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Posted by admin in Babies 0-6 months, General, How to, Safety on May 26th, 2020
It is important to ensure you are monitoring the ongoing use of your baby capsule or carseat. As your child grows in weight and height it is important to check your baby’s shoulder height in relation to the harness straps of their restraint and, where necessary, make the necessary adjustment to the height of the harness to keep your baby safe. It is really important to ensure that the harness straps are always at or above the shoulder in rearward facing mode as there is potential for significant crash loading to be put on the child’s spine as they ramp ‘up’ the seat in the initial crash phase.
Capsules and carseats have multiple shoulder strap slots so you can move the harness up as your baby grows.
In rearward facing restraints, you should use the slot that is level or slightly above your child’s shoulders. Do not use a slot if it is below your child’s shoulders.
In forward facing restraints, you should use the closest slot to your child’s shoulders, but not more than 25mm below your child’s shoulders.
It is really important to ensure that the harness straps are always at or above the shoulder in rearward facing mode as there is potential for significant crash loading and to be put on the child’s spine as they ramp ‘up’ the seat in the initial crash phase resulting in serious spinal and other injuries.
To adjust the height of your harness, you will need to loosen the harness as much as possible and lay your restraint face down, so that the spreader / G plate becomes visible on the back of the seat. Simply unhook the ends of the harnesses from the spreader / G plate, and re-thread the straps through the appropriate slot for your child’s shoulder height. When you are finished, ensure that you’ve correctly re-attached the straps to the spreader / G plates.
A link to our instructional video demonstrating how to adjust your capsule harness is here and this makes it easy to do:
Some carseats and capsules have a feature that is built into the restraint which adjusts both the headrest and the harness simultaneously. With this feature, there is no need for rethreading or undoing the harness from the spreader / G plate at the back of the seat.
Still need some help with your carseat or capsule harness? Just give us a call on 1300 859 775 option 2 to speak to one of our accredited restraint fitters.
I know I know, the “hire” doesn’t slot in so well phonetically but it makes sense to be a part of that mantra don’t you think?
In the consumer driven world in which we live there is a perception that the number of material things we own, and how much we paid for them, helps us rank highly in the eyes of our peers. And if I’m truthful, maybe it does makes us feel better about ourselves. I know I’m just as guilty as the next person of coveting luxury items (most of which are out of my budget anyway!).
But this idea of needing to possess only the best of everything is what determines our economic and environmental status. The more we consume and spend the greater effect it has on our economy and environment. Whilst spending up big sounds like a good idea for our economy, in actual fact this tends to drive prices higher. This only makes it harder for the average family to buy important items such as furniture and whitegoods.
Imagine a new family, expecting a baby for the first time, wanting the joy of setting up that baby nursery. When furniture and baby essentials, such as car seats, prams and rockers are so highly priced it makes it virtually impossible to afford everything they need all at once. If they are trying to maintain their image by choosing designer labels, it’s just not going to happen.
The solution… Hire it! Hiring equipment means you don’t need to outlay a lot of money to have use of the products you need. There are a massive variety of things that you can hire, or rent, for long or short periods of time. Toy libraries are accessible in most council districts and here are Rock-a-bye-Baby, we offer rental on all essential baby needs.
Babies and children will outgrow stuff pretty quickly and lose interest with play equipment. When they reach this point you simply return the items and hire a different product that’s more suitable to your growing babies needs. So hiring your baby equipment saves you money, time and storage space, especially when you only need to use it for a short time.
It’s kind of like sharing, similar to borrowing a book from the library. When you return your item, it allows others the opportunity to borrow it after you. It’s much better for the environment too. Hiring is a form of recycling. Rather than producing more and more new things to satisfy consumer needs, reusing helps reduce our landfill.
So don’t buy if you don’t have to, hire it… It’s a Win/Win for everyone; a sensible and safe way to help make sure we have a healthy happy planet to pass onto our children and our children’s children.