How to Install a Toddler Car Seat

Video Transcript

"Welcome back. My name is Alisha and I am with Expert Village and today we are talking about how to travel with a toddler. Alright, so let's talk about getting the car seat into the car. First thing first, the anatomy of the car seat. My car seat is a five point harness, which means they are restrained at the top of the shoulders down at the waistline and then it will also buckle in in-between the legs. Mine is a booster seat for my daughter. Make sure you follow your dealership recommendations on height and weight for car seats. You don't want to put an infant in this thing if it won't be secured. Now there are two ways to install my car seat. I either can do a seat belt or I can use the latch system. If I am going to use the seat belt, I am going to thread it through this area, and it's going to come all the way through the car seat and come out the other side and it will then be buckled in. Another component my car seat has is a latch system. The latch system are these anchors that will actually tether to the car so that you don't have to use the seat belt. It also has an upper anchor that will come over the seat and buckle in back behind. This is to help that within an accident, the front of the car seat will not fall forward. So hey, let's get this thing installed. Alright, so let's get the seat cover installed. I like to have this because it keeps your car seat from sliding around as much and it also protects your seat from indentations from the car seat. Mine just slips right on in and it comes right up. It also gives you a space if you need to do your latch system, it doesn't intervene with that. Now let's get the car seat in. If you ever have questions on installing a car seat you can always go by your local fire department and they will help you install it properly. It's also very very important to pull out the seat belt as far as it will go before installing it. This will make it automatically lock once it is threated through the car seat so that your seat belt doesn't move if you end up abruptly stopping. Once you have it buckled in you actually want to sit on the car seat a little bit to put pressure on it and pull the seat belt as tight as it will go. When you do this, it keeps it and it makes it much more secure. You don't want your seat belt to, you don't want your car seat to move more than an inch in each direction, which mine is good, it's not going to go anywhere. "