OMG!!! I've just realised HOW important it is to pull a car seat's straps really tight!

[saoirse86]

I'm having trouble getting my 10 month old DD to sleep without being fed and in desperation I decided to put her in her car seat in her room to see if she'd settle as she settles so well in the car.

So she was crying for the time it took for me to have a wee and then just stopped. I carefully open the door to her room to find her sitting next to the car seat!

I obviously would have pulled the straps tighter if she was in the car but I've definitely seen people have the straps as tight (or loose) as I'd done it today.

That's really quite scary how easily a child could be flung from their seat.

[aswellasyou]

That's really shocking! I hate seeing babies clearly not tightly strapped into their car seat. Admittedly, it's usually when they're in a seat on a pushchair, but I assume at least some of them just put them into the car as they are. I am super paranoid about tightening the car seat straps though!

[WhackadoodleDandy]

I saw a baby fall out of a maxi cosi cabriofix seat once, it was really awful. The baby was in the car seat on a quinny style buggy frame, but the straps were't done up, the mum misjudged the curb and the baby toppled out into the road . Thankfully nothing was coming on the road but it could easily have been a tragedy.

I always feel like I want to say something when I see people pushing babies around in car seats without the straps done up, but they'd think I was an interfering busybody wouldn't they!

[saoirse86]

I saw a woman yesterday with a baby of about 3 months in a car seat on her pushchair. The baby was really loosely strapped in and I did think about saying something to her. I think I should have really but I convinced myself that no one would be stupid enough to put a baby in a car like that. Completely judging a book by its cover, she looked more intelligent than that!

[fifitot]

I once had a similar experience to the one outlined by WhackDoodle. I had DD (then 18m) strapped in to her buggy and hit a kerb the whole pushchair went forward. Thankfully she was well strapped in and while she ended up face first on the pavement, she didn't fall out! Was very scary though!

[SaffronCake]

Thank you for warning us.

[notfarmingatthemo]

You be amazed at how stupid people can be. Walking out of a resterant with a friend her dh handed their faily new baby about 2 weeks old. I had been sitting next to her dh so had seen him put her in the seat. she was all tucked in with a blanket, no straps on. Said to friend that he handed put the straps on yet thinking they were going to do it when she defiantly wasn't gong to be getting back out. She looked at me really surprised they thought that as the seat was being strapped in the car baby didn't need to be.