You will find that many online baby car seats reviews will actually score car seats on ease of fitting and clarity of instructions, this further re-enforces the importance of correct fitting. Please read the following tips which will help you to ensure your child seat is correctly fitted.

1) Push down on car seat when tightening the straps, this eliminates any excess movement caused by soft upholstery and ensures a secure fit.

2) Adjust the harness every time the seat is used. Many buckles will allow the straps to gradually loosen over time so this has to be checked regularly. Once you get into the habit of doing it every trip it only takes a few seconds. When doing this also check the condition of the straps for fraying or splitting, if you see any evidence of this then do not use the seat again.

3) Once harness is fastened make sure that it is tightened correctly by ensuring you can only get two fingers in-between straps and the child’s chest.

4) Make sure the belt is around child’s pelvis – not the tummy!

5) Don’t put a child in a front facing seat too soon, there is a temptation to use a front facing seat as soon as possible as the child becomes more aware of the surroundings. Do not put a child under 9kg in a front facing seat.

6) Children are very inquisitive and as they get older will attempt to play with buckles on the car seat and may succeed in releasing themselves. This can be avoided by making sure they have in car toys, music or audio books to keep their attention.

7) If leaving car for extended periods in hot weather always cover the car seat. Some of the fittings on the car seat can become hot enough to cause burns on sensitive young skin.

Ease of removal and fitting

• How heavy is the seat? many seats weigh over 25lbs, this can be difficult to manoeuvre into the car and difficult to adjust to a snug fit once inside.
• Can you easily remove/fit the seat without straining? Sometimes a combination of the size of the seat and narrow door openings on smaller cars, can make it really awkward to position seat correctly
• Are the headrests/backrests/tensioning systems easy to adjust? Do you constantly have to refer to the manual for every small adjustment required, or are all adjustments intuitive and straightforward?
• Is it easy to quickly get a snug fit? Is it difficult to fit seat snugly due to the shape/size of your rear seats, some cars have very narrow seats which makes it difficult to fit some baby seats without fouling seat belt buckles and fittings. If you have 3 children which all require baby seats – can you fit all three across your rear bench? Many cars cannot.

Ease of use

• Are straps easy to loosen/tighten? If you adjust straps every journey to ensure correct fit (as you must do), is this simple and straightforward to do, or frustrating, difficult and annoying?
• Is it easy to place child in seat comfortably? Some baby seats have considerable side bolster protection – which is great! However, it can be difficult – depending on car model – to manoeuvre child around these side bolsters and fit them into seat without being a contortionist!
• Are there any extra convenience features like one handed strap adjustment? The best modern car seats are full of features like these and are worth paying extra for. Imagine the rain is pouring down, you are laden with shopping, are late (as usual) and have to spend 5 minutes getting soaked to the skin while baby is screaming as you fumble with car seat fittings!
• Can you adjust backrest from sleeping/sitting positions smoothly (so you don’t wake your child!) Good baby car seats have smooth damped adjustment mechanisms allowing you to adjust seat without disturbing baby.

Cleaning

• Will the fabric colour show up every grubby finger mark? We all know that the seat will get dirty – with young children this is impossible to avoid! So you want to choose a seat that does not show up every little mark and look grubby almost immediately.
• Can you remove the fabric and wash in washing machine? (a great feature). The better seats will have this option and it makes life much easier.
• Does the manual give clear instructions on cleaning? On many seats you are paying extra for fancy fabric designs such as Disney characters. You need to know exactly how to clean the seat to avoid ruining the fabric.

Baby car seats are a matter of law in the UK since 2007. However, this is not just another “petty” law targeting motorists. Every year in the UK, 30 children (under 12) are killed while traveling in cars, with another 7000 injured. The proper use of baby car seats would have prevented many of these deaths and injuries. An unrestrained child (including children using adult seat belts or being held on parents lap) can be thrown forward with a force greater than 60 times their own weight, potentially seriously injuring other occupants and with a high risk of being ejected from the car through a window, often with horrifying results. The only safe way for a child to travel in a vehicle is to be secured using a car seat specifically designed for their weight and size, ensuring that the seat is fitted correctly, if you are unsure about fitting please see How to fit child car seats correctly.

Choosing the best car seats for baby. The first thing to remember about car seats is that the features you look for will change as your baby grows. For a newborn baby car seat a rear facing seat will be required, progressing to a forward facing seat for toddlers and finally a booster seat for young children.

Rear-facing car seats for baby are designed for infants under twelve months, sometimes referred to as “newborn baby car seats”. The seat has to be big enough to support the baby’s head, neck, and spine. If you find that the baby’s head is higher than the top part of the seat, then you need to get a bigger size. There is a choice between 3 and 5 point harnesses, 5 point harnesses offer slightly better protection but are very restrictive.

Forward-facing car seats are for when when your baby is 12 months or older (or is too big for rear facing seat). Remember that if forward facing seats are fitted, they must be in the back seat, or in newer cars, the front air bag must be deactivated. Otherwise the impact from the air bag could seriously hurt or even suffocate your child in the event of an accident.

