Installing your infant car seat base
To install your infant car seat base the very first thing you should do is grab your car seat manual as well as you vehicle's instruction manual. And understand all of the rules, regulations about where you can install that car seat in that particular vehicle. Particularly for the weight of your child. If you have a preemie you might need a foam special instructions for a child who's really underweight. In general we recommend that you first try to install the car seat in the center of your vehicle. The safest place is in the back seat center. Only if you can get a correct installation there. It's a common miss known a lot of parents think that it has to be in the center at all cost. But if you don't get a good installation in the back seat center you should not leave it there. Most cars do not have luge equipped for the center seat so you have to install for the car seat the seat belt in that center position. If you have trouble with the vehicle seat belt because it's tilting, you can't get it tight enough, any number of problems then it's much safer to move to a side passenger seat and use the luge as equipped on the car seat so you can get a really tight and firm installation. It's really important when you are installing the car seat to make that it doesn't move more than 1" side to side. And that is right where it connects into the backseat at the lodge on the seat belt level. At the edge of the seat where the baby's head would be, that part should be loose because you want that to be able to move with the baby's head in the event of a car accident. So just because it feels very loose on this end doesn't mean that the car seat is too loose overall.
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Jennifer Beall, MBA, CPSTFounder of Tot Squad
Jennifer Beall is the Founder and CEO of Tot Squad formerly known as CleanBeeBaby, an eco-friendly cleaning service for strollers and car seats that is at a different neighborhood retailer or preschool every day. Professional safety technicians help properly reinstall car seats after they are cleaned.Certified as a Child Passenger Safety Technician since 2009, Jen is passionate about helping parents properly use their car seats given that 85% are incorrectly installed. She also serves on the Los Angeles committee for Baby Buggy, a charity that helps collect used baby gear to redistribute it to families in need.Jen received her MBA in 2010 from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where she focused on Marketing and Entrepreneurship. CleanBeeBaby was created through her coursework, for which she won first place in the Kellogg Cup Business Plan Competition and the Student of the Year award in Entrepreneurship. Prior to business school, she worked in management consulting as well as internal strategy for a food and beverage company. She also received a BS in Mathematics from Duke University after leaving her hometown of Austin, Texas.Jen now lives in Los Angeles but remains a loyal fan of the Texas Longhorns and the Duke basketball team. She enjoys spending time outdoors and traveling. She has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Daily Candy, and Crain's Chicago Business.
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