car seat inspection?

[alison]

Is it necessary? Or just an excuse to go to the fire station?

for a first-timer, I'd say do it. some crazy percentage of seats are installed incorrectly -- better safe than sorry. it costs nothing but time.

[madeintaiwan]

As long as you can get it in there tight and don't have any movement [side to side, pulling out], you should be okay. Make sure you kneel on the base/seat while you're installing [buckling/latching it] it to get a nice snug fit. It's something like 70% of car seats are improperly installed. I have never used one of those places. My friend who used to train the nurses, police, firemen, ect on proper car seat installation gave me the run down [and multiple demonstrations]. I know people who have used those places and it made them feel better. My MIL used to give me crap about my car seat nazi ways but she's had multiple improperly installed cases in her PICU that were really BAD, sometimes fatal.

ETA: I believe that there is a fee at those places, but like the cost of the car seat, if you aren't sure, I think it's worth it. But like I said, if it's tightly in there, you should be alright. If you can't get it in snug on your own, I would take it in.

[alison]

Our teacher at the birthing class said that 1 in 5 car seats are installed incorrectly. We've got the time right now, so why not.

I know that we're a little over the top, and we came to this realization a couple of nights ago when we had this conversation:

Me: I like our diaper bag
Dh: Me too, although sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't have gotten it in black instead of gray.
Me: Well, the gray matches the gray in the stroller.
Dh: But the bag's inside liner is red and the stroller is orange.
Me: Let's have a look...

We look

Dh: Well, it's the same color family.
Me: What do you mean by that?
Dh: You'll see what I mean when we have a look at this in the day time under natural light.


Whoa boy...

[Auspicious]

This falls into the "why not? It's a little extra peace of mind" category for me.

It's usually the police station, though, and at ours you need an appointment.

I procrastinated on doing this, however, until I ended up with an appt. on my due date, and was actually in labor while the guy was inspecting the seat! I spoke to my husband on the phone right beforehand, and he was like "Don't tell them you're in labor--they might not allow you to drive home!" I was all smiles while the guy was looking at me, and then I was making my cringy face while he was in the car hunched over the seat!

He made a couple of minor adjustments to our bucket seat, and based on that, I felt I knew what I was looking for (the amount of movement allowed in the seat, etc.) and didn't have our convertible inspected when Cora moved up.

[samssugarmomma]

If you live near a children's hospital - they may do inspections as well. I know that ours does.....

[Deebs]

See if your area has a "Safe Kids" chapter. Getting your seat checked is well worth it. Go ahead and install it yourselves first (use the instructions from both the car seat as well as your car). It depends on where you live as to where you can find a check - they are anywhere from hospitals, police stations, fire stations, insurance companies, car dealers, Babies R Us, etc. The prenatal education department at your hospital should have a list of where you can find an inspection station. While it seems really simple, car seat techs go through a 4 day initial course as well as continuing ed to become installers.

[SuzySunshine]

I think if you have the time for peace of mind I'd do it. We attended a car seat class and DH installed ours so I wasn't as concerned plus here it is kind of pain to get it done.

[alison]

I called the hospital car seat inspectors this morning and they said they only have appointments in mid-August. They've got pretty odd hours (just a few days out of the week from 10-noon).

Since I cannot drive the car anymore (belly is too big), dh has to be around to take care of this.

I called a local fire station this morning and they said to come by any time before 7pm. If they aren't in the middle of something, they'll have someone come out to do the inspection. I'll report back.

[HouseofWool]

Chiming in late here - but one other thing that the inspector does is to verify if there are any recalls on your carseat. Even newish seats can have recalls.

It is well worth it to me - since ours was free.

[Meenah]

I can't think of a good reason not to do it. Our hospital inspects the carseat installation before they let you take the newborn home!!!

[migirl]

I took ours to our local fire department (they do the inspections for free). I'm glad I did, because it turns out that we'd installed it incorrectly!!

Once I saw the tech do it, though, it became really obvious how to do it the right way (like someone said, the seat shouldn't move AT ALL) and I've since installed the rest of our car seats myself. But, it was really, REALLY helpful to watch the expert do it the first time.

[alison]

We were unable to get an appointment in Silicon Valley until mid-August

I ended up calling a random police station in San Francisco, and they arranged an appointment for us for later this week. Wide open.

Some days I really really REALLY miss big cities.

[SuzySunshine]

alison, some fire stations just don't do them all the time - here they only do them like 4 times/ year. Have fun in SF

[JC76]

Alison - your recount of your conversation with your husband just made me laugh outloud. Sounds just like us. Every now and then we catch ourselves doing something similar and are like, oh my god, did we really just say that??

Life is CHANGING at warp speed I tell you. It wasn't too long ago that our biggest debate was over whether or not to place a full sizing dining room table in our dining room vs. a pool table.

Am also thinking I'm going to take the car seat down to the fire station to get it double checked now... I'll add it to my list of things I still need to get done in the last two months before the baby is born. Which is pretty much everything.