EVERETT — Kaden Kennard was barely five hours old, peacefully asleep, snuggled next to his mom in her hospital bed.
Chad Kennard, meanwhile, was dispatched by his wife to get his first lesson in his new official role as “Chad the Dad”— learning how to install a car seat.
His son was born last Wednesday morning after 20 hours of labor, weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces. He wanted to be ready when his new infant was ready to head home.
Kennard, 28, received one-on-one help instruction from Susan Schuetze, who helps new parents learn how to install safety seats before their infants leave Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. Even though he was an eager, smiling student, at times looked surprised by the complexity of the task.
After checking the harnessing of the car seat frame and other safety checks, Schuetze handed him a baby doll so he could practice correctly buckling a newborn into the car seat.
“Make sure his bottom is right into the back of that seat,” she said.
The instruction took about 30 minutes to complete.
The Everett hospital is probably the only hospital in the state to provide one-on-one help to parents on the day their infant goes home from the hospital, said Kathryn Kruger, executive director of the Washington Safety Restraint Coalition, a Kirkland-based nonprofit.
Yet lack of grant money and a recent decline in participation by parents is forcing this free program to end next Monday.
“I want to stand outside and say, ‘Put money in a mayonnaise jar,’” Kruger said. “This is a great community resource.”
It will be replaced with small group classes before a baby’s birth, followed by instruction and one-on-one checks on proper car seat installation. Those classes begin next month.
The program originally was launched with a $120,000 grant in January 2006, said Christine Tipton, the hospital’s manager of children and family services. Since then, 4,780 parents have received car-seat instruction.
But as grant funds dried up, the hospital began to run low on money to run the program in February 2008, she said. It cut the program from seven days to five days a week and alternating Saturdays to help cut costs and stretch remaining funds.
Earlier this year, the hospital began paying for the program out-of-pocket, she said, in the hope that grants could be found to sustain it.
The hospital declined to say exactly how much it spent on the program, said spokeswoman Cheri Russum.
Although the hospital applied for seven different grants to try to keep the program going, they all were denied, Tipton said.
“I think the biggest misunderstanding … was it was a grant-driven program,” Tipton said.
“Where I failed is I did not keep it self-sufficient. I’m being very honest. If there’s blame to be had, it’s me. I didn’t get the grants. I feel horrible about it.”
With the current tough economy, the hospital came up with the best alternative it could, she said.
Although it will cost parents $60 to participate, they will leave the class with a new car seat. Those who already have a car seat can take the class for $10. Scholarships will be available for parents who cannot afford the cost of the class.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detective John Cummings spends his off-duty hours teaching a similar car seat safety course at Valley General Hospital in Monroe.
Accident reports show just how important proper installation of car seats can be, he said.
Between 2004 and 2008, 48 children through age 8 died in motor vehicle collisions in Washington.
Nearly 24 percent were not using any safety restraints and 31 percent were not using an appropriate restraint for their age, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
In Snohomish County, two children age 8 or under died in motor vehicle crashes between 2004 and 2008 and 10 were seriously injured, according to safety commission data.
Statewide, another 159 children were seriously injured in motor-vehicle crashes, about 17 percent were not using any safety restraints and nearly 43 percent were not using an appropriate restraint for their age.
“We know car seats work when they’re installed correctly,” Cummings said. “If we get the opportunity to get that training out … we can make a big difference.”
Installing a car seat isn’t as easy as it might sound, he said. There are more than 40 different seat belt configurations, and the styling of car seats of changes from year to year.
Cummings estimates that only about 70 to 80 percent of new parents attend the class at the Monroe hospital in which the car seat safety steps are taught.
He said he’s worried that fewer parents will attend the Everett hospital’s new car-seat safety class held before the birth of an infant. “What better way to do it than right there as you walk out the door?” he asked. “You’ve got the audience right there.”
Yet Tipton said some parents may actually find that the new class is more convenient if it’s held before the birth of their child, rather than mixed in with the excitement, emotion and sometimes exhaustion of having just delivered a baby.
“They have so many steps in the discharge process that car seat (checks) have not been a priority,” she said. “We’ve watched the numbers drop.”
By switching the time of the car-seat instruction from post-delivery to pre-delivery, the hope is that more parents will participate, she said.
“We believe in the importance of this instruction,” Tipton said. “We believe it’s the right thing to do for patients and people in the community.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
Child seat do’s and don’ts
The Washington Safety Restraint Coalition, a Kirkland nonprofit, has information on its Web site on car seat do’s and don’ts, state laws on car seats and related information. Check its Web site at www.800bucklup.org or call 800-282-5587.
Avoid mistakes
AAA says these are the most common mistakes parents make with car seats:
1. Not using a safety seat for infants, toddlers or booster seats for children.
2. Not reading instructions. Eight out of 10 car seats are installed incorrectly.
3. Advancing children through car seat stages too quickly. Infants should remain rear-facing until they reach the upper weight limit of their rear-facing car seat — usually 30 to 35 pounds. Children should not face forward until they are at least age 1 and 20 pounds. Children should use a booster seat until an adult seat belt fits them properly — typically around age 8 or when the child is 4 feet 9 inches tall.
4. Installing safety seats too loosely. It should not move more than 1 inch in any direction.
5. Adjusting seat harnesses incorrectly. They must be snug and lie flat without twists. Harnesses should be at or below the child’s shoulders when rear-facing and at or above the shoulders facing forward. The chest clip should be positioned at armpit level.
6. Keeping loose items in a vehicle. Purses, laptop bags or umbrellas can become dangerous projectiles in a crash or sudden stop and severely injure a child.
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