On a recent trip we decided to rent a car for the day to do some sight seeing. We were given the opportunity to try the 2008 honda civic hybrid . The Civic Hybrid looks like any other car in the Civic line. It’s very different in that it gets 40-45 miles per gallon. With gas prices the way they are these days, that came as a huge relief.

The car rode smoothly and it was fairly easy to get our kid’s car seats in and out of it. There was plenty of room for all of the diaper bags, coolers and other family necessities and we didn’t feel like we were driving in a clown car (compared to our mini van).

We especially liked this specific car for our trip bcause of it’s extensive list of safety features. With front, front-side and side-curtain airbags, active head restraints and anti-lock brakes (ABS), this car was a good fit to carry our most precious cargo.

I wasn’t sure about a “Hybrid” at first. It seemed so foreign to me; but driving the Hybrid didn’t feel any different. I especially liked the fact that we didn’t have to sacrifice the luxuries such as power locks and windows remote keyless entry, steering-wheel audio controls, a 160-watt audio system and automatic climate control.

Overall, the Hybrid was an impressive car and if we didn’t need to fit so many car seats in our vehicle it would be a viable option for our next purchase.

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I have been meaning to get up on my soap box about the importance of keeping your child rear-facing in their car seat, for as long as possible. When I still had Wes rear facing well into his second year, it seemed like everyone had an opinion about it.

Claire is almost 28 months and she will be rear facing until she is probably three and half; she is tiny and her car seat goes up to 33 lbs rear-facing. The facts are undeniable. Rear-facing is the safest way for your child to ride in a car.

While doing some research tonight I found this article: Rear-facing – Unmatched Safety. It is a comprehensive article with many statistics, links and even a crash test video. I don’t think I could have done a better job writing another article, I thought I’d just point you directly to this one.

Keep your children rear facing for as long as your car seat allows. Period. 

My sister-in-law, Sue and six month old nephew, Dominic, were in a terrible accident a few weeks ago. His car seat was on the driver’s side; exactly where the other car slammed into my sister-in-laws mini van. From what she told me, you could barely put your index finger between the door and his car seat.              

Sue and the baby are doing fine. Sue was pretty banged up but he did not even have a scratch on him. The Paramedic said that if Dominic was in any other car seat he would have been severely hurt. He said that every time he sees a baby (in a car accident) in a Britax they are never hurt.     

For Christmas, my husband and I gave our precious baby nephew a Britax Boulevard Brownstone . We wouldn’t have it any other way. When I broached the subject with my husband, (of spending nearly $300 on a 3 month old’s Christmas present) he didn’t even think about it.

He just said, “Yes, of course! He needs to be in the Britax!” My son moved into his Britax at about four months old and my daughter has been in hers since the day she came home from the hospital.

Wes was 16 pounds at six weeks (this is not an exaggeration – go Mama’s milk!) and there was no way for me to carry around the baby bucket seat and a 16+ pounder. I figured if the seat was staying in the car I may as well put him in a safer seat. I had also learned about babywearing at this point too so I was wearing him everywhere I went. That is when I found Britax.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. You can help prevent this from happening to your child by always using car safety seats and seat belts correctly.”   Car Safety Seats: A Guide for Families 2007, an article on the AAP site, is well worth looking at.    

There are a few important reasons why Dominic survived this car accident without injury. These factors are universal and should be utilized every time you strap your child into their seat:

• * The seat must be buckled tightly into your vehicle.
• * If you can move the seat more than an inch side to side or toward the front of the car, it’s not tight enough.
• *Stay rear facing as long as possible.
• * In countries like Sweden, children are often kept rear-facing much longer, even to 3 or 4 years old.   Auto related injury and death rates for rear-facing children in Sweden are near zero because of this.
• * Use a five point harness.
• * Even race car driver utilized this safety device because it is the safest type of safety belt.
• * Your child must be buckled snugly into the seat and the plastic harness clip should be at armpit level to hold the shoulder straps in place.
• * Car-Safety.org explains, “Harness straps should be snug with no slack, but not so tight as to be uncomfortable.  The top straps should be on the shoulders, and some prefer to say that you should not be able to “pinch an inch” or get more than a finger in between the shoulder and the strap.  The lower straps in a 5-point harness should be fairly tight across the thighs (not on the tummy).”

It is important to remember that in most cases a car seat will need to be replaced if it was in an accident. According to the AAP, “If the car safety seat was in a moderate or severe crash, it needs to be replaced. If the crash was minor, the seat does not automatically need to be replaced. A crash is considered minor if all of the following are true:

• * The vehicle could be driven away from the crash.
• * The vehicle door closest to the car safety seat was not damaged.
• * No one in the vehicle was injured.
• * The air bags did not go off.
• * You can’t see any damage to the car safety seat.

If you are unsure, call the manufacturer of the seat. See the resource section for manufacturer names and phone numbers.”

Britax has a Crash Restraint Exchange Program and Dominic’s seat qualifies for replacement. They will be sending him a new one as soon as the paperwork has been filed on Mommy’s end.

 

Thank you Britax!