All of the child safety seats and booster seats tested in this study properly restrained the children across a varied weight range. Almost 1,000 children ages 1 to 8 who were involved in vehicle crashes were included in this study conducted by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention.

Researchers say the results of this study show that the current range of child safety seats accommodates a wide range of children’s body sizes, including those who are heavier.

Considering that car crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for all children and that almost 32 percent of kids in the United States are categorized as obese or overweight, researchers wanted to explore the interaction between these two threats to children’s health, said Dr. Mark Zonfrillo, an attending emergency physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Zonfrillos said the results of the study should help parents to see that their main  concern need only be following the American Academy of Pediatrics most recent car seat guidelines.

Current AAP guidelines call for children remaining rear-facing until at least the age of 2 or until they reach the height and weight limit for the rear-facing car seat.

Once they are moved to a forward-facing seat, children should be secured in a five-point harness until they reach the weight and  height limit set by the seat manufacturer. After that, children should then move up to a belt-positioning booster seat, which is the type of seat they should have until they are 4′9″ tall, a height usually reached  between ages 8 and 12.

Researchers say a good time to re-evaluate child safety seats is right after your children’s annual medical visits.

“Compare your child’s weight and height measurements to the manufacturer’s acceptable ranges on the seat’s labels or instructions,” says Zonfrillo, the father of a toddler. “There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all.’ If your older child moved to a booster seat at age 5, don’t necessarily assume it will be the same for his or her younger siblings.”

Pediatricians and family physicians also  play an important role in making sure children are well protected  as they ride in vehicles, the study’s authors say. When the children’s height and weight are evaluated during checkups, physicians should counsel the parents to evaluate their child’s measurements against their safety seat. Those with more complex questions should be referred to certified passenger safety technicians.

For more on child safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

These traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can affect a child’s ability to communicate with others and take care of day to day tasks, leading to a long-term reduction in the their quality of life.

The study’s findings show the need for prevention, said Dr. Frederick Rivara, author of this study and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle.

Parents can help prevent many of these head injuries, Rivara says, by using gates on all stairways and by making sure that children use bicycle helmets when riding and that they use seatbelts in vehicles. He said schools should also consider adopting different rules for football.

Rivara and colleagues conducted  a study of 729 children younger than 18 who were treated for a TBI at emergency rooms in Philadelphia and Seattle between March 1, 2007, and Sept. 30, 2008. The majority of the injuries resulted from falls and car crashes, the study’s authors noted. Few were related to assault or abuse.

Researchers also made comparisons to a separate group of 197 children who had visited the same emergency rooms with arm injuries during the same time.

Researchers looked at the resulting disability in health-related quality of life, adaptive skills, and participation in community and social activities at three months, one year and two years after the injury compared with their functioning prior to injury.

The children’s levels of  functioning prior to injury were determined through telephone interviews with parents in most cases. Researchers looked at whether the children had trouble concentrating or remembering, whether they were depressed and teased, how they played or interacted with others, and if they could do the things that other children do.

Researchers discovered that 85 percent of the children with head injuries had suffered mild trauma. While some had experienced deficits at three months,  only a few suffered lasting loss of daily life and social activities.

However, lasting effects were noted in those with mild injury who also suffered a brain hemorrhage and those who suffered a moderate or severe brain injury. Those children faced obstacles in day-to-day life, sports and school activities at the end of the two-year study observation.

The first three months after injury, there was a substantial decrease in the level of activities in which these children were able to participate. Their ability to participate in  these activities improved at 12 and 24 months but they were still significantly impaired.

Communication and day-to-day life abilities for children with severe TBI were lower at 3 months than at baseline and did not improve by 24 months. Children who met the definition of mild TBI but had an brain hemorrhage had lower quality-of-life scores at 3 months.

Researchers say those children with  problems after two years are unlikely to make significant improvement in their condition, however, data is still being collected on the children in this study.

For more on child medical issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

A record 31 seats have been designated Best Bets, meaning they correctly position a vehicle safety belt on a typical 4 to 8 year-old in almost any car, minivan, or SUV. Prices for these top-rated seats range from less than $15 to several hundred dollars.

In addition to the 31 Best Bets, another 5 seats are Good Bets, meaning they provide acceptable belt fit in most vehicles. Six boosters are not recommended because they don’t provide proper belt fit, and consumers are advised to avoid them.

