We’re days away from the first week of December already. WHAAAT?!!!
We’re off for our annual Cape Town holiday on the 16th December and as usual, we’re now faced with decisions around car seats. Do we take our car seats down with us, borrow seats from friends in CT or hire them once there.
Sarah is now 21 months old, so trekking her seat down is a no-no, and this got me thinking about how many parents would actually just put their child on the backseat with a safety belt around them and ‘los’ the car seat altogether whilst on holiday. I totally understand the temptation around this, as it saves in both effort and money but in light of this topic, I decided to do a little research to challenge us all about car seat safety this December.
On beginning my research I was blown away by this fact on The Carseatfullstop campaign website:
“At the moment of impact, when you smash into another car or another car smashes into you, or your brakes fail, or the other driver is drunk or distracted, at THAT moment. Your brand new baby, that teeny tiny bundle that weighs a perfect 3.2kgs as you leave the hospital, or your beautiful spirited 4 year old toddler who weighs 20kgs. If you are travelling 60kmph home from the hospital or 100kmph on the highway. You multiply those numbers. Their weight. That speed. Your newborn baby weighs 192kgs in THAT moment. Your little 4 year old, THAT little 4 year old, weighs 2,000kgs. You physically CANNOT hold onto them. You can’t. It isn’t even vaguely possible.”
Wow. That is hectic. The above basically means that whilst we think we’ll hold onto them for dear life, should something unspoken of, happen..the truth is, that realistically we couldn’t possibly even try.
Next I came across this graphic, and it hit me even harder…
I promise, the challenge to secure your busy 2-year-old and the cost involved too, is as real for us as it is for you, but the research is clear. We simply can’t be playing games with this. {And I’m as much to blame here as any other mom}
We recently received the Recardo Priva newborn seat for our little Noah and I thought I’d share you with you briefly, some of the safety features of this seat.
- The car seat has a really sturdy feel to it (doesn’t rock on it’s own like other seats)
- It has a deep seat which provides extra protection for the baby
- The shoulder straps can’t twist (HUGE BONUS)
- It clips in SO easily and there’s no yanking on straps to try and fit it together (ensuring your baby is strapped in correctly)
- RECARO Advanced Side Protection (ASP) guarantees special protection in the event of a side impact
- 3-point belt connection
Finally, the Recaro Privia was awarded the test winner by Stiftung Ware test in combination with theRecaro Fix Base. The total rating of 1.3 is the best test result that a child safety seat has ever received from the institution. We’d highly recommend this car seat!
Keep safe on the road this December, mommy friends.