Keeping Young Kids in Car Seats & Booster Seats

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Darren Adamson from Argosy University in Salt Lake City, here to talk to you today about the ever present challenge when you're a parent of young children, how to keep them in their booster, or in their car seats. It is very challenging, the younger the child, the more challenging it is. It's very important, however, to keep that child safe. And time that they're in a vehicle that's moving, there is a danger to their development, and in many way, there's a danger to their life. So if a wreck occurs, they need to be strapped in to a car seat. So, how do you keep them in there? I think the first thing that you want to keep in mind is that toddlers, particularly, and young children even, are very active physically. It's like they have ants crawling around inside them, they just have to move. So you have to make sure that you give them breaks. If you're on a long trip, you make sure that you stop about every hour, every hour and a half, to let them get out, let them walk around, let them stretch, let them run, let them jump, that's very important. If they know that they're not going to be stuck in there for ever, they may be a little bit more cooperative with staying in their car seat. Another thing you can do is distract them, give them toys that they can play with as they sit in their car seat. Make it comfortable to be there, make it desirable to be there. You certainly can also use the technique of, I hate to use the word, but bribe them. Help them to understand that if they stay in their car seat for a period of time, what ever period of time you designate, making sure it's short, that you'll give them something. You know, we'll stop and get an ice cream cone when we get to the next stop that we're going to. Or, when we get home from going to the store, if you stay in your car seat, and you cooperate, then we'll go ahead and have a glass of juice, or what ever it might be that is motivational to the child. Make sure you also interact with the child. Have them in a car seat, or in a place where you can, you can, they can hear you, they can see your face, if you're looking in the rear view mirror, they can see that you're still there, and you can then reassure them that sitting in the car seat is an OK thing to do. I also think sometimes as parents, we disregard the fact that our young children are fairly bright, they can understand. So explain to them why they're in the car seat in words they can, they can grasp, why they're in the car seat, that it keeps them safe, that they won't get hurt in the car seat if something happens while you're driving. Talking to a child, give them things that will keep them occupied or distracted, and giving them some incentive to stay in the car seat, all of those help with this particular dilemma."