Episode 167: Britney Schroeder, CPST and babyark Advocate

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

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 views 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 everyone, welcome

back to this week’s episode of the Kids sleep Show podcast. I’m Courtney Zentz, and I’m excited to bring a special guest on today. We are talking all things car seats, which I know for me, was something that is a little bit new and different that first time you’re welcoming a child home, and they didn’t let us leave the hospital until we made sure everybody was strapped in properly. So this week, we are welcoming Brittany Schroeder. She is the child passenger safety technician and child passenger safety advocate at baby arc. Brittany, welcome to the show. Just take a few minutes to tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

Thanks so much, Courtney, so I’m Brittany. I’m a CPST child passenger safety technician, and I am also a mom. I have two little kids, so I know all about the joys of getting your kids in their car seats safely. I was not a CPST when my oldest was born, and I did everything. I did all of the things I was Googling, what’s the safest infant car seat? I remember that when we were about to go home from the hospital, my husband and I had an argument over whether the hip straps on our son’s car seat went over his legs or under his legs. I don’t remember what we decided. And the nurses, you know, they can’t help you at the hospital in most places because they’re not certified and it’s a liability. So they’re just kind of like, are you ready to go? And I don’t know. So I kind of got into car seat safety after my oldest was born, and a lot of you know, deep pandemic Doom scrolling led me into that car seat safety rabbit hole. And I was like, You know what? I can help other people that so they don’t end up like me at the hospital, not knowing what to do with their child in their car seat.

Well. And I think you read so much before a baby’s born, right? It’s like, what to expect and how to do it, and what they and the car seat. For me, it was kind of like, so overwhelming to me as a parent that I’m like, you know, texting my friends, like, what car seat did you do? Which car seat did you use? Right? And I didn’t even understand at the time that a CPST was the thing, you know. So how did you get involved with baby arc? Like, let’s talk a little bit about that from the beginning, as far as, like, you were kind of on that same journey as we were. And now you go on to the rabbit hole of, you know, learning all things car seat and realizing that there’s, you know, a bigger opportunity here. What led you to get involved? And how did you get involved with baby arc,

yeah, so I was right. So I, you know, fell into the fell into the rabbit hole of car seat safety. I started doing some car seat safety education online, on Instagram, I met some car seat safety friends, Holly Choi from safe beginnings, Jamie Grayson from, you know, being Jamie Grayson and so I, you know, I was forming my little community of folks. We all saw baby arc pop up on Instagram last year. I believe, I think it was January 2023, and as you know, or maybe you don’t, don’t know, there, it’s not very often that you see a new car seat brand on the market. It’s kind of what we have, is what we’ve had for a really long time. And so we were all kind of like, oh my goodness, a new a new Carson brand, like, that’s very unusual, but new seats come out all the time, but a new brand was very interesting to us, and so we were keeping our eye on that. And we missed them at Holly and I went to lifesavers last year, and we missed them there. They weren’t able to be there. And then Holly and Jamie and I all went to lifesavers this year, and we were able to see baby arc there. We met the team, we went to their booth, we touched the seat, looked at it, and actually ended up going out for dinner with baby arc, the whole, you know, the baby arc team that had come to lifesavers, and we had such a great conversation with them. And they were just really open to our feedback as like cpsts, and you know, things that we were thinking about the seat, about their entrance to the market. And that was really refreshing. Not every big brand of any, of any kind, is open to feedback. And so that was really lovely to have that conversation with them. And they, you know, they really appreciated what we had to what we had to say. And after I got home from lifesavers, you know, shy, the the founder, he asked to, you know, have a zoom call with me, just to give me a little bit more background about baby Ark. And I had, I had watched their webinar and stuff like that. So I had, I had a little bit I had now touched the seat, which was great. But he wanted to go a little bit more in depth, because he’s an engineer, and engineers just, you know, they love to be like, let me tell you exactly how this works. And I was like, That is awesome. Thank you so much. And at the end of that call, he was like, Hey, I wonder if, I wonder if maybe you might want to come on board as our CPST advocate. It’s like, like, what an honor to be asked. Every brand does have a CPST advocate that is kind of their point person, for caregivers and for other cpsts, if they have questions about the seat, it’s, you know, that’s the kind of the kind of the person that they go to for the information. And they work closely with the internal teams on, sometimes, developing new seats on, you know, manuals, stuff like that, FAQs you see on the website, putting together those webinars, all those things, product updates they do at conferences. So I was like, Okay, so, you know, I thought it through. And then I was like, I think, you know, talk to my mentors, talk to my call my, you know, CPST colleagues. And decided, yeah, let’s go for it. So yeah, I’ve been with baby Eric for a few months now, and it’s really exciting.

