A Guide to Preparing Your Car For Parenthood

A Guide to Preparing Your Car For First Time Parenthood

Thursday, December 07, 2017

For first time parents preparing for the arrival of a new baby, the nursery can become the focus of their attentions and their budget. For most modern families, however, the family car will play a large part in your baby’s life and creating a safe comfortable environment can give you peace of mind and assist in making the transportation of your young family, easier.

For first time parents preparing for the arrival of a new baby, the nursery can become the focus of their attention and their budget. For most modern families, however, the family car will play a large part in your baby’s life and create a safe comfortable environment can give you peace of mind and assist in making the transportation of your young family, easier.

Car seats and capsules

What all new parents quickly discover is, travelling with a baby can involve a maze of rules and government regulations surrounding appropriate child restraints and seats for each age and weight.

For example, did you realise that a child must be in a booster seat at least until they are seven years old and beyond? The child should only be moved to an adult lap-sash when they are a minimum height of 145 cm - for the average child, this is usually between 10 to 12 years of age.

Babies should remain in a rearward facing position for as long as possible for safety reasons. A quality car seat should have the ability to adapt and grow with your child. Investing in a car seat which can accommodate baby through every stage of their early development - from newborn through to preschool - is money well spent.

INSTALLATION

The safest baby capsule or car seat is only as good as its installation. This should be done by a qualified service. For newborns, Baby Train can recommend a service to you for baby capsule installation or for older children, you can book in through one of our convenient locations to have an expert install your car seat.

Consider the streamlined option of installing a Car Travel System which is compatible with your pram. This makes the transition from car to pram and back again, a seamless process which avoids disturbing or waking your baby.

At Baby Train, we take child safety very seriously which is why we only stock brands which meet Australian legal requirements such as Britax, whose safety standards exceed government guidelines on every level.

Older CARS

Child safe anchor points for baby seats became mandatory for cars manufactured after 1976, however, there are still many cars on the road today which pre-date these laws and require retrofitting. A guide to these laws and how they affect your vehicle’s child safety can be accessed here.

SEAT PROTECTORS

Prior to installing a baby capsule or car seat, it pays to put a seat protector in place. After all, it is likely the seat will remain in one position over a number of years, making quite an impression on your car’s seat over that period of time. Simply using a sturdy base to protect the seat, can save a lot of angst down the track!

SUN PROTECTION

A baby’s eyes and skin are particularly vulnerable to the harsh glare of sunlight and for this reason, ensuring you have adequate sun protection surrounding them is vital. As baby will be travelling backwards for a number of years, monitoring the sun can be difficult which is why we recommend affordable and effective window sunshades and car seats with ample canopy dimensions, to fully envelope and protect the baby.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS...

While travelling in a rearward position is optimal for safety reasons, it can mean parents can’t monitor their infant. For this reason, it is worth considering the purchase of a baby mirror. This handy and affordable piece of equipment allows parents to check on baby’s wellbeing or to just let them know you are there.

grandparents

First-time grandparents are often oblivious to new laws regarding child car safety. It is worthwhile (and very convenient for babysitting…) to do a quick audit of grandparent’s cars to ensure they have a correctly fitted anchor point and discuss with them the importance of properly fitted seats, capsules and harnesses.

If you have a new baby on the way, visit our website to discover a world of car seats, baby capsules and accessories or pop into one of Baby Train's conveniently-located stores and speak with our trained staff. They can provide you with expert advice on the best way to fit out your car to make travelling with your new little addition, a joy.

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