Seat belts save lives every day. However, the switchable retractors on your vehicle's seat belts pose a potential risk to your baby or toddler that you may not have considered yet.
If you've installed your child's car seat with LATCh, that could leave the lap/shoulder seat belt in that position free for your child to play with. If the seat belt is pulled all the way out, the seat belt retractor's locking mechanism can engage. This means that as the seat belt slides back into the retractor, it can't be pulled out again. If the seat belt becomes looped around the child's head or neck, entrapment and strangulation injuries could occur. Seat belts from nearby seating positions could also be accessible to little hands.
While a seat belt may not seem an exciting toy to a grown-up, kids will play with almost anything. At a recent meeting with other child passenger safety advocates, one participant related a story from a mother whose young child tried to "wrap up like a mummy" in a seat belt, with entanglement being the end result.
The best line of defense here is knowing how to lock your vehicle's seat belts. If your vehicle has switchable retractors (check your owners manual) and you've installed the car seat with LATCh, you should lock all available seat belts near your child's car seat to reduce the risk of seat belt entanglement. Start by buckling the seat belt, then pull the shoulder belt portion all the way out and then let it ratchet back in. At that point, you shouldn't be able to pull the seat belt out again without unbuckling it and letting it retract fully.
Photo: Seat belt entanglement. Copyright 2009, Heather Corley.