By Mandy Lee Miller
1. When is the right time to switch from an infant seat to a convertible seat?
Ideally your little one should be in an infant seat until the reach the maximum weight (usually 13kg) or height (usually 75cm) of the seat. If you are moving your child into a premium extended rear facing toddler seat, you can choose to do so once they can sit unassisted for extended periods of time. Ideally, no child under 6 months old should travel in a seat that isn’t specifically designed to protect them in that most vulnerable of stages; and the only seats that can do that properly are the Stage 0 infant seats.
2. When is the right time to switch from rear facing to forward facing?
This should be delayed for as long as the best car seat you can afford offers rear facing for. The best case scenario would be until 25kg or 125cm (around 6 years old), the next best would be 18kg or 105cm (around 4 years old), the very minimum should be age 2. Rear facing is substantially safer than forward facing. A child under 2 years old is unlikely to escape a crash without critical injury in a forward facing car seat.
3. When is the right time to switch from a convertible seat to a booster seat?
The move to a booster seat is often as much a developmental as a physical decision. Your child should be able to sit without interfering with the seatbelt in any way for any trip you do.
The physical limitations on the harness of most toddler seats is a maximum weight of 18kg or height of 105cm - the harness is not able to distribute the forces of the crash safely thereafter. This means that the average child moves from their toddler seat to a seatbelt positioning booster seat around age 4.
There are currently 5 toddler seats that offer rear facing with the harness up to 25kg - the Axkid Minikid, Axkid Move, Axkid Rekid, Volvo Maxway and the BeSafe iZi Plus. The only alternative to keep your child in a harness past 18kg is the Safeway Elegance; it allows forward facing only, with the harness to 25kg IF your car has a top tether point. The harness cannot be used after 18kg without the top tether point to support the additional weight.
4. What should I consider when purchasing a second hand carseat?
Unless it is an absolute necessity, you shouldn’t consider it. The only carseat being if you know the owner of the seat well. If you can save R1700, you can purchase a seat like the Safeway Unite from Makro, which will allow you to keep your little one rear facing to 18kg and thereafter convert into a seatbelt positioning booster seat.
If there is no other choice but to look at a second hand seat, check the following:
Ask in the #CarseatFullstop Facebook group if there are any safety issues with the make and model of the seat.
Ask the owner of the seat if it has ever been in an accident, even if it was a minor one and there was no child in the seat. Also if it has been transported in an airplane hold or if it has been dropped.
Ask if anything has been added (a different cover or materials under the cover or anything added to the harness or headrest).
Ask if anything has been removed or lost (additional inserts, harnesses, padding, etc.)
Ask the owner if they have the original manual for the seat. If not, ensure you are able to download it online so you can check that all the parts are there and intact.
Look at the seat in person. Lift the seat cover to check for any broken styrofoam. Also look for any white stress marks or bad scuff marks or cracks on the plastic body.
Ensure there is an orange sticker on the body of the seat, indicating the weight limit of the seat.
Fit the seat in your car. Car seats do not fit in all cars. The angle of the vehicle seat, the length of the seatbelts, whether your car has isofix or not. If the seat does not get a solid installation in the car, if the base of the seat moves more than 2-3cm when given a firm shake, then the seat is not a safe option for your child.
5. Where is the safest place to install a carseat?
This will very much depend on the car you are driving. Generally speaking the rear centre is the safest position in an accident, however there are many cars that do not allow installation of a seat in that position. Check your car’s manual and the manual of the car seat.
6. How can I be sure that my child is secure?
Start with the seat installation. The base of the seat should be touching the vehicle seat at all points (unless stated clearly otherwise in the manual - some seats have a lip that may overhang the vehicle seat). Ensure all slack is removed from the seatbelt, or that the isofix points are firmly attached and any foot prop is locked in place. As mentioned above, the base of the seat shouldn’t move more than 2-3cm when given a firm shake.
Ensure that the harness or seatbelt is at the right level for your child’s height. If rear facing, the harness should come out of the seat at, or just below, their shoulder. If forward facing, the harness or seatbelt, should come through at, or just above, the shoulder. This is critical as it allows the harness or seatbelt to distribute the forces in a crash equally across the strongest points of the body. If the top level of the harness is more than 1-2cm below your child’s shoulder, they have outgrown that seat.
Before fastening your child in, ensure there are no twists in the harness /seatbelt. Twists prevent the even distribution of force as well as creating weak spots on the belts themselves.
Ensure the harness is tight enough. Click the harness closed, pull up on the harness belts to remove the slack from over the legs and then tighten the harness. You shouldn’t be able to get more than 2 fingers between the harness and your child’s collarbone.
7. Do car seats “expire” or can I use them for multiple children?
Car seats do not expire. That said, the safety of seats on the market increase daily. In 2019, in South Africa, I wouldn’t use a seat that is more than 4-5 years old. Those seats would be highly unlikely to offer rear facing, the booster backs would likely have to be removed at some point and there was limited side impact protection on earlier seats.
