Forward-Facing Installation Tips and Tricks
Posted in: Blog, Forward-Facing Seats, Tips & Tricks
Make sure your child really needs to sit forward-facing. Remember, kids who sit rear-facing are 5 times safer than those who sit forward-facing!- Before installing your forward-facing car seat, move the front seats all the way up. This will give you more room to move around the back seat.
- If your car has tether anchors: Place your car seat on the vehicle seat. Before attaching it, set up the tether strap by attaching the hook to the tether anchor. Don’t tighten it, just make sure the strap and tightening mechanism are accessible, and keep an eye on them as you install the car seat using the lower anchors or the seat belt. This way the tether strap won’t get caught under or behind the car seat during installation.
- Check your vehicle owner’s manual and your car seat instruction manual to make sure that you are attaching your car seat in an approved seating position and using an approved method. For example, not all forward-facing seats can be used with the lower latch anchors in every vehicle seating position. Many require that you use the seat belt to install the car seat in the center seating position.
- Pull the seat belt or latch belt from inside the car seat, not from outside the seat. This means that if you dropped the latch belt, it should fall down on top of where the child goes, not outside the car seat. We have found this especially helpful with the Britax Frontier and Frontier 85. This rule applies to most car seats but not all–exceptions include the older Britax seats (not the models with “70” after their names), the Sunshine Kids Radian, Recaro Signo, and Graco Safe Seat Step 2.
- As you pull the seat belt or latch belt tight, put pressure on the car seat. Generally we find that putting one or two knees in the car seat helps sink it down into the vehicle seat. Don’t get out of the car seat until you have finished installing it
- If you are in an SUV, hatchback, station wagon or minivan, you may find it easier to tighten a Y shaped tether strap if you pull from inside the trunk area.
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