Is there any reason why car seats have an expiration date? Is it just BS or are there legitimate safety concerns? Btw I don’t have kids, so I’m not basing any decisions on this post.
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Frequent use and sunlight can cause the plastic to degrade or warp. Ultimately making it not safe to use. So, just a way for people to know they need to replace it so they ensure the safety of the child using it.
Car seats are primarily plastic components and are designed to absorb a lot of energy in the event of a car accident
Over time with changes in temperature and UV exposure the physical properties of plastics change. You don’t want to find out *during* a crash that your seat went through a few too many thermal cycles and isn’t quite up to the loading anymore so there are expiration dates on them to make sure they get swapped out every 5-10 years which is generally 2-3x as long as a single kid can actually use them for
Car seats are probably most similar to helmets which are also recommended to be replaced every 3-5 years even if you don’t have an impact with it
Plastic is a cheap material that absorbs impact well. But like all soft materials, plastic degrades over time becoming more brittle.
German here. Just checked my car seats, and there is no expiration date on them.
However, we have (European) safety norms that are updated every few years. Seats with a certification before 1995 can no longer be sold or used. The pre 2005 models are not recommended but still pop up on Ebay.
To actually add an answer: here, seats „expire“ because they no longer meet the updated safety norms.
There is a good freakonimics episode on whether child seats are needed after infancy. but i am pretty sure its all a money scheme, who wouldn’t pay an extra $200 to keep their child safe.
episode: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/car-seats/
I’ve looked into this claim a number of times, and my conclusion has always been that it was a concern raised by some safety advocates that the industry then happily jumped on. But there are basically zero studies confirming what is essentially a hypothesis.
[This article](https://www.mother.ly/news/do-car-seats-really-expire) goes into the lack of evidence.
The biggest concern for me, as noted in the article, is the environmental cost of tossing used carseats that are otherwise in working condition. Obviously, carseats that have been in an accident should never be used again, but there are plenty of carseats that will never see anything remotely close to an accident.
[This article](https://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1109010_why-car-seats-expire) explains why carseats *do* expire. The two reasons given are that the technology of carseats becomes out-of-date and that the materials degrade. These are both concerns that would apply to the car itself. It’s one reason I would be wary of buying a car that is, say over 10-12 years old. But just five or six years old?
Similarly, the plastics, straps and other materials that make up a carseat are largely the same as those used in the car itself. Again, no one is worried about a car’s control knobs degrading through light exposure.
[This article](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191010085752.htm) is sometimes cited by these articles to note that degradation of polystyrene over time through sunlight exposure. Again, polystyrene is [used in other car components](https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/polystyrene/) as well. And that articles talks about degradation over “decades or centuries” as opposed to thousands of years. I would also note that polystyrene in carseats wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed directly to sunlight. It’s material covered by or embedded within other layers (same as your car).
The article I linked about why carseats expire doesn’t otherwise cite any other evidence. Instead it just casually says to look at how poorly your lawnchair sitting in the backyard has fared. Not exactly scientific proof.
Years ago, probably about 10 or so, I found an early article discussing the expiration dates, and one manufacturer flatout admitted that there was no reason a carseat not in involved in an accident would degrade simply through time.
On a final note, the “baby junk” industry is, IMO, one of the most shameless pushers of products that most parents don’t need. Any parent can tell you how ridiculous, unnecessary and over specialized many baby products are. The companies know that they can brew concerns over safety, well being, and child development into profit-margin gold.
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