| Your baby demands special treatment. You can't just | | | | want to place him in a front-facing seat. But your baby |
| scrimp and treat your baby as if she were grown up | | | | still needs special protection at this stage, so consider |
| enough for certain things, for these may prove not | | | | installing your new front-facing seat at the back. It's |
| only unhealthy but disastrous for your baby. For this | | | | common knowledge that the passenger side seat is |
| reason, you invest in special baby stuff - like formulas, | | | | the most dangerous part of the car! |
| baby clothes, baby-safe toys... and infant car seats. | | | | When your child grows up to be 4-8 years old and/or |
| Almost all the states have laws on the proper | | | | under 4 feet 9 inches, he will have outgrown his infant |
| installment of infant car seats, and now many states | | | | car seats. It's time for him to "graduate" into |
| are adopting booster seat laws as well. The | | | | booster seats, which are the middle ground between |
| importance of these laws is comparable to the | | | | adult seats and infant seats. Many children who are |
| importance of making seatbelt laws - local | | | | this age, or this height, are still too small for seatbelts. |
| governments are carrying out their responsibility of | | | | But did you know, there's a special classification for |
| taking care of their citizens, on the road and out of it. It | | | | children who are too large for booster seats, but still |
| may not be well known, but it's still a fact that traffic | | | | too small for adult seatbelts? These children are called |
| accidents are the number one killer of children all over | | | | "tweens" at this stage of their growing-up |
| the United States! | | | | years. But we should be thankful that this stage |
| Child safety seats come in different sizes, and babies | | | | doesn't last long! |
| under the age of 1 and/or weighing less than 20 lbs | | | | Worried about the time and money you'll spend |
| need to stay confined to infant size seats - rear-facing | | | | changing car seats so many times over the years? |
| seats, in particular. This is important because | | | | Consider investing in a convertible car seat. These are |
| front-facing seats - especially when installed in the | | | | seats that expand according to your child's age, which |
| passenger side of a car that has an airbag function - | | | | would allow them to virtually "grow" with |
| would not provide optimum protection for your baby, | | | | your baby. Convertible seats are basically infant car |
| while he is at this tender stage of his life. But once | | | | seats, booster seats and tweenie seats all in one! |
| your baby hits the age of 1-4, or 20-40 lbs, you will | | | | |