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Keeping Your Toddler Safe in the Car

How to Install Your Toddler's Forward Facing Safety Seat

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Stephanie Tombrello
Executive Director, SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A.
http://www.carseat.org/   

SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. the national, non-profit organization dedicated to child passenger safety. Our mission is to help reduce the number of serious and fatal traffic injuries suffered by children by promoting the correct, consistent use of safety seats and safety belts.

Founded in 1980, SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. is nationally recognized for program excellence, training, and up-to-date technical materials. We provide consultation to advocates, parents, business leaders, the media, and professionals working in the fields of health care, traffic safety, and education.

Stephanie M. Tombrello, L.C.S.W., Executive Director of SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A., has been involved in child passenger safety since 1970. While shopping for a car seat for her infant daughter, she was shocked to learn that most of the models available in stores were unsafe. Stephanie and several other early pioneers in the field successfully petitioned the federal government to require crash testing for child restraints.  She also wrote the petition which resulted in the federal requirement for manufacturers to provide shoulder belts in the rear seats of all post-1989 passenger vehicles.


In 1980, Stephanie founded a grassroots organization in the Los Angeles area which evolved to become SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. Under her leadership, the organization has become the premier resource for child passenger safety in the nation. Stephanie is a nationally certified Child Passenger Safety Technician-Instructor and was appointed in 1995 to the National Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Restraint & Vehicle Compatibility.

How to Install Your Toddler's Forward Facing Safety Seat

In this video, SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. Executive Director Stephanie Tombrello explains how to select the appropriate safety seat for a toddler or small child, how to prevent injuries from air bags, how to install the safety seat correctly, and the safest location in the car for the child. She shows common types of car seat misuse and explains how to keep a fussy toddler buckled up. The final segments include a one-minute car safety check and additional safety tips for the whole family.

This expert: 101,234 views

This series: 24,617 views

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Transcripts

Stephanie Tombrello: Hello, I am Stephanie Tombrello, Executive Director of SafetyBeltSafe U.

S.

A.

We are going to talk with you about how to keep your toddler or young child safe in the car.

Now I am going to show you how to secure your toddler or young child in the safety seat. You want to make sure that the strap slots you select are at or below shoulder level for the rear-facing child. Later on when the child is forward-facing the strap slots you'll select will be at or above the child's shoulders' level.

This is due to the fact that the straps are used for different things in both situations. For example, in the rear-facing position the straps are keeping your child low in the seat, in the event of a crash when the seat rotates forward and down.

In the forward-facing position the straps that are holding your child in place and want the youngster to move into the straps just as you move into your safety belt. After the straps are in the right place you want to make sure you buckle behind the system tightly and that the straps are on the shoulders not on the sides of the arms, and that the hip straps are low on hips.

Once you get the child in the safety seat snug the harness until you cannot, no longer pinch any fabric of the harness between your fingers. At that point, you will put the retainer clip at armpit level on the youngster.

Now we've discussed how to secure your toddler or young child in a safety seat whether rear-facing or forward-facing.

Next we are going to discuss common errors that parents and other adults make when securing toddlers and young children in the car.

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