That is a really cool story. Now tell me with all the kind of seasoned brands, right? And then you have baby arc, who’s new to the market. What about them was the most unique?

So baby arc has several things that are that only they have on the market right now. So right now the baby arc car seat is the only convertible car seat convertible one is the ones that can rear face and forward face, right? It’s the only convertible car seat on the market right now that has all the available safety features. I’m talking about rigid latch like those, like straight connectors that come off of the base. You see those on infant car seats a lot, well, not a lot, but more frequently, a support leg, a load leg that comes down from the front of the base and touches the floor, side, impact wings, and an anti rebound bar, those things that are kind of like on the back of the rear facing car seats.

So we’re the only one that has all of those things right now.

We’re also the only car seat on the market right now that has a weight limit, a rear facing weight limit of 55 pounds. That’s the highest limit on the market right now. Most of them have weight limits of about 40 to 50 pounds. We are also the only car seat on the market right now that has this new technology, which Shai and his team created, called Safe coil. It’s this really sturdy steel coil that’s in the base and in a crash, it kind of stretches out, elongates, gets longer, and that helps to slow the car seat and the child down in a crash, kind of like, helps to absorb some of those crash forces, like a break, you know, it’s kind of like helping to break the car the car seat a little bit, right? That that’s technology that’s only in the baby yard car seat, which is really cool. You don’t often see, like, new energy management. We call them energy management features, you know, on the market. So that’s cool. And we are the only car seat in the market right now that has a guided app installation for our preferred installation method, which is really cool. It has on the premium version of the seat. It has little lights that, like, light up and say, oh, you know this for none then this. And the app can, like, talk you through that preferred installation, which is also interesting. There’s been a little bit of research on those, those kind of, like, guided app installations versus just reading the manual. And there’s a tiny, a little bump of kind of, you know, the caregiver feeling like more confident in the installation with have when they’re have when they have that app, a little bit of additional whether it’s a person on the phone or an app. So you know, if we can help caregivers do things and give them a little bit more confidence, then why not? Let’s give it a try, right?

Yeah, I love that. And I think just technology today, like people like video, they want to be talked through something, or have that little bit of extra support I know. Like, from an installation standpoint, right down the road, the local police station has cpfts come and they will infect your car seat process, which I know we’ll talk about. But like, if you’re in the middle of Grandma’s gotta watch because I gotta travel for work. You know, I feel like it would be helpful as a new parent who’s already feeling a bit overwhelmed that, you know, they know that the car seat is safely and securely installed with the help of something like that. You know, I don’t think any parent ever wants obviously, a car accident. You know, my husband and a daughter were in an accident, and a woman blew a red light. She was in a five point harness. She was six at the time, but is eight now, and still has a little bit of kind of, call it, like trauma from it. She was not hurt, but she was about an inch away from the woman, like T boning her versus the back of the truck bed, and, you know, she’s in like, the five point harness and and the airbags deployed, you know, obviously we got rid of the car seat and we got a whole brand new one, but it is scary, like, because you never think you’re going to be in an accident. And they were, you know, a mile from the house. It is a bad intersection, but the woman’s like, 85 years old, and just blew the red light. And was like, you blew a red light. My husband’s like, lady, you’re You mean, that was not me, you know what? I mean. And my husband didn’t see her coming, because he was already like, through the light when she came. And, I mean, she just spun the truck, ripped the axle right off. I mean, she plowed into him, and there was enough witnesses. Nobody was hurt, luckily, you know. But it’s still a scary you never think you’re going to be in an accident. You know what I mean. So it’s just making sure that that you’re dotting your eyes and crossing your T’s with the installation, because you can’t risk that. You know what I mean, even if you’re a mile from the house, and I’m sure you see it all the time, you know? I mean, there are so many mistakes. Like, I did not know the first time we installed the car seat, the I didn’t have the chest plate kind of in the proper spot. And my girlfriend was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, that has to be up more, because if they get an accident, they could fly out, you know what I mean? And I’m like, oh, okay, you know what I mean. But you’re just, you’re really overwhelmed. Like, what are common mistakes that people could look for today? If they’re like, Oh, well, wait a minute, I didn’t go to one of those CPST events, and I have a car seat installed, and I’ve got my baby in the back seat of I’m listening to the show now. Here’s a couple things I should check. So, like, from your perspective, what are some things that people should check that could potentially be wrong and or miss done shouldn’t always say wrong, but like Miss done in the car seat process,

sure, yeah, we call them misuses.

And just so we have this thing called the National Digital Check form. It is helping us to so when cpsd is do a car seat check, they are able to, you know, log into the National Digital Check form and use that to do the check, and that helps capture this data so that we can learn nationwide, what are all of the patterns of misuse, right? We’ve had this for six years. I think we’ve had over 100,000 checks logged into the ndcf, which is great. And so nationally, our misuse rate is 66% and that varies from state to state. I know, in Washington state, our misuse rate is 71% other states have higher, other states have lower. And really we believe that the misuse is actually much higher than that. This is just counting folks who are able to and willing to get car seat checks. So misuse amongst folks that are not able or not willing to get a seat check is much higher. For instance, I can see my own statistics on the on the ndcf, the National Digital Check form, and 89% of the seats that I have personally checked have come installed incorrectly. Wow. So it’s, it’s extremely, extremely likely that folks are have some have at least one misuse in their installation, or the use of their car seat. So that being said, what are those misuses? Right? What are what are the really like to top five, five things to look out for. Number one is that installation is too loose. This we see all the time, whether you’re using lower anchors or the vehicle seat belts to install it. It’s too loose, so that installation your car seat should move less than an inch when you test at the belt path. So where it’s you know where the seat belt runs through the seat, so either you know near the child’s feet for rear facing, or near their back for forward facing, right. Check that belt path. Give it a little handshake with your hand. If it’s moving more than an inch, it’s too loose, gotta tighten it up. The second one is using the seat belt and lower anchors when it’s not allowed by both your car seat and your vehicle. So your car seat has to allow it. And currently only three car seats on the US market do allow that. Baby arc is

