ST. PETE, Fla. — It’s summer, the kids are off school and vacations are being planned. That means lots of road trips, so Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital says it’s a great time to make sure your child’s car seat is being used correctly.
Four out of five car seats are actually installed improperly, according to Petra Stanton, who runs the hospital’s weekly car seat safety class.
“Seeing that light bulb go off like, ‘oh my gosh I feel so much better,’ and that’s why I’m still doing it because it's just an amazing feeling, especially when you have families who are on their first child, they never touched a car seat, and their life is overwhelming,” said Stanton.
“I want to make sure my baby girl is super safe,” said expectant mother Whitney Richardson.
Richardson said when it comes to her daughter, she wanted more than a list of directions, she wanted that one on one guidance.
“It’s a little bit easier when it's in person; it’s a trusted expert; they take a course that lasts three and half days, so they are really in tune with it,” said Richardson.
Stanton said properly putting the baby in the car seat is only half the battle.
“So getting the car seat correctly installed is probably just as important as having one,” said Stanton.
The instructors actually follow the parents to their cars and make sure the seats are good to go before they drive away.
“I have an older son but he’s 16 and a lot of things have changed since, the technology, the cars, everything,” said mother Mercedes Poiter.
These moms say maybe the best part about the class is they all leave with a brand new car seat at a discount price.
“We typically ask for a $20 donation from the family, and what we do with those donations is we purchase more car seats so it goes directly back into the community,” said Stanton.
“I was recently laid off earlier this year, so it was super helpful; car seats now-a-days are outrageously expensive,” said Richardson.
For more information on the class, go to HopkinsAllChildrens.org/carseats
