Car Seat Safety

I don’t know much about car seats, but I do know I need one and having been in a car accident as a child I know the importance of the car seat being safe and secure. I put my trust in the car seat manufacturers and trust they have been tested and are the best for my child. 

For my oldest, who is 6 has recently moved onto the full back car seat with the main car seat belt. He was in a five point harness until he was over 5. My 4 year old is in a fixed base car seat which uses the main car seatbelt. He would be in a 5 point harness seat but have recently moved him to the fixed base seat which is fab and super sturdy using the Isofix. A child who is older and stronger from say 4 or 5 can be put in adult car seat belt as their spine, etc is more developed.

Both have been in the stage 2 and upwards seats which have had 5 point harnesses. Various different makes, but always 5 point harness.  This works by distributing the force of the deceleration across the bone mass, the pelvis, shoulders, etc. This to me sounds like the best way to go. Having read recently that the rear facing five point harness ones are the safest by far, I cannot fit them in my car with three in the back so this isn’t the way I will go, but safety is important to me and I will get the safest I can get through thorough research. 

I have never had a car seat which is shield based, I did not know what they were until recently. I read up on them when I was investigating getting the best type of car seat for my new baby girl. A shield based car seat works by having a block type wedge that sits on the infant’s stomach and wedges them into the car seat. They are cheaper to buy and have been tested to an extent but not fully. They seem to be safe, but the impact is taken into the child’s stomach. And since they are not restricted by the harness they could come out of the seat. I’m not sure that’s the best way to go. 

I have a Britax infant car seat and child car seat, neither are a shield based. Britax have a safety campaign going on just now explaining what would happen if your car rolled and let’s face it we’ve all seen cars that have rolled. Here is the video about what happens when the car is rolled. 

This is not a post about going for a Britax five point harness car seat over a shield system this is about making you aware of shield car seats. Some people love them and they are perfectly safe with them, but some have other opinions. Having looked at the videos and read up on these on the Britax sites and other sites I’m glad I’ve stuck with the five point harness. Why not have a read about them yourself here. 

I am no car seat expert, I’m just a parent who tries to do their best and keep their child safe. Have a look at the posts and videos and let me know what you think? What do you think about car seats? Have you used a shield car seat? I’d love to know what you think about them. Do you use a five point harness? What do you think about the safety tests?

This post is protected under copyright. SusankMann 2009 – 2014