Episode 142: Car Seat Safety with Erin Forish, CPST & Baby Sleep Coach with Tiny Transitions

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Welcome to the kids sleep Show podcast where we dive into the magical world of sleep, and all things parenting. Join us as we embark on a journey filled with expert advice, practical tips and heartwarming stories that will transform your little ones into sleep superheroes, and empower you to navigate the beautiful chaos of parenting. I’m your host, Courtney Zentz. And I’m on a mission to change how the world view sleep and provide accessible sleep coaching resources for all families to build healthy sleep habits in their home for children and adults of all ages. As an award winning speaker, author and pediatric sleep expert, myself and my team of consultants work intimately with families around the world to teach healthy sleep habits to children and adults. I believe wholeheartedly that sleep is the foundation for which a happy home is built. So let’s sleep together. Hey, everybody, welcome to this week’s episode of the Kids sleep show. I am joined this week by a very special guest and one of our own slumber squad pediatric sleep professionals on the team here Miss Erin flourish. She is also a CPST and a CLC. And I’ll let her explain exactly what that is and welcome her this week to the kids sleep so. So welcome, Erin.

Thanks, Courtney. So yeah, as Courtney said, I’m a sleep consultant. Also a CPS D, which is child passenger safety technician, helping to make sure that cars the right car seats installed correctly, making sure children are traveling safely. I’m also a certified lactation counselor. So any breastfeeding questions needs, I can help with those as well.

Well, I’m excited to have Aaron on the show because it is all about carseats season right now. And we just came off of a couple of different discussions that we had with some private sleep coaching clients. And we were talking about car seats. And I thought it was a really timely kind of point to have an episode about this because frankly, when I was pregnant with Max, which was nine years ago, I had absolutely no idea ignorantly about car seats. I didn’t understand that there were even checks to get a car seat kind of installed properly. I basically texted my girlfriend Lindsay said, Hey, what car seat Do you have? She told me what she had. And I was like, Cool, I’ll buy that one. And then when I needed the next size up seat, I basically texted her and said, Hey, what car seat Do you have? And then I bought that one. And I knew she did the research. Frankly, I didn’t. And I didn’t have the capacity at the time. But I think it was the stupidest choice because as you’re going to learn today, there’s really a lot that goes into selecting the right car seat for your child, and frankly, for your car. Because depending on the type of car you have, you might have already purchased the wrong car seat. So we’re gonna dive into that because they are definitely things that I did not know. And I want Aaron to talk all about it. So Aaron, take us through really the first part of this, which was like I had no idea and didn’t know research on car seats. And so where does a parent who’s either expecting a baby has already registered for a car seat is looking for the right car seat for their car, like where do you start and what are you even looking for.

So first thing to know is that every car seat has limits and those limits have to do with your child’s age, weight or height. So that is a good place to start. You want to make sure you’re looking at the right kind of seat. For example, there are infant bucket seats, those are going to be always rear facing, they’re also going to have lower weight limits lower height limits. So once your child outgrows those you’ll then transition to typically a convertible seat. Convertible seats can rear face or forward face but again what you need to make sure is that your child is within the age weight and height restrictions of the seat best place to find out whether the seat is good for your child is on this side of the seat there’s always labels about age, weight and height. So the right seat for the right age child right weight of your child is the first place you want to start

now you had mentioned Hey like I don’t know if that car seats gonna work for your car. What What do you mean like what like don’t all car seats go in all cars

so it would be really easy to think that but the right the overall right car seat for you is the car seat you can get the best install with and in some cars there are the seats have different widths or the headrests have different angles, not all car seats will work well in all cars. So for

example of like, you know, you have a Pacific I didn’t

I drive a minivan I have three children and three different car seats. But the Chrysler Pacifica, for example, has these angled headrests and when you turn a child forward facing the movement of the eye Ah, the shoulder belt, the extendable piece that comes out the top of your car seat interferes by head rests interfere with some of those seats. So there are certain seats that will not work in my car, because the functionality of the car seat does not match, like it just doesn’t fit well. So I would always say try a car seat in your car see if you can get a good install a good install means that it’s within one inch of movement at the belt path that you can get the headrest extended to where your child needs it to be. But again, also that your child is within the height, age and weight restrictions of the seat to know whether that should be forward facing or rear facing in your car. The reason I say it that way is because there are the Graco extent of it fits in my car rear facing no problem. But I cannot turn it forward in my car unless my child is 40 pounds or heavier. And I have small children so I can’t turn that car seat forward facing in my car without the headrest interfering with the car seat until my children are over 40 pounds. So

in for context, my daughter Seville is seven and is 36 pounds right now. So

excellent to your Yes,

I feel your pain with.

