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Car seats are<\/span> there for a lot: every traffic-induced meltdown, every spilled juice box, every road trip nap. Most importantly, they save lives. But while it\u2019s tempting to treat them like any other piece of kid gear when messes strike, they\u2019re not just another item you can toss in the wash. They\u2019re precision-built safety devices, and one misstep can compromise the parts designed to protect your child.<\/p>\n This guide walks you through how to properly clean a car seat, what not<\/em> to do, and when to call a professional so your child stays protected, no matter how messy the ride gets.<\/p>\n For more, check out our guides to the\u00a0Best Car Vacuums, Best Hand Vacuums, and Best Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products. For specific baby gear recommendations, check out our guides to the Best Baby Monitors, Best Breast Pumps, Best Strollers, Best Travel Strollers, Best Bassinets, and Best Baby Carriers.<\/p>\n Jump to Section<\/p>\n AccordionItemContainerButton<\/span><\/p>\n A quick toss in the washing machine may seem harmless, but it can ruin a car seat: \u201cIt could degrade the harness webbing itself, so it could weaken it,\u201d says Kyndra Webb, a child passenger safety technician instructor and member of the National Child Passenger Safety Board. A harness is the only thing between your child and physics in a car crash.<\/p>\n Aggressive cleaning or machine washing can also shrink or distort covers, or strip away protective coatings. \u201cA lot of them have fire retardants,\u201d Webb says. \u201cThe more you wash it, the more you degrade some of that safety quality.\u201d<\/p>\n Even perfect cleaning techniques can be undermined by one deceptively difficult step\u2014putting everything back together. \u201cThe biggest thing that I have seen when families come for a car seat check after they’ve washed it, especially if they bought their car seat used, is they’re not assembling it correctly again,\u201d Webb says. A car seat may look<\/em> pristine and even be properly installed, but if the harness is routed wrong or the clips aren\u2019t in place, it\u2019s not doing its job.<\/p>\n That said, the stakes are too high to wing it. By sticking to the script of proper cleaning guidelines and manufacturer instructions, your seat can be both sanitary and road-trip ready.<\/p>\n Before you even think about reaching for those cleaning supplies, break out your car seat\u2019s manual. If you can\u2019t find the booklet that came with the seat, you can likely find it online: Visit your car seat manufacturer\u2019s website, search for your specific model, and look out for links labeled \u201cManual,\u201d \u201cInstructions,\u201d or \u201cSupport.\u201d<\/p>\n The cleaning guidelines are then usually found in a dedicated section of the manual. “Some car seats even have QR codes now, so you can scan the code to bring you right to their website\u2019s FAQs and their help,\u201d Webb says. \u201cSometimes it’ll even bring you to their YouTube channel.”<\/p>\n If all else fails, contact customer service. \u201cA lot of the manufacturers have child passenger safety technicians on staff,\u201d Webb says. \u201cThey know their car seats, they know their products.\u201d They\u2019re the experts who can provide specific guidance for your model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Car seats are there for a lot: every traffic-induced meltdown, every spilled juice box, every road trip nap. Most importantly, they save lives. But while it\u2019s tempting to treat them like any other piece of kid gear when messes strike, they\u2019re not just another item you can toss in the wash. They\u2019re precision-built safety devices,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[1495,1289,146,8056,13929],"class_list":{"0":"post-22726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-car","9":"tag-clean","10":"tag-kids","11":"tag-properly","12":"tag-seat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Proper Car Seat Cleaning Matters<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
How to Find a Car Seat Manual<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n