Seven tips on how to properly harness a baby in an infant carrier

One thing I've learned about child passenger safety is that it is not enough to use a child restraint system when transporting a child; buckling a child properly in a car seat that is appropriate for his/her height, weight, and maturity saves lives. 

It's not as simple as it looks. I didn't realise how technical it really is. I know now. 

I was clueless almost a year ago when I was trying to figure out how to put my son in his infant carrier while we were getting ready to go home from the hospital. I'm not as ignorant now, but it's still a work in progress each time I prepare to drive my son around. I'm lucky, though, because I have a number of resources within my reach to help me improve. For instance, AAA has free car seat inspections; I attended one via video call because in-person inspection just isn't safe yet (thanks to COVID-19). I have been continually researching the best position of my convertible car seat in my dad's Mercedes Benz C230 and came across The Car Seat Lady while I was mulling over the idea of buying a bigger vehicle (infant passengers occupy a lot of seating space for their car seats and a big chunk of luggage space for their strollers). For additional information, I review the Instagram account @safeintheseat. Plus, I have a brother who calls me out and corrects my harnessing if he finds something wrong with it. 

Today, I share a few tips based on my experience in learning how to properly harness my son in his infant car seat. For illustration, I'm using my son's teddy bear because my son is too big for this car seat already. I'm using the Graco Snugride Snuglock 35 infant car seat.

Disclaimer: I am not a child passenger safety technician. I am simply a mom who wants to make sure that her child is in the safest position during his car ride. Also, I personally purchased the teddy bear and the car seat.

Tip #1. Before loading the baby in the car seat, pull the car seat's handle all the way to the ground

I realised that I could actually lower the handle a few months into motherhood. To be fair, though, we haven't been going out a lot, just well-child visits to the pediatrician and the occasional visit to Biboy's place. But still, each time I placed my son on the car seat, it rocked quite a bit. I thought there must be some flaw in the car seat's design... until I realised I was overlooking an instruction.

It is important to place the handle on the ground (Fig 1) because it prevents the car seat from rocking and lowers the risk of the seat toppling over with the baby on it. Since there is a risk of toppling and falling, keeping the seat on the ground when seating the baby is best. Don't put the car seat on any surface above the ground (e.g., bed, countertop). In my case, my height was the deterrent for putting the car seat on any other surface; but taller parents need to remember this.

Fig 1. The car seat is secure because the handle has been positioned on the ground.

Tip #2. Learn how to adjust the harness straps and the buckle strap before seating the baby

I didn't do this because of the rush of learning so many things at once (my baby was born early), along with the unrelenting routine of taking care of a newborn mostly by myself. Suffice it to say that by the time my child's first well-child visit came around, I had no clue how to adjust the straps of the car seat... my early-term baby's growth warranted an adjustment of straps which I didn't know how to do. We ended up late for our appointment because I couldn't buckle my child in. Good thing that the pediatrician and his staff were very understanding of this noob (I was almost in tears while talking with them about our delayed arrival).

So, I suggest practising with stuffed toys (as tall as newborns) before the baby is born. Chances are, a stuffed toy is already present as part of prepping for the baby's nursery or has been received as a gift. Not just the main caregiving parent; both parents (and anyone transporting the baby) have to know how to adjust the car seat's straps. 

The best resources for learning how to make the adjustments are the car seat's manual and any online videos demonstrating how to move the straps. In my case, I watched videos (while I was panicking) since I couldn't find the manual right away (turned out that the manual was already in the car). Luckily, I didn't have to rethread the harness straps on top of buckling my baby in; all I had to do was to loosen the straps using a button hidden near the buckle strap slot (where I can pull the strap to tighten... near the doll's feet in this case). But because I realised how much I didn't know and how fast my son's growing, I reread the manual and watched as many videos as possible while practising adjustments on this car seat.

Tip #3. Make sure that the harness straps go through the right slots. Same for the buckle strap

Since the infant car seat faces the rear of the vehicle, the harness straps should go through the slots that are right at or just below the baby's shoulders. In Fig 2, the harness straps are above the doll's shoulders and should be repositioned. The manual indicates how to do that. In the case of my son's car seat, the instructions involved manual rethreading of the harness straps. There were other model-specific instructions that I needed to follow to ensure that the straps were not too long for my son's height. When I rethreaded the straps, I had the manual with me so I could easily refer to the instructions.

