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Choosing Baby Car Seats
Unless you plan to walk home from the hospital, you'll need a
car seat to take your baby home. By law in all 50 states your child up
to 18 months of age must be properly restrained in a car seat, and most
have laws requiring car seats until a child is at least 3 years old. A
number of states (including California, Oregon, and New Jersey, among
others) now require children to ride in booster seats until they weigh
30kgs or even more, depending on the state.
There are three basic types of car seats to choose from:
Baby (or infant-only) car seats: These should always face the
rear of the car. They have a weight limit of between 22 and 35 pounds.
When your baby reaches the weight or height limits for his infant seat,
move him to a rear-facing convertible car seat. |
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Convertible
(or infant-toddler) car seats: These function as both rear-facing
seats for babies and toddlers and forward-facing seats for older
children. Many new ones are designed to hold a child of up to 20 kgs
rear-facing and 35Kgs forward-facing. It's safest to leave your child
rear-facing as long as possible — in fact, the latest guidelines from
the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) say to keep your child in a
rear-facing car seat until the age of 2, or until he reaches the seat's
maximum rear-facing height and weight limits.
