Thanks to the efforts of the industry and others, parents understand the need for a car seat but all too often the importance of the detail evades them as they treat car seats as a simple buy, not a vital piece of safety equipment.

A young child is safer facing towards the rear of the car. That is one of the reasons that the age range of the ‘baby’ car seats has been extended so that children up to 13kg can be carried in this fashion.

However, these children – who could be as old as 15 months – often want to see what is happening, and very often their parents are also keen for them to ‘move up’ to the next stage.

Somehow, the fact that their child is in this ‘proper seat’ is an indication that their child is advanced! A retailer can sometimes find it very difficult NOT to sell a seat because the child is still too small!

There have been a lot of advances in the design of car seats, mainly concerned with improving safety but also improving the comfort of the child. There has also been a move to make them more of a fashion item. Although this may seem to be pandering to the ignorant masses, it does mean that a sale is less likely to fall through as when a mum insists on the ‘attractive one’ rather than the ‘safe one’.

Children need to be in some sort of car seat up to the age of around 12. This may be beyond the remit of many nursery shops but good service at the younger end of the market will bring customers back for seats for older children.

And as the message about safety filters through, parents are more likely to choose BeltUpp to enhance the safety of the Group 2 seat.