The same thing goes with the buckle strap... it has to be placed through the strap that's not under the baby but is closest to him/her. In my case, the strap was already threaded through the farthest slot from the back (my son's butt wasn't on top of it anymore at that position), so I didn't have to reposition it.

Tip #4: The chest clip's final position is at the baby's armpit level

Fig 2 also shows that the chest clip is positioned too low. This is something that the AAA child passenger safety technician corrected during my convertible car seat inspection. It is important to put it at armpit level because the chest clip forces the harness straps slightly towards the baby's midline and is aligned with the baby's shoulders. If the harness straps are not aligned properly, the baby may be ejected from the car seat when an accident occurs; @safeintheseat definitely makes this crystal clear through her Instagram-posted demonstrations.

Fig 2. What's wrong with this picture? Harness straps went through slots above the doll's shoulders. The chest clip is too low. Straps appear to be too loose.

Tip #5. Tighten the straps

Instructions on how to tighten the car seat are specific to the model. So, again, it's best to refer to the car seat's manual. My child's car seat has a long strap by his feet that can be pulled to tighten the harness straps. 

When first tightening the straps, the AAA child passenger safety technician told me that it's okay if the chest clip is positioned lower than the baby's armpit level. Tightening the strap will raise the chest clip. Once the harness straps are tight enough, that's when we need to check the position of the chest clip.

But what is tight enough?

All harnessing videos I've seen feature what they call a "pinch test". It is also something that the AAA child passenger safety technician taught me how to do. After tightening the straps, I need to check for slack on my child's shoulders by attempting to pinch the straps there. If there is no slack (i.e., I cannot pinch the straps together), the harnessing is tight enough.

Can the straps be too tight?

Perhaps. But in my experience, the harness straps don't tighten anymore (I can't pull the long strap anymore) once there's no slack. Also, if the baby is uncomfortable, he/she will let you know by wailing. At least that's what my son did when he outgrew his infant insert (not shown in the photos posted here since I removed them months ago).

The end result of a properly harnessed teddy bear looks like Fig 3. 

Fig 3. The teddy bear is finally properly harnessed in the car seat.

Tip #6. Don't use inserts or accessories that did not come with the car seat (assuming that it's brand new) 

I bought cute inserts in retail stores that aren't of the Graco brand. I thought that they'd be good second inserts for when I need to wash and dry the car seat inserts that came in the box with the car seat. Obviously, I didn't read the manual when I bought the inserts. We're not supposed to use inserts that did not arrive in the box with the car seat because these have not been crash-tested with the car seat. It is best to buy (if we really have to) car seat accessories or replacement parts from the manufacturer or its retailers. 

Tip #7. Keep the manual close to you or the car seat

Aside from not reading the manual when Biboy and I installed the car seat, I thought that I kept the car seat manual at home somewhere. Yes, another newbie mistake! So when I couldn't buckle my son in and had no idea how to adjust his straps, I didn't know what to do. Panicking and almost in tears while searching videos on how to adjust straps (while dealing with the baby blues and a bawling newborn), that's me. Little did I know that my wise brother had already placed the car seat manual in a backseat pocket in the car, within easy reach for a person adjusting the car seat.

That day taught me that the car seat manual should always be accessible to me. The infant car seat manual is in the backseat of the car, so I could reference it easily (I should actually take it out because I have uninstalled that car seat... I'll get around to removing it eventually). My son's Diono Radian 3QXT has a slot in the back where I could store the manual; it's very conveniently located. Aside from the paper copies of the manual, I also have the pdf versions on my phone. I also have a pdf copy of the car's user's manual on my phone, but that's a story for another blog post.

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As I reviewed photos of my son in this car seat (I still take photos of him on his car seat before we drive off; I like to put them into collages), I realised that I made many mistakes along the way. Through time, I've checked the harness strap position in the car seat (the slots used), the chest clip position on my child, and the harness strap tightness (using the pinch test) before we drive out of the garage. I no longer look at third-party accessories too. Most importantly, I read the manual, consult the manufacturer if the information I need isn't on the manual, and check off the tips from child passenger safety technicians.

Hopefully, this blog post helps parents who will buy car seats for the first time. Since I'm not a technician, I'm sharing the websites that helped me get to where I am now in terms of child passenger safety:

• Safe in the Seat: https://safeintheseat.com/ (I follow Michelle's Instagram account)
• The Car Seat Lady: https://thecarseatlady.com/
• National Highway Safety Administration: https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/car-seats-and-booster-seats