You'll want to make sure that your children are as safe as possible in the car, which means choosing a car seat suitable for your car and the child's age/size, fitting the seat properly in the car, and making sure the child is strapped in correctly for every journey.
Before you start looking at child seats it's important to understand the legal requirements-who must use child restraints and when must they do so?
You will need to know how much your child weighs before you can buy a child seat because this is the main factor that defines the different groups of child seat available and the children they are suitable for.
There are lots of things to take into account when you are choosing a child seat:
• Safety-is the seat suitable for your child and compatible with your car?
• Price-aim to buy the best seat you can afford taking account of independent test, results and reviews.
• Usability-are the instructions clear, can you fit and adjust the seat easily, is your child comfortable in the seat and can the covers be removed/refitted easily after cleaning?
Weight groups
Before a child restraint can be offered for sale it is put through a number of safety and performance tests by the authorities, including crash tests using a number of child-size dummies. All seats will come with an indication of the age range covered but they are actually approved for sale in specific weight groups.
Infants
Your newborn baby won't be able to support his or her head until about six weeks and won't be able sit up until much later, so child seats for the youngest children are all rear-facing, designed to support the head, neck and back evenly. You must not use a rear-facing infant carrier on a front-passenger seat where there is an active passenger airbag fitted. The close proximity of the child to the airbag could result in severe injury or death if the bag is triggered in an accident. It is better to keep children in rear-facing restraints for as long as possible. Many infant carriers/baby seats are fitted using the adult lap-and-diagonal seat belt while the child is restrained in the seat by an integral harness. This means that these seats can be easily moved from one car to another-assuming the adult belts are long enough. You can also buy infant carriers that are fitted using the ISOFIX system. Typically these combine a 'base' attached to the car and a seat that clips easily into and out-of the base. The base will have a front support leg to prevent forward rotation in an accident.
Two-way seats
Seats that can be used rear-facing for the first nine months and then forward-facing up to three or four years may look a good idea if money is tight, but they are a compromise. They are bigger and heavier than an infant carrier so you loose all the convenience of being able to carry the child in and out of the house in the child seat. Fitting instructions can be complicated as well which means that two-way seats are often installed incorrectly. As your child gets to around nine months, though some will be earlier, it's time to think about moving them out of the infant carrier and into a forward-facing seat.
Booster seats
Some booster seats, aimed at older children, are supplied with a removeable harness for younger children. Look for seats marked 'Group 1,2 and 3'. Check whether your car is fitted with ISOFIX anchorage points. Besides being more secure, these dedicated attachment points can also make it quicker and easier to fit a child seat correctly. Look for a seat that's easy to adjust. You'll need to adjust the harness a lot to suit the thickness of clothes the child's wearing.
Compatibility can be a problem
Few, if any, 'universal' child seats can actually be fitted properly in every seating positions in every car. Check the manufacturer's application list and ask the retailer to show you how the seat can be installed correctly in your car.
Fitting tips
• The diagonal part of the belt should lie across the child's shoulder, not the neck.
• The lap part of the belt should lie across the top of the child's thighs, not around the abdomen.
• Belts should lie flat. Avoid twists, which can increase injuries in a crash.
• Never pass the diagonal part of the belt under the child's arm.
• Static rather than inertia reel (automatic) seat belts must be used for children under three years (ie at the lower end of the weight range.