by Joyce Slaton posted in Products & Prizes

It's difficult enough just picking a car seat that fits your child and get it fastened in your car. But unless you carefully read through your car seat's manual -- all the pages, not just the ones that explain how to install it -- you're probably making more mistakes than you realize.
You may have heard statistics claiming that up to 95 percent of parents make mistakes in installing or using car seats. Could that possibly be right" Yes it could, because there are so many things to get wrong. Here are a few of the most common mistakes Child Passenger Safety Technicians see on the road.
1. Harness too loose

Parents want their children to be comfortable, and so they leave some slack in their child's five-point harness. Some parents even think that the old dog-collar rule-of-thumb applies, and that you should be able to slip a couple of fingers underneath the fastened harness. Wrong! A slack harness won't hold your child safely tight in the event of a crash -- in the worst-case scenario, crash forces can actually cause a child to be ejected from a seat with a too-loose harness.
So buckle up that harness tight. How can you tell it's tight enough" You shouldn't be able to pinch any webbing vertically at the shoulder when the harness is buckled and tightened. The harness' chest clip should line up with your child's armpits, too, as you see in the photo.
2. Installing seat at the wrong angle

You probably noticed when you were...