):
typically too tall somewhere between nine to fifteen months. It
varies by seat. Obviously, some kids are too tall sooner
than that, and some kids get longer. But somewhere around
your baby's for spur, they anticipate that they're too tall.
And what two tall means is that the child's head
is within one inch of the top of the car seat.
The reason for that one inch rule is that a
(24:10):
child who's rear facing. The crash forces are typically going
to pull the child's body up the shell of the seat.
As the child's body slides up, the head starts to
slide up as well. We don't want the head to
slide off the seat in any way, and so that
one inch is kind of a margin of safety. And
one thing that is not a marker of being too
tall is your legs hanging off the edge of the seat.
(24:33):
The legs being long does not matter. The legs can
do whatever they want to do. They can sit cross legged,
frog legged, put their legs straight up, drape one over
the side on their toes. I want to stress this
and that we know that it's a common misconception about
when a child is too big for the infant seat.
And then it's also something that drives people to turn
(24:55):
children forward facing and their convertible seat much too soon.
So the is in the legs are not an issue. First,
it is not uncomfortable. Children's bodies are not the same
as adult bodies. They're not just smaller versions. Children who
have not gone through puberty yet have very different bone
structure and ligaments. They have a lot more range of
motion in their joints, especially in the infinite toddler age.
(25:19):
They can bend their ankles, their knees, and their hips
in ways that even if you're very proficient at yoga,
you simply cannot do because your body is not the same. Yeah,
how many of us could put our foot in our
mouth exactly. It's also not dangerous for the legs. And
I want to stress this as well, and that when
it's child is rear facing. Let's take a frontal crash.
(25:39):
Everything moves to the front of the car. So a
forward facing child or adult is going to get held
back by the shoulder straps, the seat belt, or their
car seat straps, but nothing holds the head back, and
so the head gets whipped forward and whipped back in
a way that is not very pleasant. Um. Young children
have a difficult time withstanding that up, and it can
(26:01):
result in injuries to the spinal cord if the child
is too young. So that's why we keep them rear facing.
When the child is rear facing, they still moved to
the front of the car, but now what happens is
that the shell of the seat cradles the child's head,
neck and back, kind of like if you watch a
baseball game and you watch a catcher catch a fastball,
they catch the ball into their glove. Their glove goes
(26:22):
back a little bit to cradle it because there's a
lot of force with that, you know, ninety mile prower fastball.
In a similar way, the child's body gets cradled by
the shell of the seat, the shell of the seat
being like the catcher's glove um. And so what's gonna
happen is the child's legs are going to kind of
tuck up into like a cannonball position during a crash.
That is not a mechanism of injury. And so what
(26:45):
ends up happening is the child's legs or legs are
super scrunched in the moment of impact. It does not
cause any injuries to the child. And so, however scrunched
the legs start out while you're driving, they get even
more scrunched, and it does not hurt the child. So
(27:12):
we have a ton of questions from what is that community?
Not surprisingly, the first one is can I reuse a
car seat from one baby to the next end? Can
I borrow from a friend? Okay, so seats expire. It
ranges between typically six to ten years, So first make
sure it has not expired. You also need to make
(27:34):
sure it was never in a crash. So if you
get it at a thrift store, you can't ask the history,
whereas if you get it from your sister in law
and she was the only one who had used the seat,
you can ask the history of it. And then you
want to make sure that all the parts are there
and in good working order, and if it was recalled,
that the recall was addressed and fixed. What's the safest
place to put a car seat in the vehicle? Whatever
(27:57):
spot you get it most tightly installed is going to
be the safest spot. So you don't have to worry
about side air bags or versus. No, as long as
the child is properly restrained. We haven't seen any indication
that side airbags are dangerous to children, and in fact,
they are almost certainly beneficial to a child who is
properly restrained. Is there a maximum length of time you
(28:20):
can be driving around with your baby in the seed
if you're on a really long trip, how often did
you plan on stopping for breaks to give baby a break?
