Teaching Your Child Safe Habits

After making sure that everything is properly packed for your road trip, you want to see to it that the children are safe and secured inside while you are traveling on the road. There is no other tool that would help you do that than your vehicle’s seat belts.

Adult drivers who know that it is essential to be safe while driving starts when they were still a safe child passenger. The kids must know that safety is important while you are driving so that they too will be able to carry these safety manners until they are already too old to drive.

The NHSA or National Highway Safety Administration is giving away relevant details and guidelines about child passenger safety. These are the guidelines that the parents must follow so that the child is secure inside the car. Children who are below 12 years old can only sit at the backseat. This would prevent them from being suffocated from the air bags just in case anything might happen. Although air bags would bring safety to the adults, young child may be seriously hurt with this.

There is a different guideline for the infants. Starting from newborn until the baby is a year old or those infants weighing up to 22 pounds must sit in the infant or convertible seat that is facing the rear of the vehicle. In case that your vehicle is only for two passengers, you must first deactivate the airbag before you secure the infant seat and the infant at the passenger seat. Before heading to the road, double check if the straps are well fastened to the infant seat and passenger seat. The straps can either be placed in the slots just below the shoulder level or at the lower part of the infant seat. This of course depends on the model of the infant seat that you chose.

If you want a forward-facing baby seat, you can switch to this type of car seat by the time that your child is already more than a year old and the weight is more than 20 pounds up to 40 pounds. Again, remember about the safety guidelines regarding the harness straps and clips .

By the time that your child already weighs more than 40 pounds and he is already between to 4 and 8 years old, a booster seat may now be used. This is also applicable if the child is no more than 5 feet tall. A shoulder belt and a lap belt as well will help you secure and keep the booster seat in place while you drive. But make sure that the shoulder strap will never be across the neck, arms, or face of your child. Moreover, the lap belt should be secured on the hips of the child, not in the stomach. If you meet an accident while the straps are in the wrong place, the child would be seriously injured in different parts of his body, doing more harm to him than good.

For general information on the proper use of child restraint devices, always consult the instructions that come with your child safety seat, as well as the information provided by your vehicle’s owner’s manual. And, to compare free car insurance quotes, just fill out Cheap-Car-Insurance-Tips.com easy quote application. We'll match you to local insurance agents who compete for your business - helping you find the best auto insurance policy at your right price. Enter your zip code into the quote box to get started!