Car seats have lead. Who knew?

When I was pregnant with H, and those first few months after she was born, I was incredibly ignorant when it came to car seats.

I had no idea that car seats had different safety ratings. If you’d asked me how long she was supposed to be rear-facing, I wouldn’t have known, much less have guessed until 40 pounds. Chest clip…yes, I fell into the category of really stupid people who didn’t seem to understand the word “chest.” I cringe when I see some of those photos of the first few times she was in her bucket seat.

Needless to say, we didn’t buy an infant carrier based on safety ratings or any sort of research. We bought a gender neutral seat that was yellow and gray that I thought was cute and came as a travel system. If I could go back and re-do it, I’d have never even bought the stupid, worthless infant seat. But alas.

Fortunately, I wised up before it was time to purchase her convertible seat. Thanks to a bunch of wise women willing to share their wisdom with me, some in a very blunt manner, I learned about car seat safety ratings and the different things to look out for and be aware of.

After an immense amount of research I decided to purchase a Britax Boulevard for our little love. I was cheap and bought the ugly print that was on sale because no one wanted it. I didn’t care. It was just a seat and I was worried about its safety features anyway, not its aesthetic features.

We loved it so much, and H did too, so it went without question that we bought B the same seat (newer model) when it was his turn for a convertible car seat.

Like other things I hadn’t considered to be a suspect in my son’s lead poisoning, his car seat obviously didn’t make the list.

Until recently when a friend and I were flipping through a book full of children and infant product/toy recalls due to lead. I’m pretty sure nearly every page was Fisher-Price stuff. Until there, smack in the middle of a page, was a 2007 Britax car seat recall for lead.

The book was for recalls prior to 2009. This sparked me to do more research, as my children both sit in Britax seats. They are different years and models, so a potential difference for a possible lead exposure.

From the research I’ve done thus far, roughly 65% of car seats test excessively high for lead, chlorine, and bromine.

 

Lead.

The most recent studies are from 2011. Britax makes the list for high levels of lead exposure. Every. Single. Time.

I don’t know if B’s car seat has high lead. Or H’s for that matter. We’re working on the logistics of having them tested (and I’m trying not to mourn $600 in car seats before I know if they’re even an issue). But just the fact that they could be down right pisses me off.

Why are we not protecting our infants and children from this stuff in this country in this day and age? We know better! Why would we (by “we” I mean companies) even risk this? It doesn’t make sense, especially when we have the ability to prevent it.

It seems to be another facet in my life that I thought I was so careful about, so thoroughly researched. And it still wasn’t enough.

It’d be easy to say this should be a flashing neon light that I should just STOP. Stop researching, stop caring. Obviously it’s not preventing any of this.

And yet it only makes me want to dig deeper, go further.

I am well-researched and well-informed. But I also just never thought to suspect things that are supposed to insure my children’s safety to possibly bring them harm in other ways.

Gone are the glory days when kids rode on the floorboards and foods were naturally safe and no one had to question their child’s toys or mattresses and the great outdoors were the norm in every day childhood.

Alas.

Who knew 65% of car seats test above the safe levels for lead?

Not I. Not I.

Car seats have lead.

This is just getting ridiculous.