Booster seats are for children who have outgrown forward-facing child restraints. A booster should elevate a child and route the lap and shoulder belts, which are designed for adults, in the correct position to restrain a child during a crash. Some boosters do this better than others.

The problem is that consumers can’t tell a good booster from a bad one just by comparing features or prices. The Institute’s booster seat ratings, initiated in 2008, are the only evaluations to tell parents which boosters do the best job of improving belt fit for children in the widest range of vehicles.

“A Best Bet means any of these top-rated boosters should work well in the family SUV or the babysitter’s sedan,” said Anne McCartt, the Institute’s senior vice president for research, in a news release.

Engineers evaluated 62 booster models in the latest round. Twenty-one of them show up twice in the lists. These are dual-use seats, which can work as highback or backless boosters. In the ratings, each dual-use model is considered to be 2 separate boosters for a total of 83 seats evaluated, 11 more than last year.

The biggest group of boosters falls into a middle category, designated “check fit.” These 41 seats may provide good fit for some children in some vehicles, but not as many as Good Bets or Best Bets. Parents are advised to make sure the lap belt lies flat across a child’s upper thighs and the shoulder belt crosses snugly over the middle of the shoulder. If not, a different seat is needed.

The focus of the Institute’s ratings is belt fit, not crash performance, and no crash tests are conducted as part of the evaluation. To assess belt fit, engineers use a test dummy representing an average-size 6 year-old. They measure how lap and shoulder belts fit the dummy in each booster under 4 conditions representing the range of belt configurations in real-world vehicles.

Boosters have improved a lot in recent years. In 2008 there were 10 Best Bets. That fell to 9 in 2009 but soared to 21 last year after manufacturers began using the Institute’s test protocols as they designed and updated their seats.

“Just 4 years into our ratings program, parents have a wide variety of top-rated seats to choose from,” McCartt says. “Still, boosters that don’t consistently provide good belt fit outnumber the ones that do, so consumers need to keep paying attention to this issue.”

One thing consumers need to be aware of is that most dual-use boosters have different ratings for each mode. For example, 14 dual-use boosters are Best Bets or Good Bets in highback mode but are designated check fit in backless mode. For one seat, the Evenflo Big Kid Sport, the opposite is true: It’s a Best Bet in backless mode and a check fit in highback mode.

The Harmony Dreamtime remains the only dual-use booster that’s a Best Bet in both modes, while the Combi Kobuk Air Thru is a Good Bet in both modes.

A notable newcomer to the Best Bet list is the BubbleBum, an inflatable seat that’s marketed for vacations, car pools, and taxis, as well as everyday use. When needed, it can be quickly inflated by blowing into a valve at the back of the seat.

Among booster manufacturers, Harmony Juvenile Products continues to be a standout. All 5 seats the Canadian company currently makes, counting the Dreamtime in both modes, are Best Bets. The company is discontinuing the dual-use Baby Armor, which was a Best Bet in highback mode but not recommended in backless mode.

Diono, which recently changed its name from Sunshine Kids, bumped an existing seat, the Monterey, from check fit to Best Bet by changing the shoulder belt guide. The new ranking applies when the dual-use seat is used in highback mode. The booster remains a “check fit” in backless mode. Consumers should look for Montereys manufactured after July 2011 to ensure they are getting the newer version.

Meanwhile, the Evenflo Symphony 65, which has been a Good Bet since 2009, now has a sister seat, the Symphony 65 e3. It has a slightly different shoulder belt guide, and that makes enough of a difference to make it a Best Bet.

“Booster manufacturers often use similar names for different seats or, in the case of the redesigned Monterey, even the same names,” McCartt says. “It’s important for consumers to look at model numbers and manufacture dates when consulting our ratings.”

For more on child safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

A new, small study of parents in Colorado reveals another potential roadblock to child passenger safety: youngsters unbuckling themselves while the vehicle is moving.

Such incidents are alarming as restraining children inappropriately in a vehicle more than triples their risk for serious injury in a collision.

While previous studies have looked at potential obstacles to getting a child restrained safely, none has assessed how frequently youngsters unbuckle themselves, or the age at which children are able to do so.

In this study, researchers led by Dr. Lilia B. Reyes, clinical fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, surveyed parents with children younger than 6 years to find out the age at which children begin to unbuckle themselves from vehicle restraints and how frequently this occurs while the car is moving.

