Now that your baby has been born, you have a lot to think about. One of the most important things to think about is making arrangements for safe transportation for your baby. The rules about using baby car seats have been around for quite a while now, and hopefully you are aware of their existence; but did you know that you can get in trouble if the baby car seat you are using has been recalled? We want to make sure our little one is always safe. Therefore, we need to keep an eye out for car seats that have been recalled, as well as other baby products that were on the market.
Dangers of Recalled Car Seats -
It’s not really just a safety concern (although you want to keep baby safe) it’s a financial issue as well. You could easily receive a traffic citation for failure to have your baby placed in a qualified car seat. This can not only result in a financial setback, but it also could set the stage for legal action against you by the government for endangering a child, or it can be used in civil action should you be involved in a divorce or a custody dispute. Seeing that there’s a lot at stake for you and your baby, there’s one important step you should take, make sure that the car seat you have has not been recalled.
Where to find recalled car seats:
Check with the manufacturer -
To make sure your child’s car seat has not been recalled, the best thing to do is check to see if it has been added to the list of recalled items. There are three ways you can do this, and you probably should do all three just to be sure. First, you should contact the manufacturer of the car seat. Get the model information from the car seat and get the phone number from the manufacturer’s web site. They should be able to tell you whether that car seat has been recalled. Hopefully you can get good information this way, but with many customer service departments being outsourced halfway around the globe, they may not be giving you accurate information.
Check with third party -
Second, you can check a third party list of recalled car seats. An entity known as SafetyBeltSafe USA produces one of these lists and it is updated every month. Theirs is just one of many. Make sure you do a thorough search. Concerned organizations want to get the word out so they collect all this information and publish it.
Check with the government -
Finally, you can check the government’s web site at safecar.gov. This site has a searchable database that you can use to check on recalls on your baby’s car seat.
As you can see, it is very important that you keep an eye out for baby items that have been recalled, especially car seats. Whether the problem is major or minor, you don’t want to take any chances!
