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Don’t assume your child is safe in their car seat

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As the mother of 2 children, I’ve had my frustrating battles with the child’s car seat--twisted straps, a wiggly child, and the stress of being late for wherever you’re going.

It wasn’t until we at Insurify did the research ourselves that we learned that “buckled” isn’t always good enough.

More parents incorrectly install infant car seats than you think, which can lead to serious injuries during a normal car ride or in the unfortunate event of an accident.

According to Benjamin Hoffman, author of Journal of Pediatrics, “ The manual for the car seat does explain all the recommendations, but they can be hard to understand, and many people may not read them for a variety of reasons.”

Now, the Forbes article is quite a read, with the important stats sprinkled throughout. So for all the busy moms, I’ve compiled an infographic for a quicker read.

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Hoffman studied 291 families with young children to get these results. Of the 291 families, 95% installed their child’s car seat incorrectly with mistakes ranging from a low harness, twisted strap, wrong incline, or loose seat anchor. All of which can lead to strangulation.

Of these 291 families, half of them have older children and therefore have been making the same installation or positioning mistakes for years. Have you?

Families don’t have to wonder if their child is safe in their car seat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has great resources for correctly installing and buckling your child into car and booster seats, which I’ve used in the past.


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