It’s hard, you’re not just looking at the right car seat for your kid is the right car seat for your car, what you want is the best install all around. And there are plenty of places that you can get information to check but look at your car owner’s manual, look at the car seat manual. And honestly go to look at your local fire department, your police station, there may be CPS T’s that have free checkup events for your area. Safe kids.org is another great resource you can go in there, type in your zip code and find out if there’s a free event local to you, CPS T is near you will not only help you know how to install the seat, they’re going to teach you how to install the seat. So if you ever have to take that seat out to vacuum and go vacuum out the goldfish, we’re all sure you know how to put it back in correctly.

And there’s always a little at least on our car seats, there was like a little thing is that you were measuring to make sure that the car you know it’s almost like we you know if we were installing a new deck or something my husband would be like get the level and make sure it’s level and right because I just eyeball everything. In the car seat. There’s a level like what does the level do? So why do you care that it’s in the center.

So specifically for infants and young children, I mean that the level applies to all ages. But when you’re thinking about a really small infant or a newborn, that level indicates to you that the child is not slouched over compressing airways making it difficult to breathe in the seat that level ensures the child is sitting at the proper angle to be able to be safely in that seat while driving.

Interesting. So it’s so fascinating and all this stuff that you know, I just again, what like my child was always safe. They were always in a car seat. They were in rear facing for as long as they could be you know, and but it’s so fascinating now, you know, nine years later, where it’s like, oh my gosh, like maybe I should have paid more attention to this. But it was just an ignorant, ignorant new mom kind of situation that I didn’t I was like, oh, okay, I’ll buy this, this particular car seat two, three. And once a clip in we both had the basis and you know, that’s really all I looked at. And luckily it worked in our cars, but I didn’t know how much really went into this. And I know a big mistake I made that a lot of parents make is the tightness how tight Do you want it to be in that chest clip. I remember my girlfriend Serena was like, hey, like totally don’t want to be a downer but your chess clip is wrong and then she’s like and Max could die so you might want to fix it you know, and I didn’t like I was certainly obviously not offended but she’s like, you know, you have some parents get like offended but like it’s a safety hazard. And here’s why. So why was she concerned with the chess club?

So chess club specifically should always comment armpit level. So what you want you want that chest clip to be on your child in between their armpits. The reason for that is your sternum is the strongest part of your chest so you want that chest clipped on on the strongest part of their torso. If the chest Clift clip is down lower where they’ve got softer tissues such as their organs and things like that there could be real damage in the event of even just a hard stop. Not necessarily an accident, but it could be worse than that. So always keep the chest lead. chest clip at armpit height. You actually just touched on a few minutes ago to extending your rear facing and rear facing is the safest place safest way for a child to be in a car until they reach that age height or weight limit on the seat. There are different laws in different states about what age they have to rear face until but a lot of parents seem to be in a hurry to oh my gosh move to the next milestone flip their kid forward they can see them in the rearview mirror. Seems like such a big kid thing to do. But if you have you know If you want your child to be in the safest position for the longest time possible, keep them rear facing until they max out the age or the height or the weight, and then flip them forward facing.

