The Okotoks Fire Department will be holding a car seat clinic Wednesday afternoon.

Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says the clinic is open to the public and the department is there to help make sure your loved ones are safely secure in a vehicle.

"One of the big things is we check the car seat itself to see if it's still within the time permitted for usage from manufacturer specifications, a lot of times people will buy them second hand or from a garage sale and they're actually out dated," he says.

Thevenot adds that your child should be in a rear facing car seat untill they are over one.

"Depending on the seat and depending on the child itself, so say for a rear facing seat, you want to keep the child rear facing for a minimum a year, and the reason for that is the growth of the child."

He says the car seat rules should not be exempt those children who maybe look like they've outgrown the rear facing seats.

"Even if you think if your child weighs a bit more or the child is taller and want to front face them, but that's not the case of size, it's the case of the actual bone growth and the growth of the child itself so you want to keep that child rear facing."

Car seat clinics are held at the Okotoks Fire Hall every 2nd Wednesday of the month and are free.

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