How to Install a Child Safety Seat That Won’t Budge
(found this here and thought it was a great post!)
Over the years, I’ve had a lot of experience putting child safety seats of one kind or another into our cars. Remember, if you can move the seat more than an inch side to side or toward the front of the car, it’s not tight enough. After struggling to get our seats secured countless times, I stumbled onto a simple trick that lets you get your car seat buckled in tight. Every time. And with minimal effort. Here’s how you do it…
Before we get started, I should say that we always secure our seats with the seat belt, not the LATCH system. I’m not saying that you should necessarily do it this way, just sharing how we do it.
Step 1: Place the child safety seat in the car and feed the seat belt through it.
Step 2: Attach the metal locking clip (below) that came with the safety seat to the car’s seat belt just a bit short of where you think it needs to go in order to succefully buckle the seat belt.
Step 3: Recline the seat (the car seat, not the child safety seat).
Step 4: Tilt the child safety seat back and apply a bit of pressure to it while you buckle the seat belt.
Step 5: Bring the car seat back upright. If you guesstimated properly in Step 2, your child safety seat will now be rock solid. If not, then go back to Step 2 and repeat. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to install your seat in a flash.
Note that the usual approach of sitting or kneeling in/on the safety seat while trying to simultaneously buckle the seat belt can work. However, it’s a pain in the butt, and I’ve never been able to get the seat as tight as I can doing as outlined above.
Don’t believe me? Just try it. It’s works like a charm.
Over the years, I’ve had a lot of experience putting child safety seats of one kind or another into our cars. Remember, if you can move the seat more than an inch side to side or toward the front of the car, it’s not tight enough. After struggling to get our seats secured countless times, I stumbled onto a simple trick that lets you get your car seat buckled in tight. Every time. And with minimal effort. Here’s how you do it…
Before we get started, I should say that we always secure our seats with the seat belt, not the LATCH system. I’m not saying that you should necessarily do it this way, just sharing how we do it.
Step 1: Place the child safety seat in the car and feed the seat belt through it.
Step 2: Attach the metal locking clip (below) that came with the safety seat to the car’s seat belt just a bit short of where you think it needs to go in order to succefully buckle the seat belt.
Step 3: Recline the seat (the car seat, not the child safety seat).
Step 4: Tilt the child safety seat back and apply a bit of pressure to it while you buckle the seat belt.
Step 5: Bring the car seat back upright. If you guesstimated properly in Step 2, your child safety seat will now be rock solid. If not, then go back to Step 2 and repeat. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to install your seat in a flash.
Note that the usual approach of sitting or kneeling in/on the safety seat while trying to simultaneously buckle the seat belt can work. However, it’s a pain in the butt, and I’ve never been able to get the seat as tight as I can doing as outlined above.
Don’t believe me? Just try it. It’s works like a charm.
2 comments:
Stephe this is awesome and so timely for us. We bought Sophia's car seat this past weekend and are planning on installing it soon. I will print this up and see how it works..
Thanks Susan
Great tip! Just wish the seats of my car reclined. They don't so I'll have to go with the 'kneel in it and tighten with all your might' method. Lots of trial and error to get the locking clip in the right place but worth every single moment of it!
Post a Comment