Installing Child Safety Seats

Where should a child safety seat be installed in a vehicle?
Safety seats need to be installed in the safest location in the vehicle you're using. We recommend that children stay in the back seat until they're age 15, based on the newest research that we've seen. So the safety seat should be installed in the back seat. The center of the back seat is generally the safest location in the vehicle for the safety seat. However there are reasons sometimes not to use that position. So, the first thing is to look at that location and see if the safety seat fits tightly there, and if the system that you have in that location for holding the safety seat in is appropriate for the age and size of your child.

What are "car tethers"?
Safety seats that are forward facing and have a full harness system now come with a strap on the back of the seat and this strap has a hook which is meant to attach to a tether anchor in the back of the vehicle. Generally tethers are used only forward facing although there are some models of safety seats for which a tether may be used in the rear facing position. Clearly as with any safety seat situation you must read the instructions for that particular product. What a top tether does is to hold the seat in position during a crash so that the top of the seat does not go as far forward. All forward facing safety seats must meet a particular standard without the use of the top tether. But, they also have to meet another standard where they may use the top tether to meet it and you want your child to be protected with a top tether. A top tether can actually reduce the distance forward your child's head goes in a crash, anywhere from two to eight inches. Tethers are better.

What is a "LATCH" attachment system?
LATCH stands for "Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children". The LATCH attachment system is a system for installing safety seats without the use of a vehicle safety belt. The idea was that many safety belts were designed for better protection for human beings, and so they weren't convenient to use safely with safety seats anymore. The safety belts were too far forward from the crack where the vehicle seat back and seat bottom come together, and so they weren't pulling back on the safety seat and holding it tightly in place. Instead, starting in about 2002, some bars were put into the crack at the back of the vehicle seat that were designed specifically to attach the safety seats. At the same time, lower attachment connectors and attachments were put on the safety seats so that they could match up with the bars.

When should I use a safety belt instead of the LATCH system in my car?
There are times when you want to use the safety belt instead of the attachments, particularly if you are using a safety seat with a full harness that goes above 48 pounds. The current weight limit on most of those lower attachment bars is 48 pounds. So, LATCH is a convenience and sometimes it improves protection because it allows for a tighter fit and greater ease for parents to attach the safety seat properly, but the safety belt will always be a safe restraint system in terms of the weight of the child in the seat. In many cases, it will lock tightly. Since 1996 models, safety seats have had to have what's called a lockability feature. In other words, it means that you can manually lock the belt through the car seat by something that you do to the safety belt; a lot of parents don't know about that and they're missing the fact that they can lock that safety belt through the car seat properly.

How do I install my rear-facing child safety seat using the LATCH system?
A rear-facing safety seat for a newborn must be at a fourty five degree angle. The way to keep the babies airway open depends on the angle of the safety seat, so that's extremely important for a newborn. When you install the safety seat in the vehicle with LATCH, you're using generally flexible fabric with hooks on each end to attach to the bars, and they usually have a way of tightening them. It is even possible to have LATCH attchments that have an automatic LATCH attachment system. You should put the safety seat in there so tightly that you can not move the safety seat more than an inch to the sides or front of the vehicle. To test this you put your hands on the safety seat near the place where the LATCH attachments go through it, and try to move the seat from side to side or toward the front of the vehicle. Remember that with most rear facing seats, you can push the safety seat up and back towards the back of the vehicle with your finger, so don't worry about that. It means the seat is allowed to rotate toward the back and forward in a collision. The best way to get the safety seat in tightly is to put your weight on the safety seat to compress the vehicles seat cushion. Generally I find that people find it easier if they stand at the back of the safety seat and push it back and down with their legs while they're putting one hand in the seat, using the other to buckle the seat and pull the LATCH attachment tightly.

How do I install my forward-facing child safety seat using the LATCH system?
Safety seats that have a full harness system come with a full LATCH system. That means it has lower anchors and the top tether. So when you put a safety seat in with the lower anchors you will also want to make sure that you attach the top tether strap to the tether anchor. Again, you want to compress the vehicle seat cushion with your weight. With a forward-facing seat it's usually easiest to put your knee in the seat and push it down and back while you're tightening the LATCH attachments. And then, you want to tighten the tether strap so it's also quite tight. To test the seat, put your hands near where the latch attachments go through the safety seat, it's generally through the back of the safety seat, and see if it can move more than an inch to the sides or front of the vehicle.

How do I install my child safety seat using a safety belt?
It's a choice as to whether you use a child safety belt or the latch connectors, if your vehicle has the lower anchors. However, if you don't have the lower anchors, you want to achieve tightness by putting the safety belt through the proper belt pad, putting your weight on the seat, and buckling the belt. All motor vehicles made from model year 1996 on have a lockability feature in the safety belt, so that you can lock it manually. For most shoulder lap belts, after you buckle the belt, you will pull the top of the shoulder belt all the way out, and then when you release it, you will hear it ratcheting back and taking up all the slack. So, put your weight on the safety seat and push the additional slack of the safety belt up into the top of the safety belt on the shoulder harness. With lap belts only, the locking mechanism is usually in the buckle. There's a bar in the buckle that needs to lie flush on the webbing of the safety belt in order to keep it locked. What I tell parents is the easiest way to test a safety belt to see how it works, first you sit in the belt. You will naturally put the belt on properly because safety belts are designed for the human body and you will naturally tilt the buckle to make the safety belt get longer. You will naturally pull the end of the safety belt to tighten it around you. If you look, you will see that the bar inside the buckle is lying flat on the webbing of the safety belt and that's what locks the belt, when it's a lap belt.