Installing a car seat and properly using it can be challenging and there are a few things often overlooked by parents. One thing to be cautious of is making sure the harness is not loose. The seat must be installed at the correct angle and not be loose either. Also, make sure the car seat is properly tethered down and never buckle a child in when they are wearing extra clothing because it compromises the fit of the harness.

Key Takeaways:

• A slack harness won’t hold your child safely tight in the event of a crash — in the worst-case scenario, crash forces can actually cause a child to be ejected from a seat with a too-loose harness.
• Infants don’t have good body or head control, and if they’re held in an upright position, they can slump down so that they’re unable to breathe. That’s why infant car seats are installed so that baby passengers are reclined rather than upright.
• What you may not know: You use the top tether anytime your car seat is installed forward-facing, even if you’re using the seat belts for installation instead of LATCH.

“You probably noticed when you were installing a car seat for your newborn that the manual and on-seat instructions insisted that you angle it so that a line on the seat was parallel to the ground, or that a bubble or a ball was within a certain area in an angle indicator on your seat.”

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