one of them. I hope baby arc

is one, forward facing. Collect foof is another one, and the Nuna PIPA infant bases can also use both. And all three of those car seats allowed, just the vehicle seat belt as well, right? So if your vehicle says you’re looking through your vehicle manual, every vehicle manual has a section on Child Passenger Safety, which a lot of folks don’t know, but it’s in there, I promise, search for child, right? And if you’re looking through there and it specifically says, No, you can’t do this, that’s okay. You can still just use the vehicle seatbelt to install, but you want to make sure you’re not just doubling up. I hear a lot from caregivers that, well, if one is good, then two is even better. But unfortunately, that’s not the case, because if it wasn’t crash tested that way, then we don’t actually know if it’s better, and we don’t want it to be worse, right? So we just want to make sure that we’re doing what’s allowed. Number three is the harness is too loose. If your kid is in a five point harness, we want to make sure that it passes something called the pinch test. So when you tighten up the harness at your child’s shoulder, you shouldn’t be able to pinch any of the harness webbing between your thumb and your first finger, right? If you can pinch the webbing, it’s too loose, and you got to snug it up a little bit. And you know, to that point right the chest clip, just like you were saying, needs to be at armpit level. And the chest clip itself is not actually going to stop your kid from flying out of their harness. That’s not its job. It’s a pre crash positioner, so what it’s doing is keeping the harness straps on their shoulders, right? That’s just how seats in the US are manufactured. That’s how they’re engineered. So you want that chest clip there at their armpit, so that the harness straps stay on their shoulders, so that in a crash, the harness straps are where they need to bait and not sliding off their shoulders. So number four, the harness is at the wrong height. And this is another thing that I think a lot of caregivers don’t necessarily know off the top, because it’s not usually printed anywhere on the car seat shell itself. But it isn’t your manual. I promise if you read your manual, it is there. So for rear facing kids, any kid who’s rear facing, we want the harness to be at or just below their shoulder height, like coming out of the car seat shell, at or just below their shoulder height. We don’t want it too far down their back, and we don’t want it coming up from above their shoulders. And for forward facing kids, we want it at or just above their shoulder height. That just has to do with how how crashes work and how how those car seats work in a crash, and that’s why we want it there. There is some variation. Sometimes manufacturers will say, well, we want it closest below or only at. So read your manual to double check. But those are the basic guidelines. And then the fifth one is that the vehicle seat belt, if that’s what you’re using to install, is not locked. This is something that I will see frequently, is that the caregiver will think that they have locked the seat belt, because they’ll pull out really fast and they’ll go up it’s locked. And I know it seems that way, but all that’s been done there is that you’ve engaged that emergency locking. So you pull it really fast, and the car seat belt thinks that it’s being that there’s a crash happening, and so it locks, which is what it’s supposed to do, but we need it to be locked all the time. You’ve probably done this if you’ve been on a long car trip and you’ve like, reached down to get something in front of you, and then all of a sudden you’re, like, ratcheted to your seat. You can’t move. You have to unbuckle and the whole thing. So the only purpose for that is to install car seats. Believe it or not, that’s all that it’s there for. It’s not to, you know, fix you to your vehicle seat. But to do that on purpose, you need to pull really slowly from the shoulder belt, part of that seat belt, like, up at the door where it goes into the car. You pull it all the way out really slow, and then you’ll hear, like, typically, like a like a click or like a pause that will let you know that’s the end of the belt. And then when you feed just a few inches of the seat belt back into the retractor, it’ll go, click, click, click, click, click, click, when you hear those tiny clicks, that’s how you know it’s been switched into locking mode. So then just let the rest of the you know, the clicks into the retractor, and then you can tighten the seat belt and finish your installation. So that’s a tricky one, especially because some car seats will have things that sound like lock offs, like it’s it’s locking the belt for you, and it might even have lock in the name. Same or strong in the name. But if you read your manual, it will still say, switch your retract like, switch your retractor, lock your seatbelt. So you want to make sure you’re doing that, so it’s installed how the manufacturer wants it, so that way, you know, everybody’s safe in a crash and

nobody goes flying through the air. That

is, that is great advice. I was going to say from but we said we definitely have the like, oh gosh, I’m stuck in my, you know, situation here. But I think just practical tips, like, go out and check, like, you know what I mean, did you install this correctly? So the the purpose of this, which is wonderful, you know, providing that education and support, I think, for new parents, right? They’re in the expecting phase right now, and they’re going, Well, what car seat should I get? Or why should I get a baby arc over others? I know we talked about some of the newest, you know, safety innovations, but like, What should parents be looking for? You know, you’ve got city living, right? And then you’ve got kind of, what I would say more like rural living. And I think, you know, there’s portability, there’s there’s ease of, you know, maneuverability, there’s rotation front and back, and different types of cars. And I know even from Aaron Forrest on our team, who’s at cpfc, she talked about like, hey, certain cars you can’t have three car seats across, or don’t allow for, like, this type of installation. And there are things to your point, like, you have to know and understand what type of car you have, and then is the cars that you’re going to purchase compatible with that type of car. So like, what are some of the things that parents who are looking for the first time? What should they be paying attention to?