Okay? See, that’s very good, because I know they have like the extendable rear facing, especially if you like you have a tall kid that typically might grow, you know, out of it, if you will, like you can get an extended one that’s a bit more appropriate, right? You can and

so long legs is not a reason to turn a child forward. Unless, of course, they’re maxed out on the the height of the seat rear facing. But what you will notice in most cases, even if you turn a child forward facing, they will still sit in their car seat, they caught my kids call it crisscross applesauce, though with their legs crossed. So in reality, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were rear facing or forward facing their legs are still tucked up in their seat, because that’s how they’re comfortable. So they don’t be in a hurry, turn your child forward facing keep them rear facing as long as you can, while they are within age, weight, and height restrictions on the seat. Now talk

to me about crush buckles, because it was always like which row should they be on? Right? So that like I’m not squishing their girl or boy parts that they’re not totally uncomfortable with, like a wedgie in the front? You know what I mean? Like, talk to me a little bit about like, what is the purpose of the different types of crush buckles and the different positions of them, like is it really just growing and as they grow, they get like, they’re big, I mean, they’re bigger, obviously. So that’s when once it starts to be, quote uncomfortable for them is that like when you move it to the next thing out,

so I would read your manual. So each seat has different set of rules around when or how to move the the buckles. But general rule of thumb, you don’t want them sitting sitting on that strap, right? So you want it in the slot closest and generally speaking want to in the slot closest to their body without them sitting on it or being uncomfortable. But I would refer to your car seat manual to know again, when sometimes there is a an age or a forum versus rear facing when you have to move it or even a weight or something like that there are different each car seat has a different set of rules. So I would refer to your manual for your specific car seat.

Now what about kids growing? Right, like so my kids are older, they’re in kind of booster seats, convertible seats that you know as they grow in age. There’s questions about when you can get rid of that, like a shoulder strap of the car. Seat belt, right? Like certain positions are because my husband and I we go back and forth on this. He’s like no, Max, I mean to shed I drove the, you know, I drove my mom stationwagon standing up when I was five and like, right, that was also 45 years ago. So while I appreciate your your promptness to get our son in the front seat, like he’s still should be in a booster, you know, and we have like, kind of heated conversations always on the way back from Sunday night dinner about you know, the regulations versus what makes the most sense, you know? So what does that like seat belt have to do with it.

So again, that’s another thing where parents and even children as they get older want to rush to the next step like they see their kid their friends are only wearing a shoulder belt or their friends are in a booster seat. But as long as your child is within the age, the weight, the height restrictions of the seat to stay in that five point harness, the five point harness is safe. And five point harness also means that if they fall asleep in the car for a road trip, they’re still upright. Whereas I’m sure you’ve all seen it on social media, you’ve seen it in a friend’s car, maybe even in your own back seat. But if a child is sleeping in their car seat with just a shoulder belt on, they are likely slumped over and slouch which is not an optimal position at all to for so ever be in but in the event of a hard stop or a crash and accident that they could be injured that way. And so that would tell me that your child is not developmentally ready to move to just a shoulder belt you want them to be able to stay awake in a car if they’re going to be in a shoulder belt. And I mean even I don’t really want to do that as an adult but having a child of the backseat just a shoulder belt falling asleep slouched over if something should happen they could be truly injured. So five point harness I would recommend five point hardest until they are maxed out of the age weight height

restriction now it’s good. I mean, I think all of this is really just meant to be a lesson like we’re in such a rush to your point to like move to the next milestone or to mimic our friends you know, and every kid is different. Every family is different. Every kid is different. Every height weight and seat is different, like you got to do what’s right for your family. That’s also the safest for your child right. I don’t know the statistics off the top of my head but I know most fatal accidents with children involved or you know in a car like there’s there’s sticks around those fatalities. And you don’t want to ever have that on your conscience if you put them in the wrong type of car see you during my

certification process. So I don’t know if the data I had gotten is still accurate. But during my certification process, we talked a lot about the result of accidents in children, result of accidents with children in properly installed car seats versus improperly installed car seats. And it is a vast difference. I tell you, you want to have your child in a car seat, the in the right seat with the right fit installed, the best that it can be in order to prevent or lessen the likelihood of disastrous outcomes.