Parents at five urban and suburban pediatric offices also were asked to describe what they do if their child unbuckles.

Results from 378 parents showed that 51 percent reported that at least one of their children self-unbuckled. In addition, 75 percent of children who unbuckled themselves were 3 years of age or younger, and unbuckling was reported as early as 12 months of age. More boys unbuckled themselves than girls (59 percent vs. 42 percent, respectively).

Of the children who unbuckled themselves, 43 percent did so when the car was moving. The majority of parents reported that when this happens, they pull the car over, reprimand the child and re-buckle him or her.

“This pilot study elucidates another potential safety hazard in child motor vehicle restraint that needs to be addressed,” Dr. Reyes said. “Most importantly, it makes parents aware of the fact that their child may have the motor capability of self-unbuckling without having the full cognitive understanding of the consequences of this behavior.”

Future research should look at which restraint devices would be safer, Dr. Reyes concluded. “Keeping precious cargo safe is our duty.”

For more on child safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

In a new policy published in the April 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online March 21), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents to keep their toddlers in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat. It also advises that most children will need to ride in a belt-positioning booster seat until they have reached 4 feet 9 inches tall and are between 8 and 12 years of age.

The previous policy, from 2002, advised that it is safest for infants and toddlers to ride rear-facing up to the limits of the car seat, but it also cited age 12 months and 20 pounds as a minimum. As a result, many parents turned the seat to face the front of the car when their child celebrated his or her first birthday.

“Parents often look forward to transitioning from one stage to the next, but these transitions should generally be delayed until they’re necessary, when the child fully outgrows the limits for his or her current stage,” said Dr. Dennis Durbin, lead author of the policy statement and accompanying technical report, in a press release.

The updated policy is based on new research that shows children are safer in rear-facing car seats. A 2007 study in the journal Injury Prevention showed that children under age 2 are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they are riding rear-facing.

“The ‘age 2’ recommendation is not a deadline, but rather a guideline to help parents decide when to make the transition,” Dr. Durbin said. “Smaller children will benefit from remaining rear-facing longer, while other children may reach the maximum height or weight before 2 years of age.

“A rear-facing child safety seat does a better job of supporting the head, neck and spine of infants and toddlers in a crash, because it distributes the force of the collision over the entire body,” Dr. Durbin said. “For larger children, a forward-facing seat with a harness is safer than a booster, and a belt-positioning booster seat provides better protection than a seat belt alone until the seat belt fits correctly.”

While the rate of deaths in motor vehicle crashes in children under age 16 has decreased substantially – dropping 45 percent between 1997 and 2009 – it is still the leading cause of death for children ages 4 and older. Counting children and teens up to age 21, there are more than 5,000 deaths each year. Fatalities are just the tip of the iceberg; for every fatality, roughly 18 children are hospitalized and more than 400 are injured seriously enough to require medical treatment.

Children should transition from a rear-facing seat to a forward-facing seat with a harness, until they reach the maximum weight or height for that seat. Then a booster will make sure the vehicle’s lap-and-shoulder belt fit properly. The shoulder belt should lie across the middle of the chest and shoulder, not near the neck or face. The lap belt should fit low and snug on the hips and upper thighs, not across the belly. Most children will need a booster seat until they have reached 4 feet 9 inches tall and are between 8 and 12 years old.

Children should ride in the rear of a vehicle until they are 13 years old.

Although the Federal Aviation Administration permits children under age 2 to ride on an adult’s lap on an airplane, they are best protected by riding in an age- and size-appropriate restraint.

“Children should ride properly restrained on every trip in every type of transportation, on the road or in the air,” Dr. Durbin said.

For more on child safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury lawyer.

That quickness that makes them so effective in protecting adults is the precise feature that makes them dangerous to children. The impact of the airbag hitting a child can cause severe injuries and even death.

What can you do to protect your child from an airbag injury?

Children 12 and under should always ride in the back seat (weight is the most important factor but the age of 12 is a general guideline – therefore a 13-year-old who is lightweight should still ride in the back seat).

Children 12 and under should always be secured with the safety device most appropriate for their age and weight. See this Florida child injury lawyer blog for guidelines on which devices are appropriate for which children.

Ensure that safety seats and booster seats are properly installed by reading the directions and following them. Every seat is different. Do not assume that you know how to install your current seat because you have installed one previously.

