PLEASE read up on carseat safety...

Please mamas, read up on what an appropriate car seat is for your child for their age, weight and height, PLEASE read up on extended rear facing and the safty specs for the carseats that are on the market, please take them to a car seat inspection station (or most local police stations will check them for you) so that you know they are installed properly and please read up on the way to position the clips and/or shoulder straps. Please read about how dangerous it is to add padding to straps, hang toys from seats and use those mirrors to see baby in their seats.

I see so many pictures of babies in their car seats wrong (not on here, but on facebook and other boards) and it makes me cringe every time. I am not going to post statistics or information unless someone wants it, it's easy to find and easy to understand if you just read it.

You can check out http://www.car-safety.org/faq.html for information.

Thank you for this! I agree with you! I have also seen it on Baby Story alot with the baby not in the car seat correct. I just want to yell at them!!!

The one thing is I have to use the cushion on the neck straps. Max has such severe sensitive skin that his neck breaks out really bad from the straps.

Thanks for the info! As a new mom, never having used a car seat, I plan on having the police or fire station check out the installation of ours before our baby is born.

What annoys me even more is when I am driving and see toddlers/young children who are not in their car seat at all.  My cousin is guilty of this with her daughter, who is 2.  The baby figured out how to get out of the harness, and the mom has gotten so frustrated, she just lets her sit in the seat while not being properly buckled in.  Not being a parent, myself... how do you deal with that situation?? 

Thanks for this information.  I have a very big step daugter and we removed the booster seat about 6 months ago.  It appeared to be more dangerous for her to sit in it than to be out of it. (She sat up so high and easily tiped this thing over.  She is shy of 80 pounds but I will measure her height this weekend when I get her.  She easy sits in the car with seatbelt and according to this knees in the right spots.  Thanks-Stacey

Wonderful advice!  

I would like to add that I see a lot of people using expired carseats as well as selling them at thrift stores or garage sales.  I'm guessing it's better than no carseat, but we really don't know when a carseat will fail, and it's better to be safe than sorry.  Also, an old carseat might have been in a car accident or sat outside in the hot sun for a long time or had other treatment that could have weakened the plastic and parts.

If someone has a limited budget, better to spend it on a decent carseat than a changing table or lots of cute outfits or other stuff a baby can live without.  Better to have a baby who wears jammies all the time than one who has to ride in a bad seat.