The lowdown on car safety seats (Baby Car Seats)

Unless you plan to walk home from the hospital, you'll need a baby car seat to take your baby home. By law in all 50 states your child up to 18 months of age must be properly restrained in a car seat, and most have laws requiring car seats until a child is at least 3 years old. A number of states (including California, Oregon, and New Jersey, among others) now require children to ride in booster seats until they weigh 60 lbs. or even more, depending on the state.

If you need more convincing, consider these sobering statistics: In 2000, 248,000 kids in the United States were injured in auto accidents and 1,668 children died. Most of them weren't properly restrained, which means that car seats could have prevented many of their deaths. And while you may assume that most of these tragedies resulted from fiery highway collisions, the truth is that 75 percent of car accidents happen within 25 miles of home, and 60 percent of them happen on streets where the speed limit is 40 mph or less.

So this is one piece of baby gear you'll want to buy long before your water breaks. In fact, it's a good idea to start shopping for a car seat by your sixth to eighth month of pregnancy. That should give you plenty of time to select the right seat.

 

Choosing a safety seat

All car seats currently on the market meet the U.S. government's stringent crash- and fire-safety standards, so any car seat you buy new is technically safe. (The same isn't true for secondhand car seats or car seats purchased more than a couple of years ago, which may have been designed to meet outdated standards or may have been damaged in an accident or been recalled for safety violations.) But even if a car seat itself meets the federal government's standards, it can still present safety problems if it's installed or used incorrectly. The safest car seat, therefore, is the one that best fits your child and your car and is easiest for you to use.

An important note: Though most parents move their child from a rear-facing to a forward-facing position when he reaches 12 months and 20 pounds, this is the minimum age and weight requirement for facing forward. Experts say that the longer you keep your child in a rear-facing position, the safer he'll be (that's because, in a frontal collision, the stress on a forward-facing child's neck can injure his spine).

There are three basic types of car seats to choose from:

• Baby (or infant-only) car seats: These face the rear of the car and have a 20-lb. weight limit. (If your baby reaches 20 lbs. before his first birthday, keep reading to find out about convertible car seats.)
• Convertible (or infant-toddler) car seats: These function as both rear-facing infant seats and forward-facing seats. Most new ones are designed to hold a baby of up to 30 or 35 lbs. facing the rear of the car. It's safest to leave your baby rear-facing as long as possible — so if he's still comfortable in the rear-facing seat, and the seat is designed to accommodate his weight, then leave it in that position if possible.
• Belt-positioning booster seats: These seats are for toddlers who are at least 3 and weigh at least 40 pounds. They use the regular in-car shoulder belts to secure the child. Backless boosters are fine when used with a seat that provides head support. (The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend shield boosters, intended for use with lap belts and for children under 40 pounds; the AAP recommends that all children under 40 pounds ride in a convertible or forward-facing car seat.)