Babies Offer Info On The Best Way To Keep Your Child Safe In Cars

The safest way for children to travel in a car is in a child car seat, one that is suitable for their weight and size. In a crash at just 48kph, an unrestrained child would be thrown forward with a force 30 to 60 times their body weight. They would be thrown about inside the vehicle, injuring or killing themselves and quite possibly seriously injuring (or even killing) other people inside the vehicle. They are also likely to be ejected from the car through one of the windows.  By law all children up to 148cm in height or seven years in age must be properly restrained in a car seat. All car seats currently on the market must meet one of the following standards: Australian Standard (AS/NZS1754), European Standard 9ECE44), United States Standards FMVSS213).

Any car seat bought new is technically safe but, unfortunately, the same can’t be said for second-hand car seats or cat seats purchased more than a couple of years ago, which may have been designed to meet outdated standards or may have been damaged in an accident or been recalled for safety violations).  Also, even if a car seat itself meets the required standards, it can still present safety problems it it’s installed or used incorrectly. The safest car seat, therefore, is the one that best fits your child and your car and is easiest for you to use. It is, therefore, very important to buy your child’s car seat from an impeccable source and that is where Babies.co.nz comes in. Babies.co.nz have the largest selection of car seats in Auckland and they stock all the well-known brands such as Juniors, Super Nanny, Cosco and Safety 1st.
Babies advise that, although most parents move their child from a rear-facing to a forward-facing position when they reach 12 months or 9kgs, this is the minimum age and weight requirement for facing forward. Experts’ recommendations are that the longer you keep your child in a rear-facing position, the safer they will be. This is because in a frontal collision, the stress on a forward facing child’s neck can injure their spine.

Babies sell three basic types of car seats, from the infant capsule car seat which faces the rear of the car, the convertible car seat which functions as both a rear-facing infant seat and a forward-facing seat and the booster car seat. For more information on children’s car seats, please visit the website at http://www.babies.co.nz.