Child Carseat Safety

For years car seat safety has been a big topic of passion for me. I did it all wrong with my oldest and praise God i didn’t pay a price for my lack of education. Her chest clip was rarely where it was supposed to be. I put her in her seat in big coats. I forward faced as soon as she turned a year old. I fucked it up in every way just about. Thankfully because of a fellow mom saying something to me i began to research it. At first i was annoyed with her. It felt like she was judging me and questioning my ability to be a mother. I felt threatened and offended. But she was right and i quickly saw that after endlessly educating myself. I’ve had women delete me. Cuss me. Block me. Ect. For trying to help them safety restrain their children. 

PSA — A MOM EDUCATING YOU ABOUT CARSEAT SAFETY ISN’T CALLING YOU OUT! IT’S TRYING TO SAVE YOUR CHILDS LIFE! 

How can you KNOW that something is proven to be safest and simply ignore it?! How? I don’t get it. No excuse in the world can justify knowingly neglecting your child by putting them in premeditated harm. They cry rear facing? So what! They hate it? So what! They can’t look around good? So what! Your child is big for their age? So what if they still fall within the rear facing guild lines of their carseat. Their legs are cramped? So what! Broken leg, cast it. Broken neck from prematurely forward facing, casket. They have some ‘medical reason’ why you can’t rear face them past 12 months old? Bull shit! Seriously. Bull fucking shit. It’s an excuse to make you look and/or feel better about YOUR CHOICE to forward face them. Each state has different laws on car seat requirements. I get it. But a) most states are changing those laws for safety reasons and b) just because you can legally do something DOES NOT make it the safest option or what’s best. The American Academy of Pediatrics just released new information reinforcing that children need to rear face as long as possible. They need to rear face until they exceed the height and weight maximum on their car seat. That’s not at 2 or by 2. In fact, it’s the average size of a 4 year old! Think about that if you are forward facing your 1 year old. Two year old. Three year old. Not knowing (like i didn’t) is one thing but knowing and ignoring it is neglect. And this day and age with social media, billboards, magazines, news outlets, cell phones, the odds of a parent not coming across this information is rare! Curious about your child’s adequate car seat recommendation? There are countless credible sources online to find the exact type of seat that your child needs to be the safest that they possibly can. Here are some links to support what I’ve said in this post: 

ABC NEWS

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS

CBS NEWS