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Tips to Ensure Everybody is Buckled Correctly!
- Read both car seat instructions and your vehicle owner's manual before installing car seat.
- All children under 13 should ride in the back seat.
- When installing your child's car seat, place your weight on the car seat. Lock the seat belt according to the vehicle's instructions on the seat belt for in the owner's manual. Check the installation and allow no more than one inch of side-to-side or forward movement.
- Infants should ride rear facing and semi-reclined to no more than 45 degrees, until at least age one and 20 pounds. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping children rear-facing to the highest weight or height allowed by the child safety seat's manufacturer. Remember, NEVER place a rear-facing infant in front of a passenger side air bag. Place the harness in the slots at or below the shoulders. Tighten the harness until it lies in a relatively straight line without any slack or sagging, but not so tight as to press into the child's body causing discomfort. Adjust the chest clip on the harness to armpit level.
- Toddlers should ride forward facing and upright once they reach at least age one and 20 pounds. Children should stay in the forward facing seat with a harness until they are 40 pounds. Place the harness through the tope reinforced slots on the seat (unless instructions say otherwise). Tighten the harness until it lies in a relatively straight line without any slack or sagging, as indicated above. Place chest clip at armpit level.
- NHTSA recommends that all children who have outgrown child safety seats be properly restrained in a booster seat until they are at least age eight and 4 feet 9 inches tall. Use the belt positioning booster seat with a lap and shoulder belt properly adjusted to fit a small child over the hips and shoulder.
- Children should stay in a belt positioning booster seat until the lap and shoulder belt fit them correctly.
- For children ages eight through adult, it is important to use a properly positioned seat belt. Properly positioned is the shoulder belt is across the shoulder and the lap belt is low and snug across the hips. NEVER place a shoulder belt behind the back or under the arm.
- To be able to fit a safety belt properly, a child must be tall enough to sit without slouching, keep his/her back and buttocks against the vehicle seat back, keep his/her knees completely bent over the edge of the vehicle seat, keep his/her feet flat on the floor and be able to stay comfortably seated this way.
- BUCKLE UP EVERY TIME, EVERY RIDE!
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