Safety Tip of the Week: "Clicks for Kids"

One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your child safe when riding in a vehicle. Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. Proper use of car safety seats helps keep children safe, but are you doing it right?

San Diego Medical Services established “Clicks for Kids” because we know child seats can be very difficult and frustrating to install and the vast majority are positioned incorrectly in vehicles. Follow these tips to ensure your child’s safety.

Before driving, check for the following:

1. Seat too loose in the car

The car seat should not move from side-to-side more than one inch (as checked from the bottom, not the top). Booster seats are excluded from this rule.

2. Harness straps are too loose on the child

In a crash, harness straps will not lock as an adult seat belt does. They should be snug enough so that you cannot pinch extra fabric at the child’s shoulders.

3. Children turned face-forward too soon

Rear facing is the safest way to ride, so keep your child rear-facing as long as possible, to the maximum weight limit of the seat. At the very minimum, children should be one year old AND 20 lbs before riding while facing forward. Don’t be in a hurry to turn them around.

4. Rear-facing car seat is not at a 45°angle

Small children do not have adequate neck and muscle control or strength. Forty-five degrees is the

safest angle to position them when rear-facing.

5. Positioning the retainer clip too low on child

The chest clip needs to be at the armpit level (on the hard bony rib cage, NOT on the soft tissue stomach).

6. Harness straps through the wrong slots

The harness straps for rear-facing seats should be at or below the child’s shoulders. For forward-facing

seats, straps should be at or above the child’s shoulders.

7. Not using a booster seat

Seat belts are made for adults, not children. The booster seat will give children the extra boost

needed to ensure the adult seat belt fits correctly.

8. Using a car seat that has been recalled

Always mail the registration cards in for car seats. This will allow the manufacturer to alert you of

any defects. For information on recalled safety seats visit the National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration website at http://www.nhtsa.gov/.

If you would like a San Diego Medical Services Representative to demonstrate and ensure that your child seat is securely and safely installed in your vehicle, please fill out a request on our website at: http://sdmse.com/contact.html.

Stay Safe!