Rear Facing Til Two and Beyond

My SUV After My Daughter & I Survived a Multi-Rollover Wreck

You’ve seen this picture before on this website, when I went into great detail about the rollover wreck my daughter and I survived.  It probably comes as no surprise to you that I was an outspoken advocate for car seat safety before, and became vociferous afterward.  All the research I’d read when my girl was a baby suggested we keep her rear-facing at least until she was two, regardless of whether our state only mandated rear-facing til one (it did and does), so that’s what we did.  Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is “on the bus”, as they say, and last week issued new recommendations for car seat safety.  I asked NHTSA’s David Strickland to tell me about the new recs…

Car Seat Safety: Not as Simple as it Seems

Child in an improperly installed car seat (Image: Peter Kieper)

Families with heat-induced cabin fever may take to the roads this weekend.  Before you do, please read this (excerpted here):

…it may surprise you that car seats can actually be responsible for many injuries in children. Young children, especially infants, have weak spines and necks, so even a sharp stop can cause injury if a car seat is installed incorrectly.

My Daughter’s Car Seat Saved Her Life

(8/09) One gray morning last week my daughter and I were in a terrible car accident.  My beautiful four year old and I careened off the road at between 60 and 70 miles an hour. We launched through a guardrail and began to roll. I don’t know how many times.

Then, in a quiet field in rural Texas, motion stopped.

Most of this I know because it has been told to me. I have been told that my car and another collided along the highway. We were traveling the speed limit, but that was fast. I lost control of my SUV.

I lost control.

My baby was in the car.

SpongeBob: Brain Sponge

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?  A brain sponge!  Seriously!  A new study claims that after watching just nine minutes of SpongeBob SquarePants, four-year-olds struggled with attention and learning on mental function tests.  This is compared to a group of preschoolers who watched the kids’ show Caillou, and a group who drew pictures for the same amount of time.

The differences were significant.  Only 15% of the kids who watched SpongeBob passed the mental function tests.  35% of those who watched Caillou passed them.  70% of the mini-Michelangelos passed.

Bottom line…

Preventing Baby Deaths in Hot Cars

KidsAndCars.org says: Even the best of parents or caregivers can overlook a sleeping baby in a car; and the end result can be injury or even death. Yet everytime we hear of one of these harrowing deaths — and there are about 38 of them every year — we also hear a chorus of disbelieving parents […]