Health Tuber

Parents leaving the hospital with a newborn make sure an infant seat is installed. Toddlers and preschoolers get buckled into their child safety seats on every excursion.  But until recently, older kids, those who have outgrown their safety seats, were often placed at risk — in seats belts that did not adequately protect them. Kids Safety First seeks to change that. The national organization promotes child car safety and educates parents on the importance of child booster seats.  For example, while New York State law requires that all children under 7 must be buckled into a federally-approved appropriate child restraint system, Kids Safety First urges parents to keep even 8-year-olds in booster seats.

   Kristin Varela, founder of MotherProof.com, which gears car reviews towards moms, is an automotive safety expert and mother of two.  She has become a spokesperson for Kids Safety First because her own daughters, ages 4 and 6, are firmly in the booster seat age and despite being a car expert, she has been stymied.  “I really understand first-hand some of the confusion other parents go through,” she says.

   Varela contends, “The best practice is that all children ages 4-8, between 35 and 80 lbs, definitely need to be in booster seats.”  What is critical, she adds, “is that the shoulder belt and lap belt sit properly. It’s a size issue, not an age issue.”  The guidelines for booster seat usage assume a child, at 8, being at least 4’9”, but that’s not always the case.  Varela urges parents to observe their child in the car seat; they need to have their knees hanging over, with the lap belt sitting low on their hip, not stomach, for them to be large enough to forgo a booster seat.  The shoulder belt, she adds, “should be across the shoulder, not the neck.”