And you The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies
stay in their car seat for no longer than ninety
minutes at a time. Uh Now, there's nothing magical between
(28:40):
eight minutes. So if you're driving and the next rest
stop is ten minutes away and you're at the ninety
minute mark, don't freak out. But this also counts when
you're using the car seat, not in the car. So
when you get home and the baby's fallen asleep in
the car seat, we want you to take the baby
out of the car seat and put them into their
safe sleeping environ meant their best snet or crib. We
(29:01):
don't want you leaving the baby in the car seat. Yeah,
and it's not the best place for a nap as
well as babies often sleep in a semi reclining position.
Not the best place for a nap. Our cars e
Mirrors a safety risk or are they safety use? So
not only mirrors, but now there's a lot of targeted
ads to moms with cameras that can let use the baby. Um,
(29:25):
the most important thing to think about is driver distraction
that is the root cause of a large majority of crashes.
I do not recommend mirrors, cameras or any other thing.
I want the driver to completely ignore the baby. That
might make many drivers nervous whether the driver is the
only adult in the car or there's other adults. The
(29:47):
baby does not need to be monitored by the driver
and everyone will be safer. Both those in the car
and those sharing the road with you will be safer
if the driver pays no attention to the baby. Absolutely,
And speaking of keeping a baby happy in a car seat,
some babies love it and some babies hate it. And yes,
(30:09):
what are your best tips? I have a whole toy guide. Actually,
I've put my pediatrician skills to use and have a
travel toy guide on my website to help guide parents
to choosing toys will be good for travel, and they're
all battery free, educational and engaging. Other things to think
about is to use music that your child enjoys that
(30:31):
can be very soothing for young babies. You'll see in
the video that shows you how to buckle the baby
that I then swaddled the child over the straps so
they're fully bubbled and fully stuck, and then swaddled over top. Swaddling,
especially in under two months old in the car seat,
can often keep them much calmer than they would be otherwise.
Keeping in mind that every baby's difference. So there there's
(30:53):
some who love the car seats, someone hate the car seats,
some who love swaddling, some hay swaddling. So you're just
gonna have to figure the that as you go along. Yes,
for children who are in the like over six to
nine month age group that are in an infant seat
and have started to really not like it, a lot
of times that child can be made happier being moved
(31:14):
into a convertible seat where some of the convertible seats
will allow them to sit higher up off the vehicle
seat and slump more upright now that they can sit
up right unsupported, and so it will get a better
view out the windows. But like you said, music sues
the savage baby, right, Yes, often depending on you know,
babies like different kinds of music. So experiments and you
(31:36):
know old McDonald had a farm and my sister, who
is a neanatologist, gave me this trick with her kids.
She said, you know what, just go through the alphabet
and if you can't think of an animal with that name,
make it up and make up the side you're the better.
And you know what, it works. Baby won't know the
difference exactly how do you know it's time for your
(31:59):
child to ace forward? Now? I mean, I have one
super tiny grandson who's about to turn eight. I'm not
sure if he should be facing for it at this point,
he's so tiny. And I have one two and a
half year old grandson who's like he's about four and
a half. So what, what specifically should you look for? Yes,
(32:22):
So when we talk about rear facing to forward facing,
we want the child to have outgrown their convertible seat
rear facing before they turn forward facing. So we are
not talking about being too big for the infant seat.
We're talking about the convertibles. So the first thing is
too big for a convertible seat rear facing is either
too heavy, which is usually somewhere between four d two
(32:45):
fifty pounds is the weight limit for most seats. Now
there are some differences, uh, and then too tall is
usually how the child is going to outgrow it where
it depends on your seat, but typically when the head
is one inch below the top of the seat, then
they're too tall. The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending
that kids remain rear facing until they've reached the height
(33:06):
or the weight maximum for their convertible seat before it
turns forward facing. The longer the better. Many states, about
a third of them, now require children to remain rear
facing until at least age two, but ideally too should
be thought of as a minimum. Is there a maximum?
The maximum for that child seat? Got it? When is
(33:27):
it time to switch to a booster seat? Again? It's
a matter of weight and size. Yes, weight and size
factors then, as well as some other things. So I
wanted to define what a booster is first because a
lot of parents are confused. So a booster seat is
any seat where the child sits on it and wears
the vehicle seatbelt across them as their restraint. That's in
(33:49):
contrast to a car seat. A car seat is any
seat that child sits on and uses the five point
harness that comes with the car seat as their restraint.
So children will swim which from a car seat to
a booster seat when they've met the following three minimums.
