Complain about a product or service

Kids Getting Too Fat For Safety Seats, Study Finds

April 3, 2006

Infant Seats • Many Booster Seats Aren't Up to the Job • Baby Trend Child Safety Seat Recall • Hazards of Rent-A-Car Child Safety Seats • Feds Revise Child Safety Seat Ratings • Study Warns of Dangerous Chemicals in Child Car Seats • Consumer Reports Takes Blame for Infant Seat Test Error • Use of Booster Seats Increasing • NHTSA Will Write New Child Safety Seat Rules • Consumer Reports Admits Errors in Its Infant Car Seat Tests • Infant Fatalities Illustrate Car Seats' Shortcomings • Child Car Seats Not Up to the Challenge • Parents Still Clueless About Child Safety Seats • NHTSA Releases 2006 Child Safety Seat Ratings • Child Safety Seats Reduce Risk of Death in Crashes More Than Seat Belts Alone • Kids Getting Too Fat For Safety Seats, Study Finds • NHTSA Proposes New Child Safety Seat Rules • Children Not Using Safety Seats, NHTSA Study Finds --- • Consumer Complaints • Auto Safety News

A new study has concluded that American children are increasingly too fat to safely fit into child safety seats. The use of child safety seats in cars is required by law, but the researchers writing in the April issue of Pediatrics say there are too few seats available to handle the girth of obese children.

According to study estimates, a total of 283,305 children one to six years of age in the United States would have a difficult, if not impossible, time fitting safely and appropriately into a child safety seat because of their age and weight. The vast majority of these children are three years of age and weigh more than 40 lb (182,661 children). For these children, there are currently only four child safety seat types available, each of which costs between $240 and $270.

"While we await reductions in the childhood obesity epidemic, it is essential to develop child safety seats that can protect children of all shapes and sizes," said Lara Trifiletti, the lead researcher for the study.

"Motor vehicle crashes pose the single greatest risk to children, accounting for 23% of injury deaths among infants and 30% among preschool-aged children. Options for maximizing the protection of obese children in automobiles must be identified," she said.

The types of appropriate child safety seats were assessed by using National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2005 Child Safety Seat Ease of Use Ratings. Estimates of the numbers of children weighing above the maximal weight for those child safety seats were calculated by using the tabulations of growth curves based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999 to 2000 data that were assembled by the National Center for Health Statistics and the US Census for the year 2000.

Obesity is generally considered a health problem with long-term consequences. However, there is an immediate need for child safety seats that have been designed, tested and approved for use at higher weights.

"Debate regarding what to do to reduce and to prevent childhood obesity is just beginning," Trifiletti said. "We do know, however, that childhood obesity is increasing, and we can expect even more children to face the prospect of limited child safety seats available to protect them."

The research was supported by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy in Baltimore and conducted in collaboration with its researchers.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |