With the arrival of a new child, parents have the responsibility to prepare their home and make it more suitable for a baby. You have to remove all the stuff that is potentially dangerous to your baby’s health, and make a safe home environment. But, apart from your house, you have to think about how to prepare your car, as well. There are lots of things you should take care of before you put your baby in your car for the first time, so you have to make sure that your child is protected from all the internal and external hazards.
Before you do anything else, you should take care of the basics. The first thing you should buy after your baby arrives is a car seat. You should take some measurements before you buy one, and make sure you get a seat that fits your car’s interior. After you get the car seat, you should mount it in the center of the backseat, and it should be facing backwards. This is the safest position for your baby. If you put your baby in the front seat, it can get crushed by the airbags in case of an accident. Also, you must install a couple of child locks. Kids usually like touching and fiddling everything around them, and they can accidentally open the door, which is very dangerous.
There are some issues when it comes to sitting babies in car seats, though. Parents should try not to keep their children in car seats for longer than one hour at a time, since they can start experiencing breathing problems if they stay in a car seat longer.
After your baby’s weight exceeds 20 pounds, you can start sitting it in a forward-facing position. Children under the age of 12 should stay in the backseat, and after that age parents can allow them to sit in front. Make sure you never place the additional rear-facing car seat in front of an active airbag, since that can hurt the child as well.
After you install a car seat and child locks, you should make sure that the interior of your car is clean and that there is no debris, or any item that can be harmful to your kid’s health. You have to remove bags, tools or any sort of equipment that you usually keep in the backseat of your car and put them in the trunk. Also, for safety reasons do not give any toys to your baby while driving, since that can injure your child in a potential accident.
Never buy a used car seat if you do not know its full history. Never use a car seat that has been in a crash. Avoid seats sold at flea markets or yard sales or online.
Parents must take weather conditions into consideration when traveling with a baby. You must buy window blinds that will provide decent shading for your children, and protect them against direct exposure to sunlight.
So, if you make these preparations and adjustments to your car, you can take your baby on a road trip and you won’t have to worry about its safety.
Author’s bio:
Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “green cars” specialist. He is an author of many how-to articles related to safe driving, green technologies, auto insurance and he’s currently blogging for http://www.dmv.com.