BILLINGS — Car seat safety experts say an alarming new trend is on the rise; parents mistakenly buying counterfeit car seats.
Koren Bloom, with Safe Kids Yellowstone County, says she’s seen parents bring in car seats designed for standards outside the United States, prompting a conversation about the dangers of not purchasing and installing a certified one.
“With online shopping, it has become a bit more prevalent,” said Bloom.
Every month Bloom and the certified technicians with Safe Kids Yellowstone County hold a car seat safety event that’s open to parents, but she says out of the 400 seats checked, the number of incorrectly installed car seats sits at 90% in Yellowstone County.
So she says when a parent brought a gifted baby carrier into a recent car seat clinic, red flags flew.
“The dead giveaway was the orange label from Europe,” said Bloom.
In this case, the car seat is intended for use in Europe, where safety regulations are different.
She says, in other countries overseas car seats are outfitted with different standards and usually have instructions with pictures on them, rather than written instructions in English or Spanish in the United States.
The mother who brought in the baby carrier had an older vehicle and couldn’t figure out how to attach the lower harness, according to Bloom.
“She was having a hard time trying to figure out how to install it,” she said.
In other cases, counterfeits look identical to the real product except aren’t manufactured to meet crash test standards.
Michelle Jamison with Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital says these are often purchased online at a discounted rate, leaving the parent thinking they’re getting a great deal on a luxury brand lookalike.
“It’s really hard to spot the dupe and that’s where we are seeing them at some of these third-party vendors,” said Jamison.
Billings mom, Taylor Grady, can see where the mistake happens. She’s a parent of two girls, one 10 and the other 7 months.
She says the standards have changed in even the last decade.
“As a parent, you are probably stretched thin on money, because kids are expensive, you see this car seat you’ve been looking for but it’s not actually following the standards,” said Grady.
So Grady says she tries to pay attention to safety labels and manufacturing guides.
“I get pretty anxious about safety,” she said.
She encourages other moms to read the instructions and just simply purchase their car seat from a brick-and-mortar store or the manufacturer’s direct website.
Bloom agrees and says, that no one car seat is better than the next but parents should make sure they work for their situation.
“I think if it’s too good to be true, double-check it,” she said.
Safe Kids Yellowstone County has car seat checks scheduled every month, Bloom encourages parents to make an appointment and come in with questions.
It is located at 1701 Montana Ave, where AMR is stationed. You can learn more here
