Car Seat Laws
The U.S. State Governments and Canadian Government have written car seat regulations and laws. As a service to you, Inventive Parent™ offers the following information. This should in no way be construed as offering legal advice, but rather a presentation of material collected from various official web sites.
The most common questions for Car Seat Laws we receive at Inventive Parent are,
1) When can my baby's rear-facing car seat face forward?
2) Does my child need to be in a car seat?
Read the article from our Newsletter on Babies in Rear-Facing Car Seats for more information, including why they face the rear and when to turn them around!
For further information, for Car Seat Laws please contact your local officials or your pediatrician.
We are often asked if, when traveling, you must adhere to the regulations of the state you are driving in or follow your home state's regulations. As with all traffic laws, you must follow the laws of the road -- the road you are driving on at the time, not the laws of the state you originated in, or are licensed by.
Inventive ParentT would like to recommend that you take the advice of the most stringent state's regulations, and consider your own state's rules, should they be less, a minimum requirement. Please remember that automobiles and their safety belts are designed with the average sized adult man in mind. They, therefore, can not adequately protect a small child.
The safest place for a child under 12, often required by law, is in the back seat.
A general rule of thumb is that children should be in a booster until their knees bend over the edge of the seat when sitting properly. You may want to use a seat belt adjust for some time thereafter.
