Children and Car Seats

Abstract

Almost since the emergence of the First Ride—Safe Ride concept some 15 years ago, loan or rental programs for child car seats in maternity hospitals and community centers have been a popular method of promoting child restraint use. Today there must be hundreds of such programs throughout the United States. The Dunedin rental program (Pediatrics 1986;77:167-172) is certainly a unique approach, but some aspects of it may lack practical application, at least in the United States. For example, it would be unlikely that we could saturate a community with free car seats or have available so broad a staff support system.