Child Safety Car Seats A New Recall

While I was not initially going to write about child safety car seats for this blog, I did come across a new recall that was voluntarily announced just a few days ago.

As reported in an article on injuryboard.com, Evenflo, the manufacturer of the Discovery child safety seat is recalling over one million car seats. The article states, "The manufacturer reports that studies show side impact crashes may cause the carrier to separate from the base allowing the child to fly about the inside of the car. The current recall effects only those seats built from the year 2005 through 2008."

The article further stated that there were red flags with this car seat a few years ago! "As reported in the Kansas City Star, in 2004 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) questioned the safety and reliability of the Discovery car seat. But after analyzing 51 incidents of broken seats resulting in 21 injuries and 6 fatalities, NHTSA determined a safety-related defect has not been identified at this time."

Child Safety in The Home, Watch Those Water Temperatures

Weather you yourself are watching your children in the bath or another loved one is giving a bath, make sure you enforce your own rules for bath time. Hot water temperatures can be very dangerous and sometimes deadly to children.

One standard baby gift I give to everyone I know who is going to be a mom, is a yellow ducky that is also a water thermometer. I enjoy giving my friends kid's their first rubber ducky, but it also ensures new moms are bathing their children in the proper temperatures.

There was a very upsetting article in the Washington Post on February 8th. A grandmother was giving her grand child a bath and the phone rang. Grandma was gone for one minute to answer the phone, and the child turned on the water to hot and scalded herself.

The child pulled the hot water tap on and 140-degree water came out of the spout, giving the girl 3rd degree burns all over her body. Sadly the girl died less than a week later.

The Home Safety Council stated in the article that there are over 3,800 injuries annually and 34 deaths from at home scalding!

Child Safety Guide Line in Arizona for Pools

There are many child safety guide line about many different aspects of day-to-day life. I would like to discuss one in particular swimming pools.

I live in Arizona where one in four homes has a swimming pool in their backyard. Every year I see drowning after drowning on the news due to a lack of security around the pool. Most of these deaths could have been avoid by following the rules. In Arizona the law requires that any entrance into the pool area must have self-closing self-locking gates or doors. A fence of 5 feet high with self-closing gates must surround the pool if there are children living in the home and the doors to the pool are not self-closing and self-locking. Also any gate that the general public can access must be self-closing and self-locking. All locking mechanisms must be 5 feet from the ground.

If you are a homeowner you can do whatever you want at your own risk. Should something happen, although expect to be liable for the situation. If you are a renter the landlord must provide these safety provisions for you. If the home you are renting does not meet the Arizona laws they will be in trouble. Make your landlord do the right thing for your child's safety.

Simply following the law that is already in place would help to prevent many of the problems with owning a pool.

Britax Child Safety Seats, Engineered for Safety.

Britax child safety seats were engineered with impact protection in mind. Britax had five testing facilities world wide, where each car seat endures rigorous testing. According to the Britax website, they "think of the unthinkable, so you don't have to."

Their website is designed to get the exact car seat you need for your child. They have a variety of car seats available, which include: infant, convertible, compact convertible, forward facing, booster and strollers. You can enter in your child's weight, height, age, and seated shoulder height to compare the best seat for your child.

The company offers testimonials and installation videos right on their website.