Archives: Tooltips

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. All car seats in the United States must meet the FMVSS 213 standard.

Lower anchors in a vehicle.

A mark, label, or component that identifies the correct angle for use per manufacturer’s instructions. May be referred to as angle indicator or level indicator.

Some infant car seat seat carriers use “European” belt routing, an alternative way of routing the seat belt when installing an infant car seat carrier without a base. In this method, the shoulder portion of the vehicle seat belt goes around the back of the infant carrier. This can help to both attain a more secure install and reduce crash forces on the child’s body.

Infant car seat carriers can typically be installed without the stay-in-car base. However, there are exceptions.

A mechanism on the car seat itself to lift the car seat base on one end to achieve a safe recline for baby.

When installing with the vehicle seat belt, a “true” lock-off will hold the seat belt tight for a secure installation, without the need to lock the seat belt using another method. Not all things that say “locks” are lock-offs! Always read the car seat manual closely.

For the purposes of our car seat selection tool, we are defining INFANT carriers under 9 lbs, and CONVERTIBLE/AIO car seats under 12 lbs “lightweight” .

A proprietary chest clip with Bluetooth technology to alert caregivers: if the chest clip is unbuckled, if there are changes to ambient temperature in the vehicle, if the child has been seated for too long, or if a child has been left unattended in their car seat.

An energy management feature that can reduce the amount of force on a child’s body in a crash. An anti-rebound bar limits movement toward the back of the vehicle during a crash.