Ihave been driving around with this so-called "tether strap" and a big, brass clip in my glove compartment for about four years. It was there to remind me to call the car seat manufacturer or go to a car seat inspection to find out how to install it in our car.
I finally stopped at the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue inspection last week in the parking lot of Great Explorations children's museum. Turns out the strap, which is extra security in addition to the lap belt, goes with a Graco seat. Our seat is made by Fisher Price.
How the Graco belt got in our car, I don't know. Nor do I have any idea why I've been holding on to it for four years. Guess it just went with those empty CD cases that also are crammed in my glove compartment.
The firefighters took only a few minutes to unravel some other mysteries in my minivan. The tether strap that pulls down behind the third row of seats is not for a car seat, but a shoulder strap to connect with the middle seat belt.
The owner's manual held these answers, but since there was no room in the glove box, I have no idea where the manual is.
The biggest surprise I learned at the inspection, besides the basic functions of my 5-year-old vehicle, is that car seats expire. And they expire quicker in Florida.
One of the firefighters, after looking at my son's worn car seat, asked me it had ever been in an accident. No, but it had served two children for four years nonstop, then had a two-year respite in our garage before being returned to duty for child number 3.
Well, you can vacuum out the Cheerios and scrub away the smashed strawberry stains, but you can't undo what heat and wear and tear do to the insides and the shell, the most important parts.
Nationally, a car seat should last 6-10 years, but in Florida you shouldn't use the same car seat more than five.
"Because of our hot weather and the fact that the seat is in the car all the time, the heat causes the plastic shell to expand and contract and it can cause the plastic to weather and the integrity of the frame to be compromised," said Jean Shoemaker, coordinator of the Safe Kids Coalition at All Children's Hospital.
"That frame is supposed to have some give to it so it acts like a cocoon around the child (in an accident). If it has expanded and contracted too many times, it could break. Even the manufacturers will indicate that in Florida the shelf life is shorter because of the heat."
Shoemaker also advises that parents not pass seats down to younger kids. New technology means seats are constantly changing. They are not necessarily safer than they were a few years ago, but they have features that make them easier to use, thus parents install them better and kids are buckled in better.
Readers may be groaning that they never rode in a car seat when they were growing up. Their parents certainly didn't get new ones for each child.
But properly installed child safety seats can reduce the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for children ages 1 to 4, according to federal statistics.
If child safety seats were used by all children younger than 5, an estimated 50,000 serious injuries would be prevented and 455 lives would be saved each year.
Most injuries sustained by children in car seats stem from improper use and installation, according to the National Highway Transit Safety Authority in Washington.
You don't have to buy the most expensive seats, which are no safer than the base models, Shoemaker said. Parents who have difficulty affording a car seat can call the Pinellas County Health Department and get one for $10 after attending a 21/2-hour class.
"The class covers proper usage and includes checking to make sure the parents can install the car seat the right way themselves," said Barbara Maybee, coordinator for the health department's Child Passenger Safety program. "'It's not enough just to have a car seat. You have to use it right."
The class is offered 10 times a month. Call 824-6980 to register and get the car seat. Of all the cars Maybee has checked at the health department, she's never found one that didn't have some mistake in the way the car seats were installed or the way kids were buckled in.
"When we do a big checkup event (out in the community), maybe we'll find one or two that are completely okay," she said.
Statistics gathered at car seat inspection events show that only one in five is used correctly, Shoemaker said.
They usually find at least three errors per seat. These mistakes matter the most not at the car seat inspections but on roadsides and in hospitals when children are hurt or killed even though they were in a car seat.
You can schedule a free car seat inspection by calling 892-5437. And if you find your seat is overcooked like mine, don't sell it to a consignment shop or give it away.
"Destroy them so no one would use them," Shoemaker said. "Cut the belts, shred the padding."
- You can reach Katherine Snow Smith by e-mail at snowsmith@verizon.net or write Rookie Mom, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.