Now, what do you say around like two questions, one, we were in an accident, the airbag was deployed. The high back booster was, quote, fine, but you’re not supposed to use it after an accident, right? Like if you’re in a car accident, where there could have been some type of kind of trauma right to a car seat. We like submitted the insurance, like a picture of the car seat and asked for a new one. You know, because we were nervous of that. Like, Is there truth to that like that? You don’t I mean, you don’t want to risk it right? Like

so my personal I wouldn’t, I would just want to get a new one, insurance or not. However, if I refer you to your owner’s manual, because I believe it’s great code that in the event of any accident, you must replace the seat. So that could be all you backed into the grocery cart or something. Or much like the accident that you were in. That was a bad accident. And whether the car seat manual said you must replace it or not. I feel like I’d rather replace it just out of peace of mind. Yeah. But in the same way of traveling,

though to write, like I see people carry. Like I see people carry and check, like high back boosters, right. And they like no offense to the guys working there took us off at the airport, right? Like they’re launching that thing under the plane like it like what do you think about that? Like, just personally? Like, if you were a traveler being a CPST? Like, would you check the car seat? Or would you not even bring it? Or would you have like a one that you take with you on vacation.

I have you hailing to keep my eyes on my car seat, I want to know whether it’s been in an accident or dropped or run over the airport like the car seat is built and constructed a certain way to ensure safety. And the reason why some car seats are replaced after any accident is you may not be able to see stresses in the plastic or stress stresses in the webbing the actual belts you can’t always visibly see that something has been stressed and is now weakened. So yeah, I I don’t know what I would do in the event of traveling. I don’t know that I would want to buy all new car seats when I get to my destination. But I don’t know that I would want to tossed around an airport either. So I don’t have a good answer for you there. But

I mean, I think the cool part. Now there’s companies like baby quip that do. Car Seat like rentals, I’d assume they do car seat rentals. I know they do other stuff. Or you can get an Uber with a car seat now, or at least a booster which we have done. But again, you’re trusting that the person driving that car has a properly non expired car seat, you know, so I mean, I think just doing your due diligence to realize like, you know, the whole point of this guy’s was that like, I was a total dumpster fire when I had my son and was basically like, hey, what car seat Do you have? Cool, that sounds good. Don’t do what I did. Like I’m using that as an example of like, what not to do because I didn’t understand how truly important like I’m not an idiot. I know that carseat save kids lives but I didn’t understand all the intricacies that go into forward facing rear facing weight limits, height limits types, projection of seats and certain cars like and you know, Erin made it so simple when she’s like just check your manual and check the car manual. And before you go and buy a $300 car seat, make sure it’s gonna work

but the information you’ll get in those two manuals will ensure you will know what to look for and how to install the seat. But someone like me before I was a CPS D, and when I had my small children, I wanted someone else to tell me that I had done it right or that it was a good solid install. So like I said, Go Go to your local municipality like the police the fire department, they likely have CPS T on staff or can direct you somewhere that someone else can help you save kids.org Go to their website, you can again look in your area to where you can go to a free car seat event where there are CPS TS staffed and ready to look at your car. They’re going to look at your manual, they’re going to look at the cart, the vehicle manual and the carseat manual. They’re going to point out the things to you that are important. Then they’re going to show you how to install the car seat. And the next step is they’re going to uninstall the car seat and have you reinstall the car seat like Again, because it’s only as good as the last install. So if you have to take it out to vacuum up all the crumbs and the stickiness and the goldfish, whatever might be in those seats of ours, you are going to reinstall the car seat and we want to make sure you know how to do it well, properly get a good install. So again, the next time your child rides in the car, we know that they’re safe. So look for an event in your area, if you really want someone to walk you through this process.

I love it. Okay, great. Well, we’ve covered a lot today. And I’m so grateful for Aaron being not only a part of our sleep consulting team, but also being a CLC and a CPST. Because you get the bonus education when you work with her from a sleep coaching standpoint. So we are here to help you, Erin is amazing. Her name is Erin Forsch. If you go out to tiny transitions.com and want to take a peek, learn a little bit more about her. And who knows, maybe one day in the future. We’ll be doing some more stuff with car seats. But until then, thank you for coming on, and certainly appreciate all of this information because I was an ill prepared new parent, so we’re doing our best to make sure that you are adequately prepared to keep your little one safe.

Thanks for having me, Courtney.

All right till next time. We’ll see you soon. Bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai