How to correctly adjust the height of the headrest on a baby seat?

The positioning of the baby seat is essential to obtain the best possible protection for your child during the journey. Therefore, we carefully study how to mount the baby seat in the ISOFIX system or with the seatbelts. We prepare the child for the trip by putting on appropriate clothes. Meanwhile, there is one more extremely important issue: the height of the headrest on the baby seat. We sometimes forget that it is the headrest that protects the most important part of the baby’s body – the head. So, how to set it up correctly?

Contents:

Why is the correct height of the headrest on the baby seat so important?
How to set the headrest for the seat to serve effectively and for a long time?

Why is the correct height of the headrest on the baby seat so important?

When putting our child in a good baby seat, we make sure that it travels as safely as possible. We cannot influence most of the events which happen on the road, so we minimize the risk of hazards with a good baby seat. However, we protect the child most effectively when we use all the possibilities of the baby seat. The positioning of the headrest is extremely important. Why?

The headrest protects the child’s head. During impacts – especially side impacts – the little traveler’s head must have as little space to move freely as possible. The task of the headrest is to fill this space in order to most effectively absorb the forces which act on a small passenger during a violent road accident.
The child grows, so a forgotten headrest may be somewhere in the area of the shoulder blades after a few months. This poses a huge risk to the baby’s spine.
Inadequate positioning of the headrest on the baby seat results in the fact that the toddler just feels uncomfortable. The headrest, instead of surrounding the head and creating a comfortable space for a short nap, presses on the baby’s neck or back. As a result, the child may be restless and irritable when traveling.
Adjusting the height of the headrest allows toddlers to travel rear facing for longer, because raising it slightly “enlarges” the baby seat (it is only possible if the raised headrest surrounds the head, not the neck).

How to set the headrest for the seat to serve effectively and for a long time?

The first and most important answer to this question is: remember to adjust the headrest regularly. If your child’s baby seat ‘rides’ permanently in the car, they are usually still set in the same way. Without changing them, you can forget to check regularly if your child has a good headrest height. This is necessary to assess whether the setting needs to be changed.

The headrest of the baby seat should surround the head. It must be neither below (e.g., at the level of the neck and shoulder blades) nor above (e.g., when the lower part of the head is left without any protection). A properly adjusted headrest protects the lower and upper part of the baby’s head as well as its sides. It is most often seen when the child cuddles up to it during the journey and takes a good nap. It is also an argument that the correct positioning of the headrest of the baby seat is simply comfortable for the child.

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