Keeping your children safe is your top priority whether at home, in public, or on the road.
Motor vehicle injuries are a leading cause of death among children in the United States.1 But many of these deaths can be prevented. Always buckling children in age- and size-appropriate car seats, booster seats, and seat belts can help reduce the risk of serious and fatal injuries by up to 80%.2
Three resources may provide helpful information in your search for proper child safety seat installation:
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s “Car Seats and Booster Seats”
- Buckle Up For Life’s “Car Seat 101”
- Healthychildren.org’s “Car Seats: Information for Families”
1. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s “Car Seats and Booster Seats”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for keeping people safe on America’s roadways.3 The NHTSA’s resource “Car Seats and Booster Seats” may be helpful in your search for proper child safety seat installation tips.
This resource is broken down into three main sections:4 Find the right car seat, install your car seat correctly, and keep your child safe in a car seat.
It also provides several additional features you may find useful including information about car seat inspection and how to receive car seat recall notices.
Car Seat Inspection
A link to Find a Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Technician near you is available in the “Car Seats and Booster Seats” resource.5 This program, provided by Safe Kids Worldwide, helps you locate a CPS Technician to inspect your car seat free of charge, in most cases, and show you how to correctly install and use it. You can enter your city and state or ZIP Code to find a car seat inspection station near you.5
Get Car Seat Recall Notices
The “Car Seats and Booster Seats” resource also provides a link where you can sign up to receive email alerts from NHTSA about car seat and booster seat recalls to make sure your child remains safe. Sign up to get car seat recall notices here.6
2. Buckle Up for Life’s “Car Seat 101”
Buckle Up for Life is a “national child passenger safety education program, created by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Toyota to empower all families to buckle up and go safely.”7 Buckle Up For Life’s “Car Seat 101” resource has several landing pages that may be helpful in your search for information pertaining to proper child safety seat installation.8 Among the landing pages are:
Age and Weight Guide – This guide shows how child safety seat needs change as your child grows.9
Installation Tips – The slides and videos featured on this page will walk you through how to install each type of child safety seat.10
Car Seats for Special Needs – This landing page describes challenges families with special needs children may experience regarding child safety seats and offers solutions that may help in the transportation of special needs children.11
3. Healthychildren.org’s “Car Seats: Information for Families”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is, “an organization of 67,000 pediatricians committed to the optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.”12 Healthychildren.org is a parenting website backed by the AAP.13
Healthychildren.org’s resource “Car Seats: Information for Families” provides information about choosing the most appropriate car safety seat for your child and installation tips for each type of safety seat that may be helpful to you.14
“Car Seats: Information for Families” is organized by types of car seats: rear-facing seats, forward-facing seats, booster seats, and even includes information about seat belts. Each section provides detailed information about a type of car seat, installation tips for that type of car seat, and common questions that arise around that type of car seat.14
“Car Seats: Information for Families” also features information you may find helpful about airbags, carpooling, car safety seats on airplanes, installation help, and important reminders.14
Additional Resources
Other resources may provide helpful information in your search for proper child safety seat installation:- The CDC’s “Child Passenger Safety”15
- Stanford Children’s Health’s “Installing and Using Child Safety Seats and Booster Seats”16
- Mayo Clinic’s “Car seat safety: Avoid 9 common mistakes”17
This is not a comprehensive list of resources that may be helpful in your search for information on proper child safety seat installation.
Proper child safety seat installation is crucial in helping keep your child safe.
Child safety seats may help keep your child safe. Access the resources above for information that may be helpful as you install your child safety seat.
Categories: Product Safety/Recalls, Vehicle/Travel Safety
- https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/child_passenger_safety/cps-factsheet.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/child_passenger_safety/index.html
- https://www.nhtsa.gov/about-nhtsa
- https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/car-seats-and-booster-seat
- https://portalskcms.cyzap.net/dzapps/dbzap.bin/apps/assess/webmembers/secure/manage?webid=SKCMS&pToolCode=CERT-SEARCH&pAdd=Yes
- https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/subscriptions
- https://www.buckleupforlife.org/about-us/
- https://www.buckleupforlife.org/car-seat-101/
- https://www.buckleupforlife.org/car-seat-101/age-and-weight-guide
- https://www.buckleupforlife.org/car-seat-101/how-to-install/
- https://www.buckleupforlife.org/car-seat-101/special-needs/
- https://services.aap.org/en/about-the-aap/
- https://www.healthychildren.org/English/our-mission/Pages/default.aspx
- https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/on-the-go/Pages/Car-Safety-Seats-Information-for-Families.aspx
- https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/child-passenger-safety/index.html
- https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=installing-and-using-child-safety-seats-and-booster-seats-90-P02985
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/in-depth/car-seat-safety/art-2004393