Question from keelyeliz
Dear Debra,
As a mom to two toddlers (ages 2 & 4), I am frustrated at the research coming out in regards to infant/toddler/booster car seats containing extremely high levels of flame retardants and other toxic chemicals from the EPS foam. With childhood cancers and other serious illnesses on the rise, I am doing my best to reduce my children’s exposure to harmful chemicals. The government does not make these easy. At times it feels like an uphill battle!
I have done my research and found the *least* toxic of the carseats available, but even these are required by federal law to have some level of flame retardants in them.
Which leads me to my question! I have come to the conclusion that perhaps buying a cover for my children’s carseats is the best solution? There are two companies that I have found, one which makes organic cotton covers (VERY expensive, more than the cost of our carseat!!!), and the other which makes a wool cover, with a polyester backing material. From what the website states, this makes the cover washable.
To be honest, the wool cover would be more affordable. But, I’m concerned that it’s not organic. The organic [cotton] cover is GREAT, but at almost $300, it’s hard to swallow.
I’m linking the two sites I just referenced, and would love any advice you have! (What would you do??)
Debra’s Answer
You’ll have to forgive me for not being totally familiar with how an infant car seat is constructed. Having no children, I’ve never used one myself.
So here are my concerns, just looking at pictures and reading the descriptions.
It sounds like the cover of the car seat is removable and you replace it with one of these more comfortable, more natural covers. However, is all the fire retardant on the cover? If you remove the cover, will that remove the fire retardant completely?
There is nothing in either of these covers that indicates to me it would do anything to block any fire retardant that may be on the chair elsewhere.
If I were wanting to make a car seat safe, I would wrap the whole thing in a “space blanket” that has a layer of foil in it, which would block any chemical, then I would use foil tape to tape it all up. Not very attractive, I know, but that would be the least toxic car seat I can think of.
