Installing a child car seat can be quite a parenting challenge. In this episode of Gear Daddy, Daddy Troy is joined by an expert who explains the proper way to install a car seat in your vehicle. Using a Graco Nautilus, they'll show you what you need to do to keep your baby safe in their carseat. Check out more Gear Daddy for more information on baby products and carseats. DadLabs Ep. 368. Brought to you by Graco's Ready for the Road Ahead.

Daddy Troy: Welcome back to Gear Daddy, I am your host Daddy Troy. And today I am with Beth Warren who is the Occupant Safety Program Coordinator for the Texas Department of Public Safety. She is a car seat expert. And she is going to tell us everything you need to know to safely install a car seat. You won’t want to miss today’s episode. Okay Beth tell us all we need to know about installing car seats.
Beth Warren: So we have several different components to the system. The vehicle is going to have little bars down in the crack of the seat. You will actually just see the little metal pieces here.
Daddy Troy: And sometimes they are under little zippered flaps or Velcro flaps, they can be all over the place.
Beth Warren: They can be all over the place. If you go to your vehicle owner’s manual it is going to give you diagrams in here that show you exactly which seating positions are equipped with the lower anchors. Lower part you could have either a snap hook like this. The second option the manufacturers have to use a little trigger hook. So we are going to just push it on to the bar, when you push in on the red bar that releases the mechanism.
Daddy Troy: Okay so this is the Graco Nautilus.
Beth Warren: this is the Graco Nautilus and it is a forward facing only seat.
Daddy Troy: Okay you don’t put it in reverse.
Beth Warren: It’s not for infants, it is not to be used rear-facing. When we look at the back of the seat we can see it has a top tether with a snap hook on it. It has the lower strap that has two hooks on it, one on either side. We’re going to attach one side of it into the car. We are going to attach the other side of it.
Daddy Troy: I know some dads will actually put their knee down on to it. Is that good or bad, or?
Beth Warren: You know you can start out with just putting your hand in it. If you can get enough pressure putting your hand in it to then tighten on the side where the adjustment is made you don’t need to put your knee in it. Once you’ve got it installed you want to test it for tightness. So you are going to put your hands at the belt path.
Daddy Troy: Okay.
Beth Warren: Where the latch strap actually went through. You are going to try to slide it side to side. If it slides less than an inch, you’ve got a good installation. So once you’re looking at your top tether.
Daddy Troy: Uh huh?
Beth Warren: One thing you want to look for in the owner’s manual is where is the actual tether anchor?
Daddy Troy: Okay.
Beth Warren: Where in the vehicle, the vehicle has the anchor points. And some SUV’s they are actually up in the roof. They can be on a back dash. They could actually be back in the cargo area of an SUV. They could be on the vehicle seat back itself. They could be under the vehicle seat on the frame.
Daddy Troy: Right.
Beth Warren: So if you’ve never looked in the owner’s manual you could be attaching it to something that was never designed to take that crash force and absorb that crash force.
Daddy Troy: Uh hmm. Now what are some of the most common errors that parents make? We have talked about a few so far. But what are some other common things that a parent might mistakenly do?
Beth Warren: Some common errors are parents will think of one strap as good, two is better. If I’ve installed it with a lower anchor system why not take the seat belts in it through the belt path also?
Daddy Troy: Right, right.
Beth Warren: this is not a case of one is good, two is better. The belt path of this car seat is only designed to take crash force from one source.
Daddy Troy: Okay.
Beth Warren: If I’ve got the lower anchor belt going through here and I put the seat belt through there now I am putting crash force from two different sources in a belt path that was never designed to take it.
Daddy Troy: Right. Well that is all this week for Gear Daddy. Thanks a lot Beth for all of your information. Remember if you have any questions at all don’t compromise your child’s safety. Seek out a car seat expert. A great online resource would be safekids.org. A big shout out to Graco our sponsors this week. And we’ll see you next time on Gear Daddy at DadLabs.com.