One of the main criteria for choosing children's products is safety. It is important to remember this on the road, on a walk with a stroller and even seating the child in a highchair. It is necessary to carefully approach the choice of child protection. Why is it worth paying attention to a five-point seat belt? If only because even in sports cars this driver protection is installed. After all, such belts allow you to evenly distribute the load under tension and reliably fix the human body in a chair.
Appointment
A five-point safety belt is a means of passive protection against the dangerous movement of the child when traveling by car, while walking in a stroller or while feeding in a special chair. Such seat belts are suitable for children under 3-4 years old (car seats of groups 0, 0+ and 1+ are used), then they become small, and the child car seat is fixed with ordinary car belts.
Device
The five-point seat belt consists of two shoulder belts, two foot belts and one belt located between the legs. From here comes its name. The lock for five-point seat belts always snaps securely, as children like to play with it and try to open it. More often, additional softening pads are put on the shoulder straps to protect the neck of the small passenger from injury and rubbing.
In addition, often and the seat belt lock is equipped with soft upholstery, which will soften the pressure of the buckle on the stomach or groin of the child. All soft linings can also be purchased separately if they were not included in the package of children's goods. A five-point seat belt for a highchair and stroller is most often thinner and with a less strong lock than for a car seat.
Operating principle
The load on such belts in the event of a collision is distributed to the strongest parts of the child’s body - the shoulders, hips and pelvis. As you know, in the event of a collision, the human body is subject to inertia. In the case of three-point seat belts , it is difficult to guarantee reliable protection. That is why five-point seat belts are used for children, which completely fix the child’s body and prevent him from slipping out of the car seat. Fixing strong parts of the body avoids severe injuries and the consequences of an accident or sudden braking. It is important to remember that after an accident it is undesirable to use a car seat, it must be replaced with a new one.
Safety belts for a carriage to prevent the loss of the active baby during a walk. Fixing a child in a highchair will enable the person who is feeding him to briefly move away or be distracted, not being afraid that the baby will slip out of the high design.
Mount
In a child car seat, the fastening of five-point belts is quite simple - the shoulder belts pass through special holes in the seat and are fastened from the back of the back with a special metal or plastic hook. The foot straps also pass through the seat openings and are held in hooks on the underside of the car seat. The tension belt that passes between the legs of the child passes under the seat and is attached to one hook along with the shoulder straps. Each belt must be individually adjusted for the child, and also do not forget about his clothes - in the autumn-winter period, it may be necessary to loosen the belts so that the child is comfortable.
Seat belts for the stroller and for the highchair can also be adjusted for the child, lengthening or shortening them, or changing to thicker, softer or with a more reliable lock. Belt change is the same as in the car.
Car Seat: Mounting and Installation
In addition to properly configured seat belts, a child car seat must have a secure fit in the car. It can be implemented in several ways:
- regular three-point seat belts of the car;
- Isofix mount
- the installation of an additional base for the car seat, which in turn is fixed with regular belts or Isofix mounts.
Fastening with standard seat belts is a universal way of fixing a car seat. Despite the convenience, this method has its drawbacks - this procedure is somewhat complicated and inconvenient, in addition, there is the likelihood of incorrect or insufficiently strong fixation of the chair. Sometimes in situations concerning car seats of groups 0 and 0+, full-time belts may not be enough for its full girth. In this case, it is necessary to replace the standard belts in the car dealership with longer ones, without having to deal with the own-hand extension of the belt length. Fixing a car seat and a child with regular seat belts is necessary for children older than 3 years (from 18 kg), since not all car seats of the older groups have a five-point seat belt.
Isofix mount
This method was developed and standardized in Europe in the 90s and since then it has gained popularity because of its simplicity and reliability. The Isofix car seat has the main advantage - in addition to five-point seat belts, it is securely fixed to the car seat.
The whole system is divided into two parts: automobile and chair. The car uses two metal brackets that are installed at a standard distance of 280 mm from each other in the back of the rear seat at the passenger seats. Most often, these places are marked with the inscription Isofix and sometimes with the image of a child in a car seat. The car seat has two rigid guides with a locking mechanism in brackets.
This mount is quite simple and allows you to securely install the seat in the car, without fear of error. After all, two characteristic clicks will make it clear that the mount of the car seat is securely fixed. Recently, to fix the upper part and avoid a dangerous forward bend, they began to use the third point of attachment. It is also called the "anchor" belt. It is attached from the top of the back of the car seat to the bracket, which can be located on the rear shelf of the car, on the trunk floor or in any other rear compartment. Isofix car seat is suitable for any car on which system mounting points are installed.
Alternative to five-point belts
In addition to five-point seat belts, there are retaining tables, bumpers or buffer tables. Such a table is a soft pillow with plastic inserts, which is fastened with a standard seat belt across the body of the child. This type of protection is more free and gives the child more freedom for action. It is believed that such protection is able to keep the child in the seat during an accident and not cause him injuries due to its softness and elasticity. However, according to the latest crash tests, it was revealed that such tables are not able to reliably hold the child during a car revolution, and also do not have the ability to protect the upper body with a sharp inertial forward movement.
Benefits of Five-Point Seat Belts
Since any parent considers it necessary to take care of their child, it is important to understand that the safety of the baby must be trusted with proven and reliable means. The five-point seat belt has several advantages over belts with fewer locking points:
- proper distribution of the load on the strong parts of the child’s body;
- softening the impact force in an accident due to reliable fixation in the car seat;
- easy adjustment of belts to the size of the child;
- soft and reliable holding of the active baby in a stroller and highchair;
- the ability to easily replace belts in any children's product.