Place the car seat on the vehicle seat Take out the lower anchor connectors and put them into the vehicle’s lower anchor. Press down firmly on the center of the base Simultaneously, pull the free end of the strap By pulling the free end of the strap, you can adjust it according to the car seat you have.
How do you know when to move the straps in a car seat?
Pinch Test – The Pinch Test is the best way to determine whether your child’s car seat harness is tight enough, and it should be performed every time you use your seat. After you have fastened and tightened the straps, try to pinch the harness webbing horizontally above the chest clip at your child’s collarbone.
If you are able to pinch and hold any harness webbing between your thumb and index finger, the harness is too loose. The harness is considered tight enough when you are unable to pinch ANY webbing between your fingers. Once you have pulled the harness snug (pass the Pinch Test), slide the chest clip up and secure it at armpit level.
The chest clip must be positioned level with your child’s armpit height every single time. PRO TIP: for exact chest clip placement every single time, the Road Coat features a red alignment marker stitched on either side of the zipper within the inner jacket panel of the Road Coat to help you correctly identify where the chest clip should sit on your child. 
Where should the straps be on a car seat?
Use the Correct Harness Slots On rear-facing car seats, the shoulder straps should come through the car seat slots at or just BELOW your child’s shoulders. On forward-facing seats, the shoulder straps should be at or just ABOVE the shoulders.
What is the pinch test for car seats?
How Tight Should The Harness Be? The harness should pass the ‘pinch test’; when pinching the harness webbing vertically at the shoulder with the thumb and forefinger, your fingers should slide off easily and you should not be able to pinch any webbing between them.
How should a newborn look in a car seat?
Step 1: Head Position – If your baby’s head is turned to the side, great. If your baby’s head is straight, that’s great too. Just make sure the baby’s head is not falling straight down into a chin to chest position. Most infant car seats come with a removable insert behind the baby’s head.
What happens if car seat straps are too high?
I can clearly remember the car seat strap struggle from when my kids were little. Above the shoulders or below the shoulders – that is the question! As a momma of four kiddos, there was so much that I had to look up and find the answers to, especially in regard to car seat safety.
I can clearly remember putting my first child in the car seat and saying to myself, ‘geez, should car seat straps go above or below the shoulders?’ It’s not just me asking this question. This is a question I get across social media platforms. Today we’re going to answer it! In this article, we’re going to let you know where car seat straps should go on your child and we’ll also provide you with some tips and tricks.
The bottom line is, when your child is in their car seat, the harness is the only thing holding them in place. That’s why it’s really important for the harness to be correctly fitted and adjusted. Here is a good read from Consumer Reports about proper harnessing.
This is the way that I like to think of it: The harness should come out of the shell at a level that’s as close to your little love’s shoulders as possible. If their shoulders fall between two height positions, use the one just below the shoulders for rear facing and for a forward facing car seat, the one just above.
For a rear facing car seat you’ll want to be sure the shoulder straps are at the same level, or just below your child’s shoulders. This is super important if the car seat is reclined. It makes sense why it’s important because it’s up to the harness to hold your child in their seat.
- If the worst happens and the shoulder straps are too high your child will slide up the seat’s backrest, potentially causing injuries to their little neck and head.
- This can be just as dangerous as the harness not being tight enough.
- A loose harness is never good and we talk about that all the time because it gives children the chance to wriggle themselves out further and also if there was a crash your child would fly out of their seat.
This here is a good read from the American Academy of Pediatrics about choosing a proper car seat.
Can a car seat harness be too tight?
Car seat safety is of the utmost importance. When harnessing your little love it’s important that the car seat straps aren’t too loose or too tight. If the straps are too loose your child could be ejected from the seat in the case of a car crash. And if the straps are too tight.well, straps can never really be too tight – but you just don’t want your kiddo to have red marks and restricted blood flow from the straps.
- So by all means tighten, tighten, tighten – just not to the point where circulation is being impacted.
- They say the tighter the better and that’s very true.
- In this article we will explore why that is.
- We will also talk about: What’s too loose? How can you tell if it’s too loose? How do you fasten the car seat harness correctly? How tight should car seat straps be? As parents it’s our job to know how tight car seat straps should be and in this article we’re going to explore that.
At the end of the article you’ll learn about the Buckle Me Baby Coat, which was made to be used with your child’s car seat. But first, a daunting statistic. Did you know that even in the year 2021 many parents unknowingly strap their children in the wrong way? That’s right.
How much should a car seat move?
Installing the Car Seat Base With Lower Anchors –
- Read your car seat’s instruction manual and your vehicle’s owner manual carefully. Pay close attention to the location of the lower anchors, and directions on how to use this vehicle hardware,
- Place the car seat base in the back seat of your vehicle. In a crash, the back seat is the safest place to be, and rear-facing car seats provide extra protection for your child’s head, neck and spine.
- Locate the lower anchors in your vehicle.
- Connect the lower anchor attachments on the car seat base to the lower anchors, making sure the straps aren’t twisted.
- Press down firmly on the car seat base and tighten the straps. You should not be able to move the car seat base side-to-side or front-to-back more than 1 inch.
- Make sure your base is installed at the correct recline angle.
- Babies must ride sitting semi-reclined to keep the airway open.
- Most infant car seats have built-in angle indicators or adjustors to assist you.
- As your child grows the angle may need to be adjusted, so be sure to read the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Attach the infant carrier to the base.