So first of all, I just want to say I understand how overwhelming it can be I have done that. It is. It feels very overwhelming. There’s hundreds of car seats on the market, on the US market, and it’s really hard to choose, right? Some things to ease your mind, to ease the mind of people who are choosing a car seat for the first time, all car seats on the US market have to meet the same federal crash test standards, regardless of price or features. So even that $60 car seat still meets those standards. Okay? So if somebody’s out there worried I can’t afford, you know, a $400 infant car seat, it’s going to be okay. The safest car seat is always going to be the one that fits your child, that fits your vehicle, and that you can use correctly for every single ride. If it doesn’t meet those three criteria, then it’s no good for you. It’s no good for your child. We want to make sure that it hits all of those points. Those are the most important points. So for fit your fit your child, you know you want to make sure that you know. You want to make sure that if you want to start with a convertible car seat instead of an infant car seat, make sure that that convertible car seat has a weight limit that will accommodate a baby, right? Some convertible car seats start at 20 plus pounds. So that won’t work for your child, if you’re trying to put a baby in a convertible car seat that is not rated for that weight for fit your vehicle. Really important, take a look through your vehicle manual before you purchase a car seat. Does your vehicle allow the use of load legs, support legs? Some don’t. Very famously, the Chrysler Pacifica does not which is a really big family vehicle, right? So you don’t want to go out and buy a nice car seat with a load leg, and then you can’t use it. That’s that’s just a bummer, right? And then use correctly for every single ride, it has to be a car seat that you feel comfortable using, and that you know how it works. And obviously you know a CPST can can help you out with all of that. And my truly, my best advice is to book a seat check a month before the baby arrives, Google your state, your city, and say, you know, like whatever, like Seattle, seat, car seat, check see what comes up. You can also Google Safe Kids, find attack, and that will take you to the Safe Kids portal. And it will you can search for a CPST that is near you, and you can buckle one on one consultation with that person. If you do it earlier, many cpsts will also give you, will help you, guide you in making the decision about what car seat to purchase in the first place, which is can be helpful. It can be a weight off of your mind. Having somebody who knows the market help you choose a car seat. They’ll ask you all kinds of questions about what it is you need, what it is you want to make sure that you are getting a car seat that actually works for your family, for your child, for your vehicle, but you know, even the fanciest car seat, with every feature on the market, is not going to do its job if it’s not installed and used correctly. So really installation and use, fit to child, fit to vehicle, those are the most. Important factors, and then we get into all of the other things. Like, okay, well, how many kids do you have? Does it fit three across? Is it narrow? Do you travel a lot? Is it lightweight? You know, do you need a car seat with a base? You know, there’s a, there’s we could do like a whole five, five day podcast series just on choosing a car seat well,

and I’m always questioning too, like I see obviously in travel a lot of parents, there’s mixed education around whether or not you check a car seat, and why would you not want to check a car seat, potentially? So we’ll clear that one up from a CPST perspective. Would you ever just check your car seat?

