Tag: Car seat

When we were looking for our car seat, we fell in love with the Orbit. Talk about great design! Their whole infant car seat-stroller system (shown above) caught our eye. Unfortunately Consumer Reports hasn’t looked so kindly on them.

The Orbit Infant System was rated “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” after the baby carrier detached from its car seat base in two of six simulated 30-mph frontal crash tests that Consumer Reports commissioned at an outside laboratory. Consumer Reports says it decided to give this rating so that parents, safety experts and regulators would be aware of the results and of the potential for injury if an Orbit seat were to fail in a real crash. Consumer Reports advises anyone who already owns an Orbit Infant System to strap the infant carrier directly, without the car seat base, into the back seat of a vehicle

Orbit disputes these testing results, saying that Consumer Reports didn’t follow the installation instructions, which may well be the case. We all know how important proper installation is to car seats. However, if CR can screw it up, what chance do us non-professional “testers” have at correct installation? I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

If you have an Orbit Baby infant seat or are thinking of buying one, it is worth hearing what Orbit has to say about the issue:

Consumer Reports’ findings about our Infant Car Seat are completely contradictory to extensive testing we have conducted on a regular basis, in the same independent lab that Consumer Reports uses. As soon as we learned of these findings, we took immediate action and scheduled further extensive testing of our own. All of our tests passed. Also, we receive reports of real life car accidents from Orbit Baby parents, and we have never received reports of any car seat separations or injuries.

You can also read the official Orbit response/statement. They do bring up some very good points, not least of which is that they have never experienced any of the same failures and they use the same labs that Consumer Reports does.

As a conscientious company, Orbit has taken the matter up with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is working with them on any recommendations they may have.

[update: The post had originally stated the toddler car seat may have safety issues, which is not the case. Consumer Reports only tested the infant car seat. This has been changed in the text.]

I was reading the recall notices in this month’s issue of Parents Magazine and thought, “ahh, nothing I have,” but it got me to thinking – do I really know what has been recalled and what hasn’t? Apparently not…I just found out our car seat has been recalled! Yikes.

We have the Maxi Cosi car seat (2, in fact) and there is a problem with the latching mechanism to the base, so the company is recalling them to fix the problem. Here I am driving along thinking that I’ve got my kid all safe and snug in the back when in fact, no I don’t. If her seat isn’t attached to the base – well, I don’t even want to think about what could happen if I got in an accident.

So, if you have a Maxi Cosi Mico car seat manufactured from July 2007-February 2008 with the model numbers 22-371 and 22-372 and bases with the model number 22-515, then contact Dorel at 877-657-9546.

Other recalls that got my attention: Bugaboo Bee strollers have a risk of break failure and Gap Children’s coats with toggle fasteners that can detach and be a choking hazard.

There is a great list of recalled products at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission or at babycenter.com, if you already frequent their site. However, in the interest of spreading the information myself, I’m going to start a recall reminder – so even if you don’t have anything I talk about, you can follow the link to see if there is anything that you own that I haven’t covered. You can’t be too cautious when it comes to child safety!