Offers suggestions on safe automobile and airplane travel for infants, toddlers, and young children, including information on car seats, drunk driving, and air travel.
Use the right car seat, booster seat, or seat belt with your child.
Infants less than one year old and less than 20 lbs should be placed in rear-facing
car seats. At 20 lbs and one year old, a child can be put in a front-facing car seat. When they
weight more than 40 lbs and less than 80 lbs and are less than 8 years old, children should ride in booster seats.
Look at the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/childps/. It gives further information on proper car seat use,
child safety seat ratings, child seat recalls, and car seat inspection stations.
Children should sit in the backseat of cars.
If a child must sit in the front seat, in a pickup truck, then the airbag must be turned off.
Drinking and Driving
The leading cause of death for teens and young adults is car and truck crashes.
You can set rules for your teen about driving. Keep good grades in order to drive.
Have your teen pay for his or her own car insurance. Do not allowing them to drive at night. Teens
are 4 xs more likely to be killed while driving at night than in the day.
Also, buy an extra family car if you want your teen to drive another car. Teens that have
their own car are more likely to be in car accidents then teens that drive a family car.
Talk to your teen about drinking and driving. Be a good model, do not drink and drive yourself.
Let your teen know that you want them to call you or a taxi for a ride. Tell them not to get
into a car with a driver who has been drinking.
Airline travel
The Federal Aviation Administration recommends using airplane approved safety seats because
this can help your child during turbulence.
FAA approved car seats can be used in airplanes. Child booster seats, harnesses and vests
cannot be used in airplanes because they do not protect your child enough on planes.
Children under two may sit on their parents' laps. But it is safer if they are in a FAA
approved car seat in their own passenger seat. Children over two and under 40 lbs must sit in a FAA
approved car seat buckled into their own passenger seat. The FAA recommends that children over forty
pounds be secured in airline seat belts.
Adapted from Healthy Steps. Edited and Compiled by the Center for Promotion of Child Development Through Primary Care 2011
