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A new study from Leasing Options has found that shockingly, almost half of parents clean their child car seat less than once every six months.
The findings conclude that:
- 44% of parents clean their child’s car seats less than once every six months.
- One in ten parents admit to only cleaning the car seat once per year
- 1 in fifteen (16%) said they never wash the child car seat.
Interestingly, it’s younger parents that are most fastidious. One third of parents aged between 18-24-years-old cleaned their child’s car seat once a week, which is way better than the 25-44 age group, where it was only one in five.
What Happens When You Don’t Clean Your Child’s Car Seat Regularly
Leasing Options swabbed the various parts of the interiors of cars to see what germs lie hidden from our eyes.
The steering wheels, hand brakes, gear sticks and centre consoles/radios swabbed all registered at between 10-20 LOD (Level Of Detection) for bacteria.
However, the child’s car seat registered a massive 3,000 LOD!
The main bacteria found on the child’s car seat was ‘faecal streptococci’. Yes that is ‘faecal’ as in ‘poo’, and it can cause:
- Bacterial pneumonia
- Ear infections
- Bacterial meningitis.