The ability of the car seat to effectively protect your child in a car crash, even a low speed fender-bender, has a six-year limit.

This is one of the handy facts you will learn if you go to the child car-seat installation check provided by Bolling AFB’s Family Advocacy Nurse Karla Abney on Nov. 4 at the Child Development Center.

Although Abney’s car-seat clinic is primarily aimed at educating new parents, everyone is encouraged to bring in their car with the car seat in place to make sure it is properly installed.

‘‘People should know that not just anyone is qualified to check your car seat installation,” Abney said. ‘‘I am a fully certified child passenger safety technician.”

In order to gain her certification, Abney had to attend a weeklong course involving lectures and practice installing car seats in every size vehicle, and performing car-seat installation checks at an all-day clinic.

‘‘One of the things I check for is the (tightness) of the belt path that secures the child car seat to the car,” she said.

She said that if the car seat moves more than an inch out of position, it is not fastened properly.

There are several ways to attach a car seat to the vehicle: you can use the car’s seat belts, or the hooks and tethers on the vehicle’s seats (the LATCH systems). LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for the Children.

Either the car's seat belts or its LATCH system is an adequate way to install the car seat. Some parents use both, thinking that the car seat will be more secure, but Abney said only one method should be used to fasten a car seat to a car.

Parents also erroneously put a towel or something between the passenger seat and the child seat to protect the vehicle’s original seat covering, Abney said, noting that that this extra layer might cause the child seat to slide, and ‘‘that's not good.”

Parents and other adults must avoid any practice that interferes with the effectiveness of the car seat to protect the child.

‘‘It is all about structural integrity (of the car seat),” Abney said.

If someone gives a couple a child car seat, Abney advised that the recipients inquire whether the car seat was purchased new or used, and check the car seat’s sides (where the expiration date often is marked). They also should request that the owner’s manual be provided, in part to be able to contact the manufacturer to make sure the model has not been recalled.

A future article on this subject will cover the appropriateness of infant⁄child car-seat types, car seat and child weight capacity, and pertinent state child restraint laws, as well as give specifics about the 5-step test to determine whether a child is ready to use the seat belts already in the vehicle.

All of these issues are taken from information that Abney will provide to those who attend her car seat installation clinics.