SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After Jilian Davis had her baby in late June, her daughter had to spend two weeks in the NICU at Intermountain LDS Hospital & Intermountain Primary Children’s. When it came time to finally bring her daughter home, Davis didn’t know there might be one more hold-up — finding out her car seat was a counterfeit.
Intermountain Primary Children’s has car seat techs to help educate parents about the proper installation and use of car seats. In the last year, they’ve noticed an uptick in counterfeit seats or those that don’t meet U.S. safety standards.
Davis’ was unfortunately one of those.
“When we were finally ready to bring her home, we got the devastating news that her car seat was counterfeit and my whole world dropped because I was so confused to even hear those words. How could a baby car seat be counterfeit? What did I miss? She was my fourth baby,” Davis said.
Davis experienced a whirlwind of emotions between the excitement of finally getting to bring her girl home, but also learning the car seat she had wasn’t safe.
“When they started inspecting it, as a mom there were things I was like ‘Wow, I see it. I saw it once they started pointing it out.” But having it at home, I didn’t even think twice about it. We had taken it out of the box, we had it at the hospital, I had no idea that it was a thing. My first question was how did I never hear about this,” she said.
Davis said the car seat was gifted to her by a family member who bought it online from a major retailer. Caregivers at Intermountain Primary Children’s were able to provide her with a new car seat to bring her new baby girl home with, but she said she started thinking about all the parents who may not know about fraudulent car seats and wanted to share her story to prevent them from going through the same thing.
“I never dreamed I would even experience something like that. I know fraud is everywhere, but on a car seat it was just pretty baffling,” Davis said.
Michelle Jamison, a community health program manager at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital said it can be hard to tell from an online picture if a car seat may be counterfeit or not.
“Many parents think they found a great deal from a major retailer,” said Jamison. “Once they realize there’s a problem and try to return it, the site they got it from has already been taken down.”
To prevent these situations, Jamison said it is best to buy car seats either in person or online directly from the manufacturer, rather than from a third-party seller.
Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital shared with ABC4 what experts say parents can look out for to ensure their car seat is safe and that it meets federal safety standards.
According to experts, car seats are required to have a manufacturer label, which includes the name of the car seat, date of manufacture, branding, model number, and expiration date.
This can be used to help register your car seat and allow manufacturers to notify you of any recalls. Counterfeit car seats don’t have the number and make it ineligible to register.
Car seats should also include warning labels written in both English and Spanish, which can be found on the back of the car seat and the area near where the baby’s head rests at the top of the seat.
Counterfeit car seats often will be missing these labels, or they may rewritten in another language, or have improper grammar.
Experts also share that a missing chest clip is a sign that a car seat isn’t safe.
“If you determine that you have a counterfeit car seat, stop using it immediately and contact the retailer to notify them that they sold a counterfeit car seat,” Jamison said. “You may be able to recover the cost of the seat if you used a credit card or purchased through a major retailer.”
Parents can also report it through STOPfakes.gov, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce via their contact form.
They should also submit a report through their state’s consumer protection agency. For help with evaluating or installing your car seat, find a technician near you or call Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital to book a virtual or in-person car seat check at 801-662-CARS.