Carseat safety and why I'm passionate about it.

When I was pregnant I didn't know much about car seat safety. I bought a used car seat and installed it how I thought made since. My fist trip out with Preston he was about 6 days. Ten minutes into the trip I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed that his head seemed to be falling forward too far. However, he was awake and looking around so I didn't worry about it. Another ten minutes later I arrived at my destination and when I went to get Preston out of his car seat I saw that he had fallen asleep. His head was on his chest, his face was blue and he wasn't breathing. I immediately pulled his head back to open up his airway and did a couple breaths of mouth to mouth. I pulled up away to see if he would breath on his own and started screaming at him to breath. I guess the screaming worked because he startled and started breathing. I got him out of the car seat, held him as tight as I could and just sobbed. My son almost died and it was my fault for not installing the car seat the correct way. That experience made me realize that something as simple as an improperly angled car seat could kill a newborn. Since that time I have spent probably over 150 hours researching car seats. The research started out on just how to install them properly. Then I got into more detailed things such as what age, weight, height is correct for which type of car seat and the benefit of extended rear facing. The other huge topic I have researched is which car seats are actually the safest, strongest car seats. When we found out we were pregnant with our 3rd baby we had just purchased a 2005 Corolla. So, I started researching slim car seats to see if it was even possible to fit 3 car seats across the back of a car. On top of that I wasn't willing to compromise safety. This search lead me to Sunshine Kids car seats. Not only would I be able to fit 3 in the back seat of my car but they are also the safest car seat on the market.....only problem is they cost $330.00 each. I did find one other infant car seat (Combi Corroco) that would fit with two of the Sunshine ones but it wasn't much cheaper ($240). $900.00 for 3 new car seats.....that's a lot of money. However, while James and I were still considering what to do another mother told me that car seats were not luxury items or status symbols. That really hit home and James and I decided that we were going to get those car seats no matter how much we had to give up to do it. And thanks to my researching and couponing skills (thank-you Courtney Wilson!!) I was able to get all 3 for just over $600. However, I was then faced with a new problem. I had people criticizing me for obsessing over this and for spending so much money. It is unbelievable to me that a mother would be criticized and even made fun of for trying to keep her children safe. I will not go into great detail about all that. However, I will defend my "obsessing." Set aside my experience of almost killing my child as a result a car seat being installed incorrectly. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for children in the US. Over 1/2 of these deaths could have been prevented if the car seat had been properly installed.


There is a lot more about car seat safety that I will get into at a later date. This is something that is very important to me and something that I think most mothers are not educated on enough. If anyone has any questions feel free to e-mail me. I would be more then happy to help by either sharing what I know or either helping you find the answer.