We all want to make the healthiest choices for our families but there are few big purchases that make those choices a little harder, including child car seats. Up until recently, there weren’t many healthier choices that didn’t contain flame retardant chemicals. You’ll be happy to know that there are now non-toxic car seats out there and here are our favorites!
What are flame retardants?
Flame retardants are chemicals that are added to products that are prone to fires to help stop or slow the spread of fire. Chemicals used as fire retardants come in many shapes and forms and there have been many on the market that have been stopped being used due to the number of health problems they potentially cause.
It might be obvious that you would want to use fire retardants on a car seat to help slow any fire that starts but knowing that they have been linked to many health concerns in the past, we want to make sure we’re making the best choices we can for our children.
What are the health concerns with fire retardants?
It’s important to note that as with many chemicals, it appears that children are more susceptible to them than adults. There could be many reasons for this but it is thought that is happening because the brain and organs of the child are still developing and haven’t completely matured. They are also more exposed to chemicals due to their hand-mouth habits and behaviours and by spending more time on the floor and surfaces that often contain them.
Health concerns from exposure to fire retardants including, but are not limited to:
- Hormone disruption – especially with the thyroid and reproductive systems.
- Reduced neurological development resulting in lower IQ in children
- Increased incidence of eczema and allergies
- Cancer
Luckily consumers have worked hard for non-toxic car seats, among other products, and here are the best non-toxic car seats.
The Best Non-Toxic Car Seats
1.Uppababy
Price: $$
Uppababy is well known for their strollers and car seats and we’re happy to say they were the first manufacturer of non-toxic car seats, without fire retardants, that met the US safety requirements.
They have a few ranges but their Henry and Jordan Mesa models use merino wool as a natural fire retardant instead of the chemicals.
The Mesa range is the only infant car seat with a unique technology utilizing a tightness indicator and self-retracting LATCH connectors for fast, accurate and easy installation. An indicator window changes from red to green when the seat is installed correctly, making sure it’s right every time. Uppababy also reinforce the headrests to ensure they have more side impact protection and the headrest is easily adjusted so there’s no need to take the car seat out to adjust the position of the headrest.
The other great thing about the Uppababy Mesa range is that it’s compatible with the Uppabay Vista stroller and becomes a travel system when the stroller is purchased as well.
Related Post: The Best Organic Crib Mattresses
2. Clek
Price ($$)
Clek has a range of car seats and all of them come with the option of the merino wool fabric without fire retardants. This sets them apart from both most other non-toxic car seat manufactures and gives you so many more options.
They manufacture car seats in three different categories including infant seats with the Liing and Liingo, convertible seats with Foonf and Fllo and booster seats with Oobr, Ozzi and Olli.
Each of them has the option to chose merino wool in both Twighlight and Mammoth fabrics.
3. Nuna
Price $$$
The Nuna Exec is not only compatible from newborn to forward-facing booster mode but it’s also fire retardant free and also makes use of merino wool inserts, making it a non-toxic car seat.
Nuna car seats also come with a range of safety features including side impact protection, easy and secure installation, can have rear-facing children up to 50lbs and spring touch shoulder belt guides to aid belt routing for older kids.
Another great benefit of the Nuna Exec car seat is that is slightly slimmer and can fit 3 across in most mid-sized cars. This is an awesome feature for larger families!
It’s so exciting to see manufacturers making improvements and committing to non-toxic car seats for the health and safety of our children.