They should be at least five, they should be at
least forty pounds, and most mortally, they need to be
(34:12):
mature enough to sit properly in the booster seat during
the entire ride. So when they're sitting. They should not
be slouching, they shouldn't be leaning over, they shouldn't be
messing with the seat belt. Uh. And then a child
will remain in the booster seat until the seat belt
fits them properly without the help of the booster, and
their body fits properly on the vehicle seat without the
(34:33):
help of the booster. The lap belt is the most
important thing that's going to depend on whether your child
comes out of the booster seat at the right time,
in that it is the lap belt being in the
wrong place. The wrong place being across the child's belly
rather than low on the lap where it will catch
the hip bones during a crash. There's something called the
five step test that talks about five questions to assess
(34:57):
whether the child is ready to ride without a booster.
Just know that for the average child around age ten,
about fifty percent of kids can ride safely without a booster.
So it is a lot later than people think. Even
though your state law might say six or seven or
eight your child can come out of a booster, most
kids needed a lot longer than the state laws, and
(35:19):
back seat until age thirteen is what's recommended by the
American Academy of Pediatrics. And when the child does move
to the front seat, not only should they be at
least thirteen, they should be mature enough to not be
a driver distraction. Okay, so typical teenagers to be a problem.
That child in a few years is going to be
in the driver's seat, and so that's a teaching moment
(35:42):
for the parent to set expectations for what is the
behavior of the driver by helping the child learn what's
the proper behavior of the passenger so they're not endangering
the driver. So I gotta put it out there because
we got a lot of pregnant moms on what to expect,
and I would love for you to remind expecting moms
(36:02):
why it's important to wear a seatbelt, as uncomfortable as
they might feel it is, and the proper way to
wear one when you have a belly. So the seatbelt
goes the same part of your body at all times,
whether you're pregnant or not. The lap belt needs to
go low and flat on the tops of your size.
The shoulder belt goes across your chest and rest between
(36:22):
your neck and your shoulder, never under your arm, never
behind your back. Those make the seat belt completely ineffective
and increase your risk for head injury and chest injury.
So think of your seat belt worn properly as your
baby's first car seat, because studies show that the risk
of mom or baby being hurt while babies in utero
(36:45):
or significantly reduced by mom wearing a seatbelt. So, uh,
one thing I want to address because there's a lot
of targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram, there's a lot
of seat belt positioners for pregnant moms. They should not
be used. I cannot be clearer about this. They're completely
unregulated by the government. Where the seat belt as it
(37:07):
was designed, simply lift up the belly, put the lap
belt low, snug it up, and put the belly on
over top. And I just want to ask the most
common question we have in the community is does expensive
mean better and safer? In fact, right now in the US,
the most expensive car seat performs the poorest in the
government's crash testing. So no. Now, some safety features do
(37:32):
add cost to the seats, so steel is more expensive
than plastics. So some safety features require steel, like a
load leg or rigid latch. So you will notice that
some of those seats are more expensive than other seats,
but price is not an indication of safety. Alisa, thank
you so much for all of this important information and
(37:54):
for being here today and for everyone listening. Tell us
one more time. Where we can find you and all
of that great information about car seats. So our website
is the car seat Lady dot com. We're also on
Instagram the car Seat Lady, and we have a YouTube
channel with lots of installation and instructional videos. That's the
(38:15):
car Seat Lady with the number one at the end.
That's great. You're gonna hold our hands through this whole process. Yes, yes, awesome. Well,
thank a lot and big hugs. Yes, thank you so much.
Who baby love, my baby love. I need you, Oh
(38:35):
how I need you. Thanks for listening. Remember I'm always
here for you. What to Expect is always here for you.
We're all in this together. For more on what you
heard on today's episode, visit what to Expect dot com
slash podcasts. You can also check out what to Expect
when You're Expecting, What to Expect the First Year, and
(38:57):
the what to Expect app. And we want to hear
from you. Connect with us on our community message board
or on our social media. You can find me at
Heidi Murkoff and Emma at Emma bing wt E and
of course at What to Expect. Baby Love is performed
by Riley Peterer. What to Expect is a production of
(39:21):
I Heart Radio. From more shows from I Heart Radio,
check out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In my Arms,
what don't just stay Leja Nja Baby Baby
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