Keeping Your Child Safe Means Not Underestimating The Importance Of Car Seats

By Author: Daniel Crow
Total Articles: 407
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These child safety seats have been around since the 1930s, but their primary purpose then wasn't to protect the child from injury, but to raise it to a height at which its parents would be able to see it while they were driving. Child seats that were actually designed to protect the child in the event of a crash were not developed until 1962 by an American, Leonard Bernstein. From there, the child car seat manufacturing business has become a huge industry, with many companies now offering a variety of options to parents across the world.

Using a car seat has been mandatory in Europe since 2006, as it is in various American states, Canada and Australia. In the United Kingdom, all children under the age of 12 are required to sit in a car seat unless they are over 4 foot 5 inches in height. The only exemptions to the law come when the child is travelling in an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance or if the child has a medical condition that would make it impractical to make them use a car seat – however, there must be a doctor's certificate releasing them from doing so.

The car seats are generally manufactured ...
... in two positions – the forward-facing position where the child is faced towards the windscreen and the rear-facing position where the child is facing away from the windscreen towards the back of the car – although it is generally accepted that the rear-facing position is safer for the child than its opposite. There are different types of seats depending on the age and size of the child. Infant seats are the smallest and come with carrying handles attached for easy loading; convertible seats are aimed at children of two years or over and can be used in either position; combination seats face forward and utilise five-point harnesses and booster seats boost the child to help the seat belt rest on its shoulder blade rather than the side of its neck.

The Pushchairs and CarSeats website is one of the UK's leading online retailers of pushchairs and car seats, and one of its best-selling products is the besafe izi combi isofix car seat. The seat has recently won a Which? magazine Best Buy award because of the isofix points (rather than the more commonly used tether straps) that can be used to have it facing the rear – this innovation significantly increases its safety which, as we have already noted, is the first concern of any parent and makes the car seat a must buy from this website.