Car Seats - Group 0/0+

J
ust over 25 years ago, most babies were left in the carrycot which was then strapped onto the backseat of the car. Those straps were fitted by drilling holes into the car (and hopefully not into the petrol tank as was the fate for many who didn’t know any better). Babies were loose in the carrycot and were sometimes thrown out of the car in a serious accident!

Car seats for babies had been around in the States for a while but in 1985, two baby car seats were introduced into the UK. One didn’t appear to be that popular and soon disappeared from the market; the other was the Britax BabySure costing a whopping £37.50! Would parents be willing to pay that, Mother & Baby magazine asked in 1985. Well they did; and have been paying ever increasing amounts to secure the safest seats for their baby.

Since then most of the improvements have been incremental. Better designs for the harness, more padding; side impact protection. Probably the most important improvement since has been the use of ISOfix. ISOfix was talked about for a long time before the first seats arrived on the market and it is still not available in every car.

Twenty five years ago, 9 out of ten children weren’t even in a car seat. Ten years ago, the problem was one of fitting. Putting the seat belt around the seat often led to mistakes, especially as seat belts were often too short to do this properly. Using a base for a baby car seat has made a big difference. No longer is there the danger that a Mum in a hurry or a Dad who hadn’t read the instructions getting it wrong. Now they just clip it into the base and off they go.

The ease with which the seats fit and the reduction in the number of cars where a particular model won’t fit has taken the emphasis off why a baby should be in a car seat. Most parenting magazines and websites can only carry reviews of car seats in terms of how much mum likes the colour, how she found it easy to carry or thought it great value for money. The nearest thoughts about safety were that it “felt safe” as though a mum could work out how it would react in an accident just by looking at it! Crash testing is expensive and it is only the likes of Which? magazine that can afford it. Many parents think of a car seat as something which makes it easier to carry a baby in a car and many now believe that any seat will do.

Today, many baby car seats are bought simply as an accessory to the pushchair. Have we forgotten the safety of baby or is this the beginning of the time when the main difference between brands is only the dictates of fashion?
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