Safer Child Products

I always allowed my kids to eat in the car.  Why?  Because it kept them quiet, and it seemed like my little one was a bottomless pit.  Today, now that they are older, it seems like it’s our only option some days.  We are so busy running to activities after school and catching up on errands on the weekends, that I feel like we live in our car! 

Periodically, my husband would clean out the car because he couldn’t stand the mess. The question was always “What do we do about the car seat?”  Typically we would just vacuum it out, and occasionally we would take it out and give it a thorough cleaning and it was always pretty gross!  However re-installing it was no easy task and we always took it back to the DMV to get re-installed/checked. 

It wasn’t until I read an article about Germs in Your Car that I realized that not only are the crumbs disgusting to sit in, but they can actually be dangerous to our and our children’s health! For some reason it never occurred to me that crumbs can grow mold!  Well yeah, that makes sense!  In fact, there was a study done Charles P. Gerba Ph.D. Professor of Environmental Microbiology at University of Arizona, which found that “greater numbers of bacteria were found in automobiles that carried children as passengers.”  Specifically, MRSA was found in a child car seat and on a steering wheel too!”  That made me take disinfecting wipes to my car!  Wow!  What a wakeup call that was! 

So, knowing that statistics show 3 out of 4 car seats are NOT installed correctly, then why would we want to remove our already secured/ professionally installed seats from the car, even to clean them, as frequently as Dr. Gerba recommends (washing the cover a few times per month)?  Why can’t there be an easier/ better way, since most child car seats require you to take apart the whole seat just to get the cover off for cleaning. Hmmm…..