Need a good scare this morning? Check out this story by the Chicago Tribune.

Some serious issues with the testing of car seats have finally been uncovered. It seems that US car seat testers use a 'sled test' that doesn't properly duplicate a real car crash & some government tests have found some serious flaws in the designs of a lot of car seats- and cars for that matter. The curious thing? These federal regulators, never published the test results or contacted the car seat manufacturers. It seems these tests were being used to rate car safety and not child seat safety. Sled tests (imagine a car seat strapped to a metal bench, sped up to 30mph & then suddenly stopped) do not have obstacles in front of the baby seat (like the drivers or passenger seat) and some infant seats when dislodged from their bases became missiles that slamed into the seat in front of them adding injury reading to the adult dummies in front. Sled tests also do not monitor side impact results.

Here is a quote from the article that sums up one of the major issues:
"Of the 66 infant seats tested in frontal crashes, nearly half of the seats either separated from their bases or exceeded injury limits."

Ummm...yikes?!

Think you're safe b/c you shelled out the $200+ for the fancy/Euro car seat or because you have a big or 'nice' car? Think again.. The Tribune found that 2 of the more expensive seats failed the safety test and that some smaller cars protect the seat & infant better than larger cars.

Something to think about.. The article has videos of the actual testing as well. It is SO SO SO important to research car seats. I was definitely kind of lazy about it and will use this as a huge kick in the pants to really look around at test results & figure out which seat is right for my family and my car.