Some parents make the mistake of letting their child sit in travel child seats that they have outgrew. Your child’s head should not stick over the top of rear facing infant car seats. Ideally your child’s head should be around an inch lower than the top of the car seat. In forward facing child car seats the tops of your child’s ears should be below the top of the car seat.

If you have been in a car accident and your child has been in the car at the time of the accident, you will need to buy them a new child car seat even if the car seat looks fine. The car seat may look undamaged and not even have a scratch on it but if it has saved your child’s life once then it may not be as effective in the event of a second accident. The fabric of the car seat harness can stretch up to 9% during body impact in a crash and this is one of the main reasons why you should change your child’s car seat. Remember you may not always be able to tell the fabric has stretched. This is one reason we recommend to buy a brand new car seat rather than second hand. Once a child car seat has been involved in a car crash you should buy a new car seat as soon as possible. Some experts say that in some MINOR crashes it may not be necessary to change the car seat.

Of course another reason you might change the car seat is if you or your child would like a ‘change’ from the car seat that you currently have.