Child car seat regulations set to change in 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration will require car seat makers to warn people not to use the lower anchors if the combined weight of the car seat and the child is more than 65 pounds.

Parents should then use a seatbelt to strap a child into their car seat. Experts say car seats can weigh anywhere from 15 to 33 pounds.

Phyllis Larimore, a child passenger safety instructor at Children’s Mercy Hospital, says about four out of five car seats are misused.

"I think families make mistakes," she said. "They don't read the instructions. They don't read the label. The car seat itself has instructions even if you don't have a high literacy level, you can explore the graphs. I have a lot of families that live in poverty so they have what we call gross misuse. They don't have a car seat and they may not even buckle the kids down with a seatbelt."

Larimore says children less than 1 year or 20 pounds must be in a car seat and face the rear of the car.

For more information on car seat guidelines visit http://www.nhtsa.gov/ .