So you can check a car seat? There’s this organization which baby arc, is a part of the manufacturers alliance for Child Passenger Safety, and that includes representatives from lots of major car seat brands and vehicle manufacturer brands, and we come together and put out statements, is one of the things that we do, saying that in general, this thing is okay, or in general, this thing is not okay. Or here’s some general guidance right across brands, across manufacturers, there is a general guidance on checking car seats. And basically what it says is that checking a car seat in general is not the same as it experiencing a crash in general. It is safe to do as long as you you know, have put that car seat in a padded box or bag, right? And then after you get it back from check luggage, you check it over and make sure that there’s no physical damage to the car seat. If there’s damage, you know, obviously there’s, you know, there’s been something that has gone wrong, and you need to get that car seat further evaluated. Probably wouldn’t recommend using it if you saw damage on the car seat after it got out of the plane. In general, it’s okay to check that. Being said, the FAA itself says that the safest place for a child under 40 pounds is in their car seat on the plane. I always advocate. I know planted tickets are expensive, so it can be a really hard sell, especially if you have a kid that’s under two, they could ride as a black child. But I always, I always do recommend, if you, if you can afford it, to buy a seat for your child, bring their car seat on board and have them sit in there for a few reasons. One, it’s a comfortable, familiar place for them. For most kids, it’s a place where they’re like, Oh, I understand this. I know what happens. I sit in here, and we get to where we’re going, and then I get out, right? Also, it gives you your hands free, especially if you have a baby, right? You can put them in their car seat. It’s a safe place for them to sleep because it’s reclined correctly, and you can eat plane snacks and watch a movie and get up and go to the bathroom without having to give the baby to somebody else, which is lovely. And then the third thing is, I know we’ve all seen the panic headlines about plane turbulence, and the fact is, there is a little bit more turbulence than there has been in the past, and having a car seat on board is just that extra safety measure of, okay, my child is restrained correctly, right? So if there ever was any turbulence, then they would stay safely in their seat, and that’s what we want the most. And then the last reason to bring a car seat on a plane is that you’ll have a car seat at your destination that you know works for your child. I know that a lot of car rental places say they offer them, but the fact I did a I did some research on this a few months ago, and the fact is that what they actually offer may not accommodate your child, especially if you have a kid that’s kind of like an older toddler who’s still using a harness. A lot of what the car seat rental places have are seats like the Costco scenario next, which are great seats, but they only harness up to 40 pounds. And so if you’re traveling with a kid that’s kind of between that and a booster, then all of a sudden, this kid that usually rides in a harness, now they’re trying to, like, sit in a booster, and it might not fit them, and they’re not ready, and they don’t know what that is. And then you feel worried. So if you’re traveling with your own car seat, you know how to install it, you know that it fits your kid, you know how it works, and your child is familiar with it. So that’s another big plug for bringing it on board, if you can.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think to your point, right? You had mentioned the founder of Baby arc is an engineer by day, right? So there’s also the aspect of innovation, right? You don’t just bring a new car seat brand to market for no reason, right? So there was obviously a need that he saw both, you know, engineering brain and then opportunity. So what is baby arc doing different from, like, an innovation standpoint safety? I mean, I know that there’s the federal guidelines, especially here in the States, but what else are they doing to try to be different in the space?

Yeah, so I think, you know, I talked about this a little bit when we were talking about all of the features that it has and the things that only we have, right? So we have that safe coil, which nobody. Else has, right? That’s a new technology that was developed by shy, by the baby arc team, specifically for use with this, you know, they adapted it for use with this car seat, which is innovative, right? It’s a new energy management feature. And that’s, that’s a big deal having that app, right, that is an extra resource for caregivers who are installing the car seat using our preferred installation, having those guiding lights, again, using our preferred installation, you can have those little lights saying, okay, like this is going to light up, you do that thing. This is going to light up, you do that thing. Just those little reminders. I know that. You know, parents and caregivers are busy, and not everybody takes the time to read their manual. And while I wish that they would, we’re still, we’re trying to help meet people where they are, and if we can, you know, kind of nudge them along by saying, Hey, we have an app for that. You know, that can help. It won’t replace your manual. You should still read your manual, but if it can help them, use that car seat a little bit more correctly and keep their kid that much safer than then we’d love to see that,

yeah, and I, you know, I’m such an advocate from a car seat standpoint, just around not only safety but also comfort, right? And I think there’s realities of things that I think parents should know not to do but I know that sometimes they do them. And there was a very sad situation of a friend of mine that I went to high school with who they were on a long road trip, and baby was hungry, and they pulled the baby out of the car seat while they were driving, and she was nursing the baby in the front seat. They got in an accident, both rejected from the car, and the baby died. And it was tragic. It was awful, heartbreaking. I mean, just all of the emotions. So I think reminding people that that is not safe to ever do right, and that, yes, there are car rides that are long. Car seats are designed for the purpose of safety, right and comfort, right? Like you can take breaks, you know? And so I know that the design of the baby arc and you know, just the realities of the long car rides like as a cpft, like, I’m sure you’ve seen and read and understand that side that not a lot of people talk about. I’m mentioning it because it was heartbreaking, and something I just don’t think people think about, because it’s like, oh, well, we’re okay. We’re on the highway and it’s safe, and it’s not safe, you know. And so I think for long car rides, like, what are things parents can do or should do, just as a recommendation, both as a parent, which you are, and as a CPST, who understands the statistics that go along with this side of things, yeah,