Ensure that safety seats, booster seats and seat belts fit properly

Staying off busy roads is not enough. More than half the 135 children who die in bike-related car accidents are killed on minor roads or in residential areas. They don’t have to – bike helmets reduce the risk of severe brain injury by 88 percent.

Make sure you set a good example for your child. You are a role model whether you like it or not. Your approach cannot be “do as I say, not as I do.” Children are always watching you for what is acceptable behavior.

Use hand signals in traffic and always ride responsibly. Ride on the right side of the road with traffic. Don’t let your child be one of the 75 to 85 percent of children who ride bikes without helmets. Show them that using a helmet is the only way to bicycle.

Even though you may be riding responsibly, sometimes injuries occur due to the fault of others. Helmets significantly reduce your risk of needing a Daytona Beach personal injury lawyer.

Right now, they’re giving away free car seat IDs. Now is your chance to be better safe than sorry. Car seat ID tags may not seam very important now, but in the event you happen to be involved in a car wreck, truck accident or other type of traffic injury, a car seat ID will provide potentially life saving information to emergency responders, not to mention family contact numbers.

All car seat IDs from My Precious Kid come with self sealing lamination and a luggage loop. To be eligible to receive one of the free IDs, you must currently be pregnant or have given birth or adopted a baby on or after August 1, 2009. If you are not eligible, the IDs are available for sale also.

In addition to this offering, the blog boasts great information like how to obtain free stuff (diapers, etc) for your baby, and insightful product reviews. I recommend a visit to all my parent readers.

It is difficult to do everything well, and this is another example of that reality. These convertible seats purport to “grow with your child” but in the end may do more harm than good. That said, not all convertible seats are dangerous. Parents should consult the Institute’s test results to identify their particular model before discarding it for a new one.

The booster seats that turned out to be dangerous did a poor job of properly placing the shoulder and lap belts in the appropriate places relative to a child’s body. No recalls have been announced yet, but the results were announced only yesterday. If you cannot afford a new seat, remember that even a substandard seat is better than using an adult seatbelt on a child.

The Best Child Booster Seats

• Britax Frontier: model: #E9B54H6

• Clek Oobr: model: #OBM1U

• Combi Dakota backless with clip:  model: #882066

• Cosco Juvenile Pronto, models #22491/#22255/#22275

• Eddie Bauer Auto Booster, models #22888/#22829

• Evenflo Big Kid Amp backless with clip, models #3401913/#340XXXX

• Cosco Juvenile Pronto: models #22491/22255/22275

• Eddie Bauer Auto Booster models #22888/22829

• Evenflo Big Kid Amp backless with clip models: #3401913/340XXXX

• Maxi-Cosi Rodi XR, model #22223-CIP

• Recaro Vivo, model #351.00.MM14

• Recaro Young Sport, model #340.00.MM14

• Maxi-Cosi Rodi XR model #22223-CIP

• Recaro Vivo model #351.00.MM14

• Recaro Young Sport model #340.00.MM14

The Worst Child Booster Seats

• Alpha Omega model: #22469

• Alpha Omega Elite models #22149/22148

• Alpha Omega Luxe Echelon model: #22799

• Combi Kobuk, model #8970

• Eddie Bauer Deluxe, models #22800/#22862/#22865

• Eddie Bauer Deluxe 3-in-1, model #22790/#22795

• Combi Kobuk model #8970

• Eddie Bauer Deluxe models #22800/22862/22865

• Eddie Bauer Deluxe 3-in-1 models #22790/22795

• Evenflo Express, models #3292198/#329XXX

• Evenflo Sightseer, models #2692198/#269XXX

• Harmony Secure Comfort Deluxe backless with clip, model #0304001DRM

• Evenflo Express models #3292198/329XXX

• Evenflo Sightseer models #2692198/269XXX

• Harmony Secure Comfort Deluxe backless with clip models #0304001DRM/22178/#22177

• Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite, models #22465/#22456/#22195/#22187

• Safety 1st All-in-One models #22178/22177

• Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite models #22465/22456/22195/22187

This development is important for parents to be aware of whether they live in Orlando, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville or anywhere else in Florida. As parents, we can be liable for the actions of our children. Depending on the circumstances, parents can be liable for the consequences that came from their child simply allowing a friend to drive their ATV.

Read the full story at my Florida personal injury lawyer website.