Take a look at out Infant Car Seat vs Convertible Car Seats section and you’ll understand it. Some parents even think that buying best car seat at the first place is a wise decision.
But reality is different
It is now research proved that the longer the child is inside an infant seat the better it is.
Before you know what is the right time to get a convertible car seats, come take a look at the whole age and seat requirements.
When To Buy Convertible Car Seat?
You just can’t buy a car seat for your kid without considering its age and weight.
That’s why a clear idea about child’s age and suitability to a safety seat is very much important. We’ll divide it in various age limits to show you which car seat is appropriate for your child.
- Infant Seat (Birth to 2 years old):
You would need to buy a safety seat for your child from its first day in this world. Infant seats are there for this. Various experiments show that keeping a child inside a rear facing seat for maximum time provides the best safety.
That’s why we strongly recommend you to keep your baby inside a rear facing best infant car seats up to the second year of its life or until it outgrows the limit.
- Convertible Seat (2 to 6 years old) :
After two years of age you can move your child to a front facing portion of a convertible seat. The child would grow rapidly during this period and various sensitive organs will grow stronger with it.
Provide a convertible seat for your child up to the age of six. Although some children grow very rapidly and may seem unfit for a convertible seat at the age of five or six but looks inside a locked car isn’t a big deal at all.
- Booster Seat (6 to 10 years old):
First of all we’d like to remind you that you have to trick your child to be inside a booster seat. Actually booster seats work as elevators and match the child’s height with the height of your car’s seat belt.
This type of seat may seem unnecessary to you but actually it’s not. Rather, they tend to give additional safety to your child inside a car what regular seat belts can’t provide. Providing a child of this age limit with just seat belt isn’t enough.
Why Use Convertible Where Infant Seats Are Better?
When is the actual time to get a convertible car seat for your kid?
Does this question bother you? I hope not!
Probably you haven’t given enough thought about it. But you should have. A research was carried out to determine the period of utility of travel car seats. The results left us spellbound.
Okay, answer this simple question when were you going to move your little angle to a convertible safety seat from the infant seat?
Probably all of you would have the same answer to this question. That is, when the child’s about to turn three. The answer is convincing to yourself and others because you don’t know the risk yet.
The rear facing infant seats are capable of housing kids up to 45 lbs or up to 3 years. It’s their capacity only. But on the optimal levels, the safety of the baby inside the seat gradually drops.
The experiments of head protection were of a whole new level and were conducted by a charitable organization. It used a 22 lbs dummy.
When actual accident scenario was imitated it clearly indicated that when a baby of 1.5 years or onward is kept inside an infant seat, its head is at a great risk of getting impacted with the front seat increases dramatically.
And when the same dummy was put inside a convertible seat the head contact was nearly down to once in every ten accidents. It really means a lot. And the interesting part is the fact was overlooked in government safety tests.
Well, head injuries are the worst. Head is the most sensitive part of human body. Especially a child’s head isn’t durable enough to tolerate contacts during an accident. Many research proved that an injury to the head was the main cause working behind numerous accidental deaths of children inside a car.
Now, this is something you didn’t know before.
But a proof so strong can never be neglected. Other than death a single blow to the head is enough to cause some serious damage to the child.
Would you risk your child’s life over a safety seat of few hundred dollars? Ask yourself.
So, it would always be a good idea to shift your child to a convertible seat when it reaches its first birthday.
Measure the distance between the head and the upper side of the car seat, if it’s below an inch; get the best convertible car seat as soon as possible.
Don’t wait for the child to outgrow the infant seat. You will be pushing your precious child’s safety at risk for about an year.
Remember, there are safety seats with adjustable head rest and head protection. You can match the height of the head protection pad with the height of your child in those seats. They are competitively safer and tend to provide more head protection. Look for those things while in next you buy a baby car seat.
Ultimately what I’m saying is, don’t keep your baby inside an infant car seat for over a year. On its first birthday get a new convertible safety seat.
Keeping your child safe should be your top priority. We’re here to help you with this kind of information what you didn’t know before. Oh! One last thing to tell you is that “drive safely” when your little angel is in the car.
The Answer:
After going through the article now you should be fully aware of the negative consequence of shifting a child to the convertible seat.
And all the information here was nothing made up. They are factually true and you will simply understand these things if you watch the crash test videos.
We are sure that even you would say infant seats are better for your child. Don’t fall for the weight and age limit provided by the manufacturers.
Their concern is to sell the products where our job is to extract the truth and present it before you so that you can have the proper knowledge that will keep your baby safe.
Finally, what we recommend is that you keep your baby inside an infant seat for up to three years.
We know it sounds ridiculous … But it’s the actual way.
Although your child will outgrow it after 2 or 2.5 years only then move to a convertible seat.
Always check where the baby’s head is positioned while it is in the seat. If it reaches the border line the seat is to be changed. If the head is at least two inches away from the border you should get ready to buy a convertible seat and move it after fifteen days or so.