that’s a question that I will often get from caregivers at sea check events, they’ll be like, Well, how long can my baby be in their cars? Their car seat? Which is completely reasonable thing to ask. You know, the states are a big place, and there’s a lot of lot of lot of time to travel so and I remember, you know, when, when I was a kid, my brother and I, you know, my parents would put us in the backseat, and we would do this 14 hour drive from Michigan, where we were living at the time, to see family in Massachusetts, and we were definitely not sitting in car seats or even boosters, and we definitely did not stop like we just kept going until there was, like a bathroom emergency. And you know, that was life in the early 90s, and it’s not best practice now. And you know, I can look back on that now with my my parents and laugh, but yeah, so what’s best practice now, what does that? What does that look like? Right? For all of us, you know, kids that were brought up with I stood up in

the back seat the whole time. I’m like, Okay, well, you’re also 45 and that was like in the 70s. So cram down. And that’s not how it is in 2024

let’s not do survivorship bias. Let’s not do that, right? So, so right now, the best practice and what we advocate for, is, if you’re taking a long road trip, we want you to plan a stop about every two hours. Ish, right? Is somebody going to pull you over because you’ve been driving for two and a half hours? Like? No, of course not, and it’s up to your discretion, but we advocate for about every two hours, stopping for about 10 to 15 minutes. Get everybody out of the car, move your body, have some food, have a snack, go to the bathroom, and that’s especially good for small babies, infants, because they’re going to need a diaper change and to eat about every two hours anyways. So if you’re planning your road trip ahead, plan those stops right about every two hours, just to give everybody a chance to get out of the car, move their bodies, get that oxygenated blood flowing through, and then get back in the car and get back on the road. Other things to think about for long road trips, right is. These projectiles. So strapping things down, those heavy things, putting them in a trunk if you have a sedan, or putting a cargo net over things if you have, you know, an SUV, putting smaller things inside of bigger things, and tying those big things down, not getting those activity centers that tie around your child in their car seat, because that’s just putting a whole bunch of projectiles near their face. I saw a picture of somebody who I think it was like an advertising picture for one of those things, and one of the objects in the activity center was a pair of scissors. And I was like, Oh no, let’s knock out the car friends,

maybe unfollow and a DM, that’s like, I wouldn’t do that necessarily.

It was, it wasn’t. It was like, the company’s advertising shot. Yeah, it wasn’t a person. It was just company advertising. I was like, Oh, no. So if you are, you know you want to, obviously your kid’s gonna have to do something on that road trip, right? Lightweight toys or games, those wiki sticks, books books or magazines to read, if they can do that. In the card, felt busy boards. My four and a half year old still loves his felt busy board. He pretends he’s driving with it. It’s a whole thing, those o balls for like littler kids, stuffies that they can play with or snuggle with the water. Wow. Books, right? Stuff that’s kind of lightweight. It’s not going to hurt anybody if it flies around. Now I know that there are caregivers out there that are probably thinking, Well, what about an iPad? Right? It’s one of those things that’s kind of a calculated risk, right? If your kid does fine without an iPad in the car, I would not introduce one, just because it is a big, heavy projectile that could fly around and hurt people and there’s no way to secure it. I truly don’t. I’ve seen the things that have been proposed for securing an iPad, and to me, they don’t pass the sniff test of, like, Okay, if this was an actual crash, wouldn’t that just get launched across the car? Yeah, there’s glass

on them. I mean, in theory, from a screen standpoint, like, you don’t necessarily want that, like, right up in their grill. Yeah,

