Any parent who has wrestled with an 8-pound infant car seat will appreciate the challenge faced by the Sun-Sentinel’s Consumer Panel.
Members of the Delray Beach Mommies’ Club abandoned playtime for an afternoon to serve as panelists, buckling five leading car seats as a safety expert watched.
Their charge: to rate the manufacturers’ instructions, the ease of installation and of buckling in baby. The results left the panelists surprised and worried.
Though they generally praised the illustrated manuals, five-point buckle systems and attractive, washable cushions, installation of the seats was another matter.
Despite years of experience, the women made significant installation errors, prompting them to echo a growing national demand for simpler, safer, standard ways to anchor the seats.
Robin Hall was flustered after discovering that even her safety seats were installed incorrectly.
“I can put together digital things. I can put together toys for kids. But this was a stumper,” Hall said. “I have seven years of postgraduate study, and I should be able to figure this out.”
The ability of infant seats to protect their cargo is well-known. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that car seats, when used correctly, are 71 percent effective in reducing death and injuries.
But most people make mistakes installing the seats.
The most recent federal study found that adults made significant installation errors 80 percent of the time, reducing the safety seats’ effectiveness to 59 percent. The Delray Beach moms could not even claim 20 percent success.
The women tested five popular seats: the Century SmartMove Convertible Car Seat, $99.99; the Century SmartFit Infant Car Seat and Carrier, $59.99; the Evenflo On My Way Rear Facing Infant Car Seat, $54.99; the Evenflo Medallion, $99.99; and the Cosco TurnAbout Infant Car Seat, $49.99.
Two installation errors were most common, said Suzy Wohlford Parham, safety coordinator for the Palm Beach County (Fla.) Health District’s Trauma Foundation, who oversaw the testers.
The most common mistake involved the shoulder-strap portions of cars’ back-seat belts. The infant seats were installed in the back of a 1995 Ford Windstar, a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee and a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta, all of which had lap and shoulder belts in the rear.
The Windstar needed a special locking clip to secure the shoulder and lap portions together, something most of the women overlooked. The Jetta, with a different type of retractable-lock belt system, expressly advised against using the clip.
“You can’t just rely on `I think this looks right,’ ” Parham said. “There is a tremendous need for the consumer to get correct installation information.”
The second most common error involved carrier-type seats. Most models have bases that stay in the car and a handle that folds up to allow the baby and seat to be toted.
With these models, the moms often forgot to fold down the carrier handle before snapping the seat into the car. Manufacturers warn that the handle could injure the child in a crash.
Ranking on a scale of 1 to 5, panelists gave low marks to every model for installation ease.
In other categories: The Evenflo On My Way earned a 5 for the simplicity of its instructions, which includes numerous graphics; the Century SmartMove Convertible earned 4s for instruction manual and ease of buckling in the baby.
But when it came to installation, Sandy Sannito said she found the Century heavy and the seat belt difficult to slide through the narrow slot in its base, a common complaint. Even with the belt pulled as tightly as possible, she found the seat still slid from side to side. She blamed the slickness of the car’s belt canvas.
“This is a very important drawback,” she said.
Most panelists liked the look and the durability of the seats. Hall found Evenflo’s rugged-looking Medallion cover and padding attractive and useful, with its side pouches to keep pacifiers or teething toys handy.
“I like the accessories, and it’s good-looking,” she said.
Patricia Mayr praised the Cosco TurnAbout for the way her baby seemed to settle into it comfortably. But she found that when she used it as a carrier, the TurnAbout’s unusual handle design pinched her fingers. Overall, she rated it a 3.
In the end, panelists said they would pay more for a simpler system, something the traffic safety agency is considering.
“I cannot put a price on what I think is safest for the well-being of my child,” Sannito said.
HEADS-UP ON CAR SEATS
From the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, here’s a checklist for using a car-seat safely:
– Does your car have a passenger-side air bag? If so, the safety seat must go in the back. The middle position is best.
– Is your seat facing the right way? If the baby weighs less than 20 pounds and is younger than 1, the seat should face the rear. It can face forward when the child is older than 1 and heavier than 20 pounds.
– Is the safety seat properly secured? Consult your vehicle owner’s manual and the seat’s instruction manual. Once the belt is threaded through the correct path, it sometimes needs a special clip to hold the shoulder and lap portions together, to prevent slippage. Eighty percent of the safety seat’s base should rest atop the vehicle’s seat cushion.
Test to see whether it’s secure by pushing it forward and backward. If it moves, tighten the belt while pressing the seat into the cushion with your knee. Make sure the head of a very small infant does not flop forward in rear-facing seats. If it does, place a roll of cloth under the seat below the baby’s feet so the seat reclines.
– Is the seat’s harness properly adjusted? The shoulder straps of the seat go in the lowest slot for an infant who rides backward, in the highest slot for a child who rides forward. The retainer clip should be placed at armpit level. If the child’s ears are above the top of the back of the seat and his shoulders are above the seat-strap slots, it’s time for a booster seat.
