Carseat safety week, post 2: Harnessing. Not just for toddlers.

First, I will introduce you to the Kyle David Miller Foundation. It is an organization started by a family who lost their little boy in a car accident. He would have lived had he been in a 5-point harness, but he wasn't, so he died. They started this organization to raise awareness of the importance of harnessing, and also to give high weight 5-point harnessed carseats to families who cannot afford them. Their waiting list is about 10 miles long, so if you have some donation money to spare, that would be a good place to put it. You might save a kid's life, right here in the good old USA.

Anyhow, harnessing has got to be the grayest area of all carseat topics. Everyone SHOULD know that you rear-face to at least two years of age, longer if possible, because the American Academy of Pediatrics put that out for us years ago. Harnessing is grayer, though. Ask a carseat manufacturer, and they'll tell you their boosters are good from 30 or 40 pounds, some even specify 3 years old. Pretty scary, right? A lot of parents do shockingly little research when they go buy a carseat. They just go to the store, and look at what includes their child's age within its limits, and pick a color (or whatever's cheapest). Sometimes they get "help" from salespeople. Have you ever talked to the salespeople at Babies R Us? It is scary how clueless they are. Yet, people like these are many parents' go-to source of information about carseats. Even the new display in the carseat aisle of Target is more informative (and informed) than the salespeople at major baby retailers when it comes to carseats. Your best bet is to ask a Child Passenger Safety Technician to recommend seats for your kid if you're in need of a new one. They'll be able to tell you what's good and what's not, as well as clear up anything you're stumped about. When I'm stumped, I ask a tech. Hell, even if you don't think you're stumped (98% of parents THINK they're using their kids' carseats correctly, yet only roughly 30% are.) it's a good idea to ask a tech, periodically, just to make sure you haven't missed anything. They are also experts in determining when a kid is actually ready to booster train. Size is hardly the beginning of the story. One tech I've asked to debunk stuff for me on numerous occasions, told me that she'd rather see a 38 pound 6-year-old in a booster, than a 50-pound 4-year-old. The simple reason is that maturity is a huge factor in readiness for booster training. Size is secondary.

A few states have laws which state that children must remain in a 5-point harness until they're 4 years and/or 40 pounds (whether it's and or or, depends on the state) but some states such as South Carolina, have some seriously horrid loopholes in their harnessing laws. They want kids in a harness to age 4, I believe, but they make an exception for kids who are being fed. Yeah, riddle me that. Anyhow, some states actually have a half decent harness law, but for one, it's not the majority of states, and for another, I do mean HALF decent. The fact is that no kid is served by arbitrary guidelines when it comes to something that's very individual. The number of "minimum standard of the law" parents out there really astounds me. Even people whose states have harnessing laws, need to take this law as exactly what it is, A MINIMUM. It's a place to start. The fact is that there's hardly a 4-year-old on the planet who's mature enough to sit right in a booster. If they outgrew their convertible seat, then buy them a forward-facing-only, high-weight-harness seat such as the Britax Frontier or the Graco Nautilus. Money is no excuse.

Now, when ARE kids ready to use a booster? Well, most popular guidelines (anything from the NHTSA, state highway patrol, or even car-seat.org) say 4 years old, but no tech on the planet recommends that. The commonly held Best Practice is, when the child is mature enough to sit correctly in their seat (not leaning everywhere and anywhere just because they can) for the entire car ride, they are mature enough to use a booster. There have also been studies which show the risk of submarining is greater for kids under 40 pounds. Submarining is when a child slides UNDER the lap portion of the seatbelt when in a crash. As you may imagine, this can cause MASSIVE injuries to basically every part of the body. Now, there are some kids who don't hit 40 pounds until they're pretty old (a tech I know, has a 7-year-old who is 38 pounds), and sometimes these kids are tall enough that they have outgrown the top slots of their high-weight-harnessed seat. In these cases, it is necessary to buy a very high quality booster. The Sunshine Kids Monterey is my booster of choice (although Erin was 46 pounds when we boostered her full time). It has a seat that is sloped enough that it reduces chances of submarining. Another one I really love is the Britax Parkway which actually has an anti-submarining clip. It attaches to the lap portion of the belt, essentially creating a 4-point harness, and preventing submarining in smaller kids.

Again, though, instances in which it would be necessary to consider these things would be so rare if it wasn't so common to put kids into booster seats at age 3 (in states with no harnessing laws) or 4 (in states with harnessing laws). Harnessing isn't just for toddlers! Big kids can stay harnessed, and be much better off for it. It's far safer to wait until a kid is truly ready for the next type of carseat before moving them up. Remember, a step "up" in carseats is a step down in safety. Just like we know it's not good to go from rear-facing to forward-facing before we absolutely have to, it's also not good to go from 5-point to booster before the kid is absolutely ready. There is no finite guide for booster readiness, like how we have the 5-step test for readiness to give up the booster and use just the seatbelt. Instead, harnessing is the grayest of all carseat safety topics. That is all the more reason for parents to become very educated on these subjects. Talk to a tech, join car-seat.org, ask people like me, who have kids in far safer seat configurations than others their age WHY we do it that way, GOOGLE IT!! There are a million ways to learn about this stuff, but the fact is that parents MUST do it.

To throw another angle into this discussion, did you know that Sweden, which has the lowest traffic casualty rate for kids (the US has one of the highest), forbids the use of forward-facing harnessed seats? They do. It's due to the risk of head excursion. Swedish parents often leave their children harnessed REAR-FACING to the age of 5 or 6, and then move them directly to a booster. (Swedish carseats rear-face to about 55 pounds on average.) Increasingly, American parents are adopting the Swedish system. Thanks to the introduction of the Radian XTSL (Orren's seat!) with its 45 pound rear-facing weight limit, and TONS of legroom for the rear-facing child, it's realistic to rear-face until booster age, for families who would like to. It's been working for the Swedes since 1967. It's another thing to check into. Like I said, families absolutely must do their research, especially in a country like the US, which puts child passenger safety at such a low priority.

Do not take the word of government agencies (they'll only give you the minimums) or product manufacturers on when you should "demote" your kid to the next level of carseat. Be informed. Keep them harnessed, whether you use the Swedish method, and rear-face all the way to booster age, or you use the US system and use a forward-facing harnessed seat for a while, don't be hasty to booster. Nobody is done any favors by "minimum standard" parenting. Best practice is what I want for my kids, and I hope it's what you want for yours, too.