Car Seat Check

For all my preggo friends, the Children's Hospital of Illinois provides free car seat checks. They have a plethora of dates available and it requires only 15-20 minutes of your time. I went today to have them install Lydia's car seat. While they are installing it, they instruct you on proper installation and features of the car seat. I highly recommend it! They can use the seat belt or the LATCH system (those are the black straps hanging on the side of Lydia's seat in the picture). The middle of the car is the safest place for the car and most cars only have the LATCH system on the sides. Therefore, we used the seatbelt to install Lydia's seat in the middle of the back of Brett's trailblazer (the main Lydia transport vehicle:)

Even though we have taken courses that included information on car seat safety, I learned quite a few new things.

1. Do not add anything to the carseat. This includes toys. I had two new toys for Lydia's set that were attached to the handle. Also, I added soft wraps to the straps of the seat and was told that they are also not recommended. In essence, anything that does not come on the car seat, should not be added as it was not crash tested.

2. There is a level on the car seat. This should be kept at 30-45 degrees for an infant.

3. There should be no more than a one inch 'wiggle room' when you try to move the car seat side to side.

4. You should barely be able to place a finger between the baby and the five point harness that secures her in the seat.