There has been a massive jump in the safety and development of car seats over the past 5 years and the best car seat manufacturers are continuously improving on their seats to attempt to provide your child with as much safety as possible.
8. My toddler is able to squeeze his arms out of the harness. What can I do to stop this?
The first thing to do is to ensure that your child is within the weight and height range of the seat. If he is, ensure the harness height is correct. If it is, make sure you are removing the slack in the harness from over the legs before tightening the harness.
Make sure that the harness is tight enough (2 fingers between the harness and the collarbone and no material of the harness can be pinched between two fingers).
There should also be a loving conversation with your child from the time they are tiny about the importance of being safely strapped into their car seat. We teach our kids from little not to touch fire or hot stove tops, teaching them about car seat safety shouldn’t be any different. Teach your child that because you love them, it is a non-negotiable that they are safe always. No exceptions.
If all of these are checked and your child still escapes, you can consider the BeSafe belt collector. It has been crash tested and proven safe for use when necessary.
9. My oldest doesn’t like sitting in a booster. Is it really necessary and till what age?
A seatbelt is designed to distribute the forces of a crash to the strongest points on an adult male body of 1.5m or taller. The seatbelt should come flat across the chest, midway between the neck and the edge of the shoulder and the lap belt should sit across the pelvis or upper thighs. All the forces in a crash will be absorbed by the developed ribcage and the fully fused and developed pelvis, staying clear of the neck and the organs in their abdomen.
Until your child is 1.5m tall (usually between the ages of 10 and 12 years old), the seatbelt can result in decapitation or evisceration, simply by doing its job.
You know your child best in terms of what form of communication of these facts will be best accepted by them. The end result can only be that they do accept that they will use a full back seatbelt positioning booster seat until they can meet all 5 of the below -
Sit flat against the vehicle backrest with their legs flat on seat
Knees bend over the edge of the vehicle seat, with the feet remain flat on floor
Shoulder belt smooth and diagonal across the chest, midway between the neck and shoulder
Lap belt as low as possible, away from belly
They must remain comfortably in this position the whole trip
10. What do I do if my car seat has been involved in an accident?
The seat must be replaced after any accident. Even if a child was not in the car, the forces of the crash were absorbed by the seat.
You can insure your car seat with most car insurance companies to cover the cost of replacing the seat should the need arise. Car seat manuals will generally explicitly state that a seat must be replaced after an accident should your insurer have any issue with this.
11. How do I make sure my child’s car seat is installed correctly?
Follow the installation steps of the car seat carefully. Most brands have clear installation videos available online as well. If you are in Gauteng, you can go to Wheel Well to have your seat checked. If you are in Cape Town you can contact #CarseatFullstop. If you are in another city, we have both recognised car seat experts in South Africa as admins in the #CarseatFullstop Facebook group.
12. There are so many different car seat brands available, how do I choose?
The best seat for your child is the very best you can afford. There are limited seats available in South Africa that I will recommend.
The safest brands are Axkid, Volvo, BeSafe, Recaro and Maxi Cosi; but even within the brands some seats are better than others.
The only affordable range of seats I recommend is the Safeway brand. This is based on my hands-on experience with the seats and my personal interaction and trust of the people behind the brand, as well as their dedication to keeping their prices as low as is possible in order to allow SA families to keep their children rear facing wherever possible.
13. Where can I review safety ratings for different Car seats online?
You can try to use google translate to look at ADAC online. You can pay to access Which? the consumer independent testing results.
I have created a score out of 5 for the seats I recommend, aggregating the safety scores on the independent sites. You can ask me about specific seats on the #CarseatFullstop Facebook group. I am also creating a database on the MomSays website and on the #CarseatFullstop website.
14. Why don’t we use chest clips in South Africa? Overseas car seats have this nifty feature!
The EU law states that you must be able to release your child from the harness in a single movement. There is also the much-debated fact that crash test dummies aren’t able to properly register the impact the chest clip might have on the child’s body due to the positioning of the sensors. A properly designed seat and a child you’ve taught from little to respect the safety of the seat should remove the need for a chest clip altogether.
15. Is an isofix fitted seat safer than using a seatbelt secured car seat?
No, not in the slightest. Isofix is only safer in terms of reducing the chance of installation error. A properly installed seatbelt secured car seat is actually fractionally safer than an isofix seat because the seatbelt is specifically designed to have “give”, absorbing some of the force on the seat and therefore your child.
Mandy Lee Miller is the creator and director of national car seat awareness initiative #CarseatFullstop. She is recognised as one of two car seat experts in South Africa. A mom of one beautiful little girl, she is passionate about children and safety. Alongside #CarseatFullstop, she has a popular parenting blog Pregnant in Cape Town, a small online parenting magazine Tums 2 Tots Online and is a professional freelance writer, editor and brand consultant.
#CarseatFullstop - http://bit.ly/CSFSgroup
Pregnant in Cape Town - http://bit.ly/pictinsta
Tums 2 Tots Online - http://bit.ly/T2TFBpg
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