Can you reuse a car seat that has been used by another child?
My sister is pregnant and my friend wants to give my sister her babies old car seat that she no longer uses. Her daughter just grew out of it within the last 6 months. Just want to know for safety reasons, if it’s safe to use it when another child has already used it.
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11 Responses to “Can you reuse a car seat that has been used by another child?”
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Depends. First, check out all these things. Its actually unsafe to get a used car seat unless it is coming from a trusted friend or relative and you are 100% positive:
1)it has never been in any wreck
2)it has all the original pieces, including manual
3)it has never been dropped, which means never been checked as luggage at the airport, either, since this frequently happens when checked or gate checked .
4)it is less than 6 years old
5)the straps have never been completely submerged or washed with anything other than mild soap(it messes up the flame retardent treatment)
If you wouldn’t trust the seller with your child’s life, don’t buy a car seat from them. For $40 you can get a Cosco Scenera from Walmart. It rear faces to a whopping 35lbs, which is important b/c kids should stay rear facing as long as possible, the American Academy of Pediatrics says keep them rear facing preferably for their first 2 years of life. Then it goes to 40lbs front facing. It won’t last child as long forward facing as some others, but for $40, its a great deal. Or, call your local police station and ask about car seats. Most have programs in place to give free/inexpensive car seat to families that need them.
Just b/c your friend’s daughter just outgrew it recently doesn’t necessarily mean the seat isn’t old. You have to do a little investigating and find out if she purchased the seat new to start with or if she got it used from someone else. If she got it used, you can’t verify its history with that first person, and its not safe to use. Or if you’re not comfortable asking all those questions, its not worth it. You could always just print off a checklist and show it to her if that would make it easier to approach her about how its been taken care of. Otherwise, its not worth risking. Yeah, it could be alright, but is it worth riskig the child’s life?
as long as it has not been in a accident it should be fine and most car seats have an experation date on the bottom so just check it to make sure its ok
I don’t see a reason not to
Carseats are ok as long as they aren’t 5 or more years old and haven’t been in any accidents. If you trust your friends word and they say it hasn’t been in any accidents and the date stamped on the side isn’t 5 or more years ago then it will be perfectly fine to reuse.
as long as its never been in an accident or anything like that i would say that its fine. its not like its old or anything.
Of course you can reuse it, especially since it’s not very old. When you’re done with it, put it in a garage sale and help another young family get a car seat for cheap.
I am using a used carseat from someone off craigslist and it has been working just fine for the last 6 months!
as long as it doesnt have any recalls i dont see why not.. my mom has a used one for my baby its only about a year and a half old
i dont see anything wrong with it
Yes you can just make sure that the car seat hasn’t been in a car accident and that the expiration date is still OK.
i can’t imagine why not.
clean it good with a disinfectant perhaps
Yes, it’s perfectly safe if you know the history of the seat and it is no older than 6 years. Plastic ages and most are not useable after 6 years.