so right. Like, I wouldn’t introduce it if your kids are okay without it, I wouldn’t be like, oh, let’s do special iPad time on the road. If they’re fine without it, if your kids are screaming in the car without it, and they are just like, losing their minds, it might make sense for you to offer that to them, because that way your stress level gets reduced, and hopefully you’ll be able to better focus on the road, right? And, you know, do your part to try to avoid crashes, right? So there’s a lot of gray area in car seat safety education, not everything works for every family, for every situation. This is one of those gray areas where you know best practice is not to use it just because it is a heavy projectile, right? But if it’s going to keep the piece in your vehicle and allow you to focus on the road, maybe it makes sense and you understand the risk behind it. You know it’s always it’s up to the caregiver. We can’t we can’t really be like, well, never do that, because, yeah, it is what it is, right? As parents,

my daughter used to, like, scream the whole way to the beach. And you know what? I actually we have serious radio in our car, and we would put on the classical channel, yeah, and we would turn it up a bit, and it would, for some reason, it was either spa or classical. Just like, we would kind of turn it up a bit where it was just like, you know, like white noise. Yes, it was like, it was like white noise, but it was different than just like the traditional white noise. And sometimes even just like a guided meditation, like on your phone that you could put through the Bluetooth, like we’ll do that sometimes, where we’ll just put on, like a guided meditation for kids, and even at a younger age, where they can’t necessarily understand the words, sometimes the pitch and the tone and stuff is too thing. I know it’s so hard as parents, you know, trying to navigate all of the things. I mean, you know, from a next step standpoint, as far as research learning more about baby arc. Like, tell us a little bit how folks can find you, from a CPST standpoint, follow you find baby arc and just learn a little bit more about, you know, their research as it relates to car seats and what they’re looking for to best support their families.

Yeah. So you know baby arc is, is online at get baby arc. I am on Instagram, baby arc, CPS at baby arc, CPST. And you know, if you have questions about our car seat, you can always message me there. I’m the one that sees all of the messages, so they’ll come directly to me. And we also have a YouTube channel. I believe the YouTube is the YouTube is at baby arc, we have lots of great videos about the car seat, about installation, that you can look through. So those are some really good options if you’re looking for more. Of course, you know the website that can give you some more information, also about the car seat and what’s available. Um.

Yeah, and I’ll definitely make sure all of these are in the show notes. So if you’re listening to this in the car and you’re, you know, not trying to follow while you’re driving or anything, don’t do that. But you can just come back here and we’ll get you all the information you need to find baby arc, so this is great. What else would you like to share, if any last bits of feedback, with our listeners, and you know, we’ll certainly make sure that everybody finds and follows baby arc and learns all about the amazing thing you guys are doing there.

Yeah,

you know, if I could impart a word of wisdom, truly, I know it’s not glamorous, but just read your car seat manual. Just just read your car seat the number of installation and use errors that I see which could be fixed just by reading the manual, is truly astronomical. So, and I know it’s not because we know, as cpsts that caregivers want the best for the children that are in their charge, right? We know that nobody is out here being like, how can I make my my child unsafe? I know, right. And you know, nobody’s out here trying to do the worst for their child. We’re all trying to do the best. But, you know, life is busy and things happen. This is one of those things that you want to make time for. So really, just That’s my one big piece of advice. I know it’s it’s not a fun, cool thing to do, but it will help you understand your car seat, and it will help you keep your child safe. And I think that’s, you know, our main goal as parents and caregivers is to keep our kids safe. So read your manual, everybody.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate it. I’m

so glad you were able to come onto the show today. Thank you so much for your time, and we’ll make sure everything’s linked out there so they can find you find baby arc. And I appreciate you coming on. And I hope you enjoy the rest of this nice summer afternoon that we’re recording this here. And, you know, get some good quality time in today. Yes, we’ll

do thank you so much. Courtney.

One more thing before you go. Did you know we offer the industry’s first and only sleep coaching membership program. We want you to come for the sleep and stay for the community for just $47 a month, you’ll have access to the entire library for newborn, infant and toddler sleep training, weekly live coaching calls with myself and members of my team, plus a robust community where you can ask questions 24/7, and get answers to your biggest sleep and parenting questions. Jump over to tiny transitions.com. Forward slash sleep steps to learn more you.