Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

to think its not that hard to strap your child in correrctly!!!!!

56 replies

JjandtheBean · 12/12/2009 19:45

i think im going to burst!

maybe im clucky or paranoid, who knows?

But in this past week i have seen a photo on fb and met up with several people who have there children sooo poorly restrained in the car i feel quite sick!

2 in infant carriers without the straps tightened at all, one in an adult belt on a graco type highback booster that was under 1 and last of all a 18mnth old in a carseat that barely reaches his neck level and the straps loose coming over his body near his elbows!!!

WHY PEOPLE WHY?

My two are tightened over and over until im satisfied they cant go anywhere! every weekend dp re fits the seats so theyre tight, are we over the top?

Am i correct in thinking that the belts being across elbows are a bit useless? that completely slack infant carrier belts are pointless? or am i a clucky over protective carseat freak?

OP posts:

onadietcokebreak · 13/12/2009 16:19

Count me in. I am exactly the same as you OP.

However I have just realised about the winter coats things and how the straps dont seem as tight as I like normally. Fleeces from now on.

EdgarAleNPie · 13/12/2009 16:28

erm actually i thought the most dangerous seat was the off-side rear passenger seat.

it is only if they are in a rear-facing seat that the front passenger airbag poses a danger.

borderslass · 13/12/2009 16:42

edgaralenpie no child under 12 should be in the front if there is a airbag our last car had warnings in about it.

EdgarAleNPie · 13/12/2009 16:44

why? my car warns specifically about rear-facing?

i mean hopefully a toddler in seat isn't oing to be throw forwards too far anyway...but then hitting an air bag is immensely preferable to hitting the dash, n'est pas?

borderslass · 13/12/2009 16:53

the force of the airbag going off can cause serious injurys thats why, most cars only warn about rearward facing seats but when mine where young they always travelled in the bac.

from website
Why are airbags dangerous for children?
Airbags were made to protect adults weighing about 75kg. They are very powerful when they are inflated and they are placed so low that a child placed in front of an airbag may suffocate or be severely injured by the impact of a rapidly inflating airbag.

If your child is younger than 12 years, they must never sit in a front-seat with an active airbag in front of them. When your child is over 12 and wants to sit in the front seat, move the seat as far back as possible.

A child seat must never be fitted in the front passenger seat if the car has a passenger side airbag. Some cars enable the driver to switch off the airbag. But it should be switched on again when an adult is using the seat

BackUpYourPhotosNow · 13/12/2009 17:20

I was also told its to do with the collision of the child being thrown forwards and the airbag moving rearwards as the child hits it.

ThumbleBells · 13/12/2009 17:29

I have sometimes thought that DS needs an extra strap on his carseat as, despite having it as tight as possible, he is also able to wriggle his arms out of it (has done it only a few times). Probably a poor design and we will get him a new one - although he has stopped doing it recently, and in fact "helps" me do up his straps now.

Ivykaty44 · 13/12/2009 17:29

look it doesn't get any easier as they get older - I tell my 17 year old to sit in the back as the passanger front seat is a death seat, I make sure they both have their seat belts "flat" and not twisted at all.

It is so easy to save a life from being badly injured or more by a few simple steps.

air bags are made for 75kg - oh shit then cos all three of us are well under that weight and I have to sit in the drivers seat

curiositykilledhaskittens · 13/12/2009 17:30

edgar - sitting on a car seat positions the child further forward than an adult would be too - makes it more likely the child will be suffocated or harmed by the airbag inflating.

TeaOneSugar · 13/12/2009 17:34

I recently saw a Grandmother travelling in the rear seat with a toddler on her knee and the seatbelt around them both, absolute madness. She was sitting there with a big grin on her face clearly thinking she was doing the right thing.

EdgarAleNPie · 13/12/2009 17:44

you're stil not selling me this - surely better to hit an airbag than the rear of a car seat or dashboard?

and airbags quickly deflate. the reason rea-facing ones don't go in the front is because if the airbag inflates it punches the back of the seat.

this does not apply to forward facing ones.

Ivykaty44 · 13/12/2009 17:57

how did you know it was the grandmother could it have been an older lady friend or aunt or even an older mother?

notcitrus · 13/12/2009 18:07

I totally agree children must be strapped in correctly, but it really is hard in many seats especially if you don't do it much.

Went to visit my parents when pfb was about 8 weeks old - they've always lived next to a rail station but moved recently. So I told them they needed a car seat. A bit of 'never needed that in my day' was dealt with by a 'do you want to see your only grandchild or not' and 'do you remember that time Mum drove into a truck and I got glass in my head', so they asked their other grandparent friends, went to Mothercare and bought a car seat for age 0 to 5. My dad was shown how to put it in and then did so to meet us at the station.

We put baby in, couldn't do the straps up - too short. I played a bit, they tried, the lady who runs the taxi office with three kids tried, and a couple passers-by tried. Couldn't figure it out at all. In the end I decided that this hysterical baby counted as an emergency and we drove to my parents (about 5 min at under 10 miles an hour, baby held into the huge rear-facing seat).

Got the manual out. It transpired you have to push the seat with one arm, press a button with your other arm, pull the strap presumably with your third arm, all while sitting in the footwell. Obviously.

