It’s National Child Safety Protection Month and one way to protect children is by properly using a child safety seat in a vehicle.

Greene County Public Health Family Support has a permanent fit station for child safety seats and Certified Safety Passenger Technician with Healthy Opportunities for Parents to Experience Success (HOPES) program Cheree Derry says they have access to a system with all types of child seats and what are the right ones to be installed in different vehicles. She points out, they can also search for recalls to vehicles and car seats that may prevent installing a car seat.

Derry shares how to test make sure you have properly installed a child safety seat.

“If you can move the car seat more than one inch back and forth at the belt path, which is where  the seat belt actually goes through the back of the car seat, if it moves more than one inch, it’s not in securely.”

Though kids are wearing coats this colder time of year, Derry says children are not supposed to wear them while in a car seat because the harnesses need to be snug against the child’s body. She describes a way a child can easily be buckled into their seat while keeping warm.

“Put their coat on backwards. They think it’s hilarious, they love it (and) it’s fun. You can put it on backwards, hold it shut as you’re walking out, and then when they sit down in the car seat all they have to do is slide it off, put their arms in the straps and buckle themselves.”

Derry notes it’s imperative to have a properly installed car seat, as traffic-related crashes are the leading cause of death for 1 to 13-year-olds. Contact Greene County Public Health at 515-386-3228 to learn more about having a child safety seat properly installed in your vehicle.