Wellness Connection: Car Seats and Your Child’s Safety

Any parent with a newborn to preschooler knows about car seats; a necessary evil that comes with any automobile trip. Whether it is a short jaunt to the grocery store or a three hour drive to visit relatives, the child restraint system is required by law for your child’s safety. But how safe is it?

NHTSA Recommendations
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that for your child’s safety you should consider the following guidelines:

• Infants (birth to one year of age or weighing at least 22 pounds) require a rear-facing convertible seat
• Toddlers (over one year of age and weighing 20-40 pounds) can be in a forward-facing convertible seat.
• Editor’s Note: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children remain rear-facing until they are too big – which means they are either too heavy (usually 30-35 pounds for most convertible car seats) or too tall (there is less than one inch of space between the top of a child’s head and the top of the car seat). Note that the length of the child’s legs or the fact that they touch the back of the vehicle seat are not safety issues nor comfort factors in terms of keeping a child rear-facing.
• Young Children (ages 4 – 8 years, unless at least 4’8” tall and weighing more than 40 pounds) need a seat belt-positioning booster seat in a forward-facing seat position
• Any children ages 12 and younger should ride in the backseat at all times.

Additional Features
The pursuit of the perfect car seat has created a variety of systems, checks and balances in the hope of making our children’s safety a little more secure.

LATCH, an acronym for the “Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children” system is one of the latest attempts to decrease the problems related to improperly installed car seats. As of September 2000, all new automobiles (except convertibles) are required to have a special attachment that secure the tether strap found on most new child restraint systems. The purpose of the adjustable straps is to secure the seat to the rear window shelf, floor or back of the vehicle seat. The strap will keep the top of the car seat from moving too far forward, reducing the possibility of head injuries during crashes.

In September 2002, a second feature was required: a lower attachment bar with a matching feature on a car seat (buckle, hook or connector) that snaps onto the lower anchor bar f the vehicle. You would think that with all of these new safety measure being taken and car seat laws in every state, children would be completely safe during an auto accident: you could be wrong.

Still Number One
Despite all of the latest changes to car seat safety, injuries caused by motor vehicle collisions remain the leading cause of death in children 2 to 14. It is also the leading cause of disabling injuries in that age group. Just as a seat belt is meant to restrain an adult during an auto accident, the car seat has the same purpose; they are called child restraint systems not child life preservers for that very reason. Parents mistakenly believe that if their child is in a car seat that they are immune from injury during a motor vehicle collision; when, in reality, the purpose of the car seat is only to lessen the degree of risk to the child.

Child Injury
Most insurance companies and many parents mistakenly believe that a child in a car seat is somehow invulnerable. The parent will rush to the chiropractor immediately after an automobile accident to get adjusted, not realizing that their child may be suffering the same discomfort.

Why is this? Generally, if a child doesn’t complain of pain, it never occurs to a pediatrician or parent that any injury was sustained during the collision. Due to their inability to communicate their pain or discomfort, symptoms such as irritability, lethargy, restlessness, night terrors, poor focus and/or appetite, change in bowel movements and being very clingy, may be the only signs that an infant or child has suffered an injury. It is important to realize that even a child in a safety seat can be injured. They’re not being thrown around the car or into the back of the seat in front of them, but they are still suffering from the impact. Their body is held to the car by the restraint but their head and arms are thrown forward, which can cause mild to severe damage to their spine and nervous system.

Even the best-positioned and properly installed car seat can only afford your child a certain amount of protection from injury.

The Safer Car Seat
Despite all the best intentions, there is no perfect car seat, safety seat or child restraint system because they all require installation. The NHTSA reports that more than 80% of all car seats are improperly installed and when properly installed, they reduce the risk of childhood mortality by 54% when compared to a child riding completely unrestrained.

In Summary
No car seat, no matter how well it is installed, will guarantee that your child will not suffer injury in an auto accident. If you and your child have recently been involved in a motor vehicle collision, contact your doctor or family wellness chiropractor to schedule a brief examination. It is better to have your child checked and find out that there is nothing wrong, than to assume they are fine and find out later that there was severe damage done to their still developing spine.

Read the Clever Parents interview with The Car Seat Lady: Surpising Information About Car Seats & Safety, published in May 2006.