Finally booster seats are for children who have outgrown car seats. These seats are designed just like adult car seats, you simply fasten and adjust the belt just like you would your own seatbelt. Just ensure the strap goes over the shoulder and not the neck.

Nowadays there are a range of accessories and add-ons available for baby car seats. Such as convertible car seats which can be used a strollers, covers for baby car seats, sun shades, activity toys which attach to car seats to keep baby occupied. These all cost extra but many parents feel the expense is justified with greater convenience and comfort.

When deciding which car seats to purchase for your baby, try reading the many online baby car seats reviews on different seat manufacturers and models, such as Bebe, Graco, Maxi Cosi and Recaro.

The Sedona Small Clear Backpack is a good entry level clear bag measuring approx 16″ x 12″ x 5″ and has two generous pockets in the front and even a utility pocket on the side.

Clear plastic backpacks for schoolchildren
Safety is the most important issue, here but many people are spending way too much money on clear backpacks that fizzle out in less time than it takes to get dressed in the morning. You send you kid to school with a brand new book bag only to find it unraveling like a neurotic in a traffic jam by the time the kid steps off of the bus.

Clear inflatable backpacks
The mandatory clear backpacks have many thrifty parents seeing red instead of translucent. The book bags may have a tragically short lifespan but there is good news. If you shop in the right stores, you do have a chance to get a refund on the item if it dies off in a ridiculously short amount of time. The trick is in your approach. Whether you need a clear backpack for school or even a NASCAR event, quality is important, always buy the best clear nascar backpacks you can afford.

Clear rolling backpacks
The most popular brand for rolling clear bags is the Cyclone Rolling Clear Backpack. This measures 19″ x 15″ x 7″ and offers 3 useful pockets in the front and also a utility pocket on the side. Handy for smaller children as can be rolled like a large suitcase. Basically a clear backpack with wheels!

Since so many parents have complained about the poor quality of many clear backpacks, many shops, quite rightly are refunding the purchase price for the poorer quality items. Even if the clear backpacks are abused ( and lets face it anything designed for kids should be able to take some abuse its only common sense) they should be designed to take some punishment.

School clear backpacks
Consider the way the children and students look at the clear backpack. To them it can represent a loss of privacy and for some students this is a crime in itself.

Fortunately, many stores that sell the items are very understanding when you return the damaged book bags. This is probably due to the fact that so many parents are up in arms over the situation. As a rule of thumb, it is always better to spend a few extra dollars on quality clear backpacks. The cheaper they are, the harder they fall.

An alternative to the clear packs are the mesh backpacks which also allow easy inspection of contents, such as the Omni Mesh Backpack. In the UK at present there are no regulations re backpacks or clear tote bags for kids, however we tend to inherit most things from the USA eventually, good and bad, so it would not be a huge stretch of imagination for us to see UK schools at least advising clear or mesh backpacks to be brought to school – after all it is for our kids safety!

It isn’t until people have children of their own that they realize how important car safety is for children. Baby car seats became a prime concern for new parents today but this has not always been the case, you do not have to go back many years to remember kids riding around in the front seats of cars in their parents laps! Most newbie parents today I’m sure, are looking for the best, safest car seat they can find.

Thankfully there are many kinds of infant car seats, so there really is no reason not to use one whenever carrying a child in a vehicle, even airport taxi services nowadays advertise MPV type vehicles with child car seats available. New laws which mean more children must use child car seats are now in force in the UK. Child seats or booster cushions are now compulsory for under-12s under 135cm (4ft 5in) tall. Drivers face fines from £30 on-the-spot or up to £500 in court if they do not ensure that the children they are carrying comply with the regulations. However some consumer groups are reporting that in the UK most parents are not ready for the new regulations, more education and training is definitely needed for parents to ensure they are not falling foul of local laws and also to ensure child safety.

When you have a new baby, it is extremely important to have the right baby car seat from day one. It also needs to be installed correctly in order to protect your baby in the event of an accident. Most maternity wards won’t discharge a mother and newborn baby until they see a suitable car seat fitted in the vehicle.

Other than nursery furniture ( cots etc), strollers,pushchairs and prams,car seats are probably new parents biggest concern.
You also want to look into the brand of seat you are buying when it comes to child car seat safety. Never buy a used seat, because you have no idea how it has been treated. A seat could have been in an accident, and its integrity has been compromised, and you cannot always tell simply by looking at the seat itself.

Traditionally the easiest kind of baby seat to use is the kind that has a base that gets buckled securely into the car, and the seat itself can be lifted off and carried around by the handle. The safest car seat systems available today are called ISOFIX, ISOFIX stands for “International Standards Organisation FIX”. It is a new standard for installing child seats into cars, which is being adopted by vehicle manufacturers and is intended to make fitting child seats quick and simple. Most new or nearly new vehicles will have isofix mountings, child seat manufacturers build ISOFIX fitting points on their child seats. This will enable ISOFIX child seats to be simply plugged into the ISOFIX points in the car. This eliminates the problem of incorrectly installing car seats using the seatbelts, many parents get confused with these fixings.

For more info on baby car seats and how to fit them correctly please see the department of transport guide on car child restraints