PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP!!

OK, I am stealing this from Rachel's blog as it is SOOOOOOOOOO important!!!!!!!!! Mark and I have just been talking about how I want to get Connor a Britax seat and he is not wanting to spend the money. Mind you, Mark is more anal about proper car seat usage than even me. He puts those things in better than the cops and other people at the car seat safety places, lol. Really, one guy had a really hard time getting Kaya's seat out to check it. I told him that we are beyond anal about that!!!

So, please watch this clip!!!! When I was rear ended in 8/04, I did not have a child in the car (as I was not even pg with Kaya yet). If there had been a child in the back seat, I do NOT want to think about how badly the child could have been hurt. The trunk of my car was pushed into the back seat a lot... the back window was shattered. The force of the accident caused me to lounge forward and then backward so hard that my seat reclined all the way back and the seat belt was all the way out and would not retract.



Here are some facts of interest (stolen from you Rachel, thanks!):
***Rear-facing past the minimum which for TN that minimum is 1 year AND 20lbs. The new recommendation from the APA is 2 years and 30lbs. I know the argument for many is it will break their legs, you choose...legs or necks.
***Keeping child in 5-pt Harness car seat (NOT booster) past the minimum which for TN that minimumis 4 years AND 40lbs. It's just safe for them to be harnessed safely, snuggly in a harness rather than just the seat belt. Watch
***Chest clips should be at arm-pit level.
***Seats should not move more than 1 inch from the belt path.
***Straps should be snug not loose or twisted.
***Shoulder straps should be ABOVE or AT the shoulder if child is forward facing.
***Shoulder straps should be BELOW or AT the shoulder if child is rear facing.
***High back boosters are better than the low backs and children in TN must be 4'9" and 9 to be out of any type of belt positioning booster.
***A car seat does very little good if it's used improperly, which I see 80% of the time.

I know this is a debatible subject, but what is more important than the safety of our children?! I did NOT keep Kaya rear facing until 2, but I should have... she would have been fine not looking forward. I will be doing this with Connor, along with keeping both in the 5 point longer than 40 lbs. I am posting this to pass along the story of a family's tragic loss to educate all of us.