Redesign of child car seats now marketed for heavier kids attributed to child obesity epidemic’s widening impact

Well if this isn’t a sad sign of the times, I’m not sure what is: makers of child car safety seats traditionally designed for children up to 65 pounds are now marketing for heavier kids — up to 85 pounds. Experts are saying the reason for the enlarged child seats is largely because of the increasing rate of childhood obesity. In fact, more than a quarter of a million U.S. children ages 1 to 6 are heavier than the weight limits for standard car seats, and most are 3-year-olds who weigh more than 40 pounds, according to a recent study found! (Did you know that unless exceptionally tall, a 3-year-old weighing more than 40 pounds would generally be considered overweight?)

If you’re wondering how this whole child car seat trend was first noticed, it appears that researchers at a safety center at Johns Hopkins Hospital became interested in the topic because they often saw children who were very obese; they also saw how the JHH  car-seat technicians struggled to find car seats to fit them.

So what does the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have to say about all this? “We don’t recommend that a parent use a restraint system for a child that has outgrown that system,” said Eric Bolton, a spokesman for NHTSA. “It is risky.”

For more information: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190291,00.html#ixzz1GgrEpLsf

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 6:16 am and is filed under childhood obesity, nutrition & health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.