Car Seat Conundrum

Keeping Toddlers Safe on the Road

By Teri Brown

If you think child safety seats are easy to install, it may be because you've never installed one, or, if you have, chances are you got it wrong. Studies show that more than 80 percent of child safety seats are improperly installed. Factor in different laws for different states and varying weights and ages for switching your child from a car seat to a booster seat, and you have a real car seat conundrum.

Brandy Brow, a mother of six from Brattleboro, Vt., remembers her own conundrum. When the state of Vermont passed a law requiring all children age 8 and under to ride in safety seats or booster seats, Brow wondered how she was going to get them all latched in correctly in her car.

"We have four children that need some form of car seat," Brow says. "Currently, that makes one infant seat, two convertible seats [standard car seat] and one booster seat. It's literally a knuckle-busting experience trying to reinstall them so they are snug like they are supposed to be for optimum safety. But their incompatibility with each other makes it difficult because their sides hit each other at awkward angles. And the seats don't fit side-by-side in certain cars – at least with doors properly latched!"

Convertible seats and toddler seats typically can go from 5 pounds to approximately 40 pounds or even up to 65 pounds. This depends on the brand of seat purchased. These seats can be rear facing and forward facing. There is currently no law regarding which way a child should face in a car seat. However, it is highly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics that you keep a child rear facing in her car seat until she is at least 1 year old and

Want to see more?

• A Safe Ride: Car Seats Are Serious Business
• Car Seat Crying: When the Buzz of the Engine Doesn't Lull Your Baby to Sleep
• Backseat Distractions: Parents Don't Really Have Eyes on the Backs of Their Heads
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