Still, all was good for the next few vists until he appeared too big for the seat. I squashed his tummy until my dad and I could fasten the buckle (mum and I both have hand problems). The manual just had a couple crap diagrams. Only when searching online did we establish that actually when we thought we'd taken the 'newborn insert' out, we'd actually removed the 'newborn headhugger' which isn't mentioned in the manual at all! And obviously at 6 months a newborn insert was just too big.

Now if three adults with PhDs can't figure out how to strap a child into a carseat, there's something wrong with the seats and carseat instructions! Recently my parents looked after him while I did a work thing - they joked they should have managed to get him out of the car by the time I got there - but refused to pick me up as they weren't confident they could get him in properly.

I need to get MrNC to show me how to put the carseat in our car again as I'm not confident doing it - but I've only driven once with him in the car. I always double-check the seat when MrNC puts it in so I'm confident it doesn't wobble. So far, haven't had to worry about child undoing his straps but I foresee that will be a problem soon.

TeaOneSugar · 13/12/2009 18:22

It very much looked like the child's grandparents, but if you like, it was an older couple, old enought in fact to be his grandparents, the man was driving and the lady was in the rear seat with the child.

Not sure what difference it makes

lanismum · 13/12/2009 18:29

I am ultra careful with carseats for my 3 too, we drive a lot, about once a month I refit the bloody things in both cars (6 seats!) and regularly check strap heights are ok, and that weight limit hasnt been exceeded, they dont wear coats, just have a blanket over them if its cold, I am regarded as a mentalist by most people I know, I have one friend who once her ds turned 2, was sat on a pillow with an adult belt around him know lots of people that do the adult-with-kid-on-lap-using-1-seatbelt-thing too, it makes me cringe, I actually told one of them their child would be crushed to death by the heavier adult even if it didnt slip out of the too big adult belt and go through the windowscreen, this was met with a shrug?

BackUpYourPhotosNow · 13/12/2009 18:33

notcitrus, I think you have to tell us the make of that carseat. My mind is boggling!!! I have never had so much trouble with a carseat and I don't have a phd!

Ivykaty44 · 13/12/2009 18:47

It was the assumption, just cos you look over 32 doesn't mean your are the granny

TheGoatofChristmasPast · 13/12/2009 18:52

i am careful with my child but frankly some of you sound like loons

drlovesmincepies · 13/12/2009 18:58

i had trouble keeping my dd4 in a car seat- even when the straps were done up tight as possible ,she managed to escape them.(shes got hypermobility). so we ditched the car seat and got one that has a cushion restraint instead of the five point harness.
she is not happy, but cant escape anymore. its so simple to use, you cant not use it properly.

borderslass · 13/12/2009 19:11

with my son he had reins in his seat as well as the harness he could get out of the seat no matter how tight the straps where, then my sister gave me a seat and he couldn't get out of that one.

trellism · 13/12/2009 19:12

I am very strict with seatbelts. I won't set off until every passenger is strapped in. Granny thought she could transport dd on her lap too, since that worked for her kids. I pointed out that she was just lucky, and she now has her own car seat for dd.

When I was little, my dad fitted 3-point harnesses for me and my sibs in the back of his Vauxhall Cavalier. Oh, the mocking we received when he picked us up from school... but even then I knew he was doing the right thing.

nickytwotimes · 13/12/2009 19:15

Yanbu.
A very lovely friend of mne is DREADFUL with the car seats. Never tightens the straps or adjusts them to allow for growth. Kids loll around in the back.
Makes me feel ill when we go out together.

ButterPie · 13/12/2009 19:34

We once found out that FIL had been out with DD (who was barely 2 at the time) sat on his knee in the back of the car. We went MAD at him, and now every time I go in his car I re-check the car seats. I think he thinks we are being silly, but I know for a fact that both his kids have fallen out of his moving car (it was the 70's, but still...) as he has told me the "amusing" story. I'm afraid that is enough to convice me that he doesn't "get" car safety. He does still seem convinced that it is impossible to take two kids on the bus though, and is baffled when I do...

Actually, how safe IS the bus? I tend to have the newborn in her pram in the pram/wheelchair bit, and the 2.9yo sat with me on the sideways chairs next to the pram. That can't be all that safe really, can it? Then again, the only bus crashes anyone I know have been in have just been smashed wing mirror type things.

Also, what is the situation with taxis? I have a travel system pram, so can take the babies car seat out with me, but obviously not the toddlers seat. Are those fold out kids seats in black cabs any good?

moomaa · 13/12/2009 19:51

Fleeces sound good to keep little ones warm but please don't go without any winter coverings to get the straps tighter.

I knew a fireman who attended lots of road traffic accidents and he said that lots of casulties died or suffered complications becuase they went from a toasty car to freezing temperatures outside with only a tshirt or thin jumper on. He always thought you should dress for the outside whilst in the car just in case. Would be interested to know if anyone else has heard similiar.

p.s yanbu to be paranoid about this, many of us are

Original poster

JjandtheBean · 13/12/2009 20:32

my two have 'car' blankets that they are carried to car and back in, and when i say a fleece theyre the poodley type north face ones, very warm but not bulky! And i usually put coats on in the car then climb out (3dr car so i litterally climb in to sort them)

Have to admit my ds has been in a front seat twice, forward facing but only because we have a tiny car, and no passenger air bag, i was jammed in the back between two britax evolvas and he was in the front in his!

his seat actually fitted amazingly well in the front!

Would never do it for no reason.

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3