I am unearthing this article because I just read, again, about infants dying because otherwise caring parents left them in hot cars all day. These articles and stories draw me like a moth to a flame. I am morbidly fascinated, but they kill me.
Originally posted on Parentricity, August 2008
When I was pregnant with my first son, my husband and I went to a baby supply superstore to see the car seats in person. We wanted to touch them, fiddle with their bells and whistles, and see why one might be better than another…and why the expensive ones are so expensive. One good friend of ours swears by Britax, the expensive brand. “Why would you get anything but the best when it comes to your child’s safety?” she asked.
But does spending more mean getting the best? The answer, my friends, is YES. Or maybe. I don’t know. I’ve used five different car seats over the years and I can tell you that since I finally had the chance to test and review this great grand-daddy of expensive car seats, I am a convert. I poo-poohed the extra expense in the past, thinking that only hysterical parents were trapped into dropping all that cash for extra padding and fancy colors, the same way they sank their children’s college funds into trendy Bugaboo strollers. And then someone sent me a Britax Boulevard CS.
If you read the instructions, the Boulevard is easy to install correctly. The Versatether strap on the back of the seat was designed to be anchored to any strong fixed position in your car whether the seat faces forward or backward. Adjusting the child restraint harness straps and the height of the headrest are both easy tasks because you don’t have to disassemble the seat or the pad to get to those devices.
The real test, for me, was using the seat with children in it. It’s comfortable enough for both sizes of our children (ages 1.5 and 3.5), and it’s very easy to adjust to their different heights. The child restraint harness adjuster strap works like a dream. And with this model of the Boulevard, the adjuster has “Click & Safe” technology, in which the strap actually makes an audible click when the harness is safely snug. No lopsided tightness, just easy-to-use, simple safety. I will be purchasing another one of these seats, even at the hefty price of $330, to replace the cheap pain-in-the-rear seat we have in my husband’s car for my younger son.
There are some new products on the market that take car seat safety to a new level, helping you to make sure you don’t somehow accidentally leave your child behind in the car. I know what you’re thinking, “There’s no way I could ever forget and leave my child in the car.” I know, I always thought the same thing. But then I read about Jack Winchester, a 2-year-old boy who died in his family’s minivan after being left inside for hours in extreme Southern California heat. There’s more to every front-page story, of course, but all I’ve been able to learn is that a regular, adoring, otherwise normal mother became distracted by her other kids and her groceries and didn’t notice the little boy’s absence until it was too late.
This type of death is not common, but to me the fact that it happened at all is a tragedy and something that could have been avoided. After reading about little Jack, I was so disturbed that I searched around to see if someone had invented something that could have alerted that mother to her terrible negligence, and I found the Childminder systems.
The Childminder comes in two varieties: a clip that replaces a car seat’s chest clip, or a pad that goes under the fabric of the bottom of the seat. Either way, the device has an accompanying alarm that you put on your key ring with your car keys. Once the child is strapped into the seat, the device is activated. If you get out of the car and walk away, the key ring alarm will sound, reminding you that your child is still inside.
I tested both devices and found that the chest clip version would not help me because it doesn’t alert you until you are 10 meters away, and that distance is farther than the width of my property. But the seat pad system, which works with a child as light as 5 pounds, is easier to install and remove and sounded the alarm before I got from the car to the front hall table, where I usually leave my keys.
It’s my feeling that most parents would not buy this device for themselves (“I would never do that to my child”), but that the Childminder would be a great gift for new parents or for people who employ a caregiver who regularly drives their children around. The devices retail for $59.95 and $69.95, in either case a small price to pay for a little peace of mind.
Of course, as the Childminder website will tell you, any passive restraint or safety device is not intended to replace good old common sense. Your child is your most precious thing in the world, more valuable than your car or that meeting you’re rushing to or that ice cream that is melting in the trunk. Splurge for the fancy car seat, use the Childminder alert system, but stay aware.
child safety is always the main focus. great post