With Maxi growing out of his baby capsule seat – I really needed some professional help in installing the new kids car seat. And as much as I would love to trust that hubby can do it correctly, did you know that 70% of child restraint seats are not fitted correctly?
That is a scary number considering that we are talking about the safety of our kids in case we ever get into a car accident. It’s great that Hire for Baby now have a Restraint Fitting Service to give us as parents, peace of mind that our kids are travelling safely in the back of the car. Hire for Baby has 75 locations across Australia and are all qualified restraint fitters.
We were lucky enough to have Katherine Wong (Hire for Baby St George) come to our place to uninstall Maxi’s capsule and install his new seat. What I found amazing about Katherine is not only was she absolutely lovely and professional, but an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to baby seats.
Something that she shared with us is knowing when to move your baby or kids out of their seats. She said it shouldn’t be guided by just their age (many seats are 0-6 months, 6 months – 4 years and 4 – 8 years) but it should be guided by their shoulder level.
I am also shopping for a booster seat for my 4 year old and I asked Katherine for her opinion on what seat to buy and something that I didn’t even think about was buying a booster seat WITH seat belt restraints. I usually saw booster seats without restraints so that the child uses the seat belt that comes with the car. Katherine said that she found children aged 4/5 years old are too young to comprehend that they should sit back and often finds that the child will lean forward with the seat belt, making it unsafe. After hearing her advice, we went ahead and purchased a booster seat with restraints and have found it to be a safer option for our daughter.
Katherine installed my son’s new seat rearward facing in no time and I found it to be much more secure than when hubby has attempted to do it in the past! For such a small price, the restraint fitting service should be a must for any parent when it comes to installing their children’s car seats.
So is your child restraint installed correctly? Below are 10 things you should be checking to make sure the restraint is installed correctly
So head to the Hire for Baby website to find out more about their restraint fitting service and I highly recommend contacting Katherine Wong if you are from the St George area at stgeorge@hireforbaby.com or contact Hire for Baby directly for your restraint fitting needs!