Safe Ride

I am not a big advocate about a lot of things parenting.  Breastfeeding vs. formula.  Family bed.  Purees vs. solids (or baby led weaning).  Baby wearing.  Crying it out.  I have always felt that many of these choices should be made based on what works best for the family.  Using formula doesn't make you a bad parent.  Neither does letting your child sleep in your bed.  If these things work for your family, then more power to you.  We made choices based on what worked best for all three of us. 

The one thing that I am a HUGE advocate for is car seat safety.  Did you know that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 3 out of 4 car seats are used incorrectly?  This number is crazy to me, as using a car seat correctly EVERY SINGLE TIME is matter of life and death.

 Recently, I have been doing a huge amount of research on car seats, as I was looking to purchase something new for Graham.  We are practicing extended rear facing (meaning that Graham will stay rear facing in his car seat until he is either too heavy or too tall...another fact: did you know keeping those little guys rear facing is over 500% safer?  Yup, just because the law says you can turn them forward at 1 year or when they reach 20 pounds doesn't mean that it's what's safest for your child).  Graham was about to reach the height limit on the seat we had, and we wanted to find a seat that would accommodate his taller stature and let us keep him rear facing for as long as possible.  After purchasing a cheaper seat that accommodated his height, but wasn't user friendly at all, we bit the bullet and bought the pricier seat that I had been wanting for months.  It arrived the other day and we love it!  Graham will be able to ride safely for years to come in this bad boy!