This post is part of a sponsored campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chicco. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Car Seat Safety

One of my biggest fears as a mom-to-be was worrying about car seat safety. How would I know that the car seat we chose was going to be safe. I mean really safe? I knew that there were federal safety standards to ensure that all car seats on the market were safe, but I wanted to choose one for The Boy that was safer.

Like most of you, I researched and researched some more. And when I thought that I researched enough, I asked more questions. I wanted to make sure that The Boy was going to be safe while riding in the car. As you may recall from a previous post, we choose the Chicco KeyFit 30 and purchased an additional base for The Texan’s vehicle.

I am excited to share a few things that I learned with you:

Rear-facing is safest. Parents should keep child rear-facing until at least 2 years old, longer if the car seat weight and height limit allows. To ensure a child can stay rear-facing as long as possible, purchase a convertible seat when your baby outgrows the infant seat.

Always buckle your baby into the car seat first, and then cover the baby with blankets. Bulky clothing, blankets, and car seat buntings may interfere with the harness, resulting in an improperly restrained child.

Always use the top tether when installing a forward-facing car seat. The tether reduces movement of a car seat in a crash and helps to achieve a tight installation.

Most children younger than 5-years old are not mature enough to sit without a full harness. Keep your child in a forward-facing car seat with a harness until at least 5 or 6 years old.

Chicco created a car seat safety info graphic and it is full of helpful, accurate information.

Most babies, including The Boy, outgrow their infant seat before two years of age. Because of it’s ability to rear-face and forward-face, we needed a convertible car seat. I wish the Chicco NextFit car seat was available when we needed to transfer to a convertible car seat.

The Chicco NextFit truly is the easiest convertible car seat to install accurately and securely in a wide range of vehicles because of its innovative safety and convenience features.

It’s wonderful that Chicco designed the NextFit to grow with you child. It easily adjusts to fit baby as he or she grows from infant to preschooler – from 5 to 65 lbs. As your child grows, the harness straps can be adjusted without rethreading and it adjusts in height and width using the position of the headrest.

Just like the Chicco KeyFit, which I absolutely loved, the Chicco NextFit takes the guesswork out of installing the seat thanks to the two RideRight™ bubble levels which clearly indicate the correct seat angle in both rear and forward-facing modes. It’s easy for parents of any size or strength to easily install the NextFit correctly with the SuperCinch™ LATCH tightener, which uses force-multiplying technology to help achieve a tight and secure fit – no strong muscles required.

Did you struggle with what kind of Car Seat to purchase when you had your first child? Who did you look to for advice?

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chicco and I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.