How to Install Rear-Facing Child Car Seat

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Hi. My name is Ray Peachey. I’m a retired Westford police officer and I'm also an instructor technician from the Massachusets Child Passenger Safety Program. And I'm here with Kristen from 1A Auto. I'm going to show her how to properly install a child safety seat. This is a question a lot of parents have, and we're here to tackle that topic today. Kristen, are you ready to do this?

Kristen: Let's do it.

Ray: Sounds good.

Kristen: And Ray, what kind of seats are these, what we'll be installing today?

Ray: This is an infant seat, rear-facing only with a base and the seat itself. Okay, step one is going to be to install the seat. Now, there's a couple of ways of installing the seat. You can use the latch which comes with newer seats and you can also use the seatbelt. You do not use both together. The latch will go through with this. You'll find a latch point in the seat. There'll be two in the back. And this is the latch right here. Very simple, you just snap one in. Snap the second one in, and then you take and you put a little pressure on it and you pull this tight. What you want is the seat to not move more than an inch side to side, back and forth, which this does.

Step two would be to take and put the child safety seat into the base. You'll hear it. It goes in. It snaps. Make sure it's in properly. You check the guide on the side of the seats. It's different types depending on the seat itself to make sure it's at the proper angle for the child. And that is the end of step two.

Step three: once we have the baby seat in here properly, you want to see that it's not pressing hard against the seat. You maybe want to have just a little bit of space there. You want to check the handle, see what the owner's manual says about the handle. Can it be up like that? Or does it have to be down? Each seat is different. You want to make sure, we mentioned the angle and the guide there. That's important, because the baby if it's too upright, the baby's head could actually go down and it could possibly slow or stop the breathing of the child. You want to make sure the proper angle of the child, which is the proper angle of the child's safety seat.

Step four would be putting the child in the seat. Now, we took it out because more than likely the child is going to be and the seat is going to be out. You have it here. We do not want anything behind the child unless it comes with the seat. That's very important because that's how they are tested. Everything is how they are tested.

You want to put the child in on a rear-facing seat. You want to make sure that the back where the straps come out are below the back and they come up and hold it. You want the straps to hold the child in place in a frontal grasp. You do that. You have a harness retainer clip. Once you tighten the straps down, you want the harness retainer clip to be at armpit level.

And then the hard part especially with the new babies, you want that to be snug. Now, the big thing is if right up, just a little below the shoulders. When you pinch, you want to pinch like this, and you don't want it to be able to grab any of it. Then you know it's snug.

Kristen: Okay.

Ray: Okay? Are you ready to tackle this?

Kristen: I am. You're a great teacher so I think I can do it.

Ray: Thank you.

Kristen: You want to take a look?

Ray Peachey: I shall. Okay.

Kristen: How did I do?

Ray: Good job. Good.

Kristen: So, Ray, a lot of people have been buying stuff for our baby telling us different products to buy, recommending products that we buy and I just want to know, are any of these products safe?

Ray: It's not tested and they call it non-regulated products by the federal government, and when a child safety seat is checked, it's tested in the seat by itself. Like this to protect your seat, it's very slippery so the seat would tend to move more forward and back which is no good for the child. And these are a big product that they take and the mirrors that they'll put so you can look from one mirror to the other to the baby to see if they're breathing or not.

I don't know how you do that, but the child safety seat is actually made in a crash to go forward, and it could literally come all the way back up. It's made to do that and this could actually touch the seat back. If you have the mirror there, the baby's face could actually hit the mirror versus hitting the cloth or the leather of the seat. So, that's no good. And these just come as part of being not regulated. If it comes with the car seat, or if the car seat says it's okay.

If a car seat company sells this, just make sure it says it's certified for their seats, then it's okay. But mostly non-regulated products are not good and not safe for kids.

Kristen: So, Ray, how would I know if a product is a regulated product or not?

Ray: Well, if it comes with the car seat in a box, you're all set. If you have a car seat and the product you're buying is of the same brand, you check both to make sure they say they are compatible. Otherwise, they are not.

Kristen: All right, Ray. I feel really confident now after watching you install that car seat. I'll be honest, I had no idea how to do it before watching you do it and bringing home a new baby from the hospital is a really scary thing. So, I feel confident about it and I'm sure that other new parents are also going to feel comfortable doing it after watching this video.

Ray: Thank you, Kristen and thank you 1A Auto for having me here. And there's a link on the screen that will get you to a certified national child passenger safety technician that will check your child safety seat and show you how to put it in free of charge.

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