It is disheartening to learn of a mom, Amanda DeAngelis who recently reported having smelt smoke come out of her baby’s car seat allegedly due to the baby mirror’s reflection of the sun rays.
A standard baby car mirror, installed and used in the right manner, should provide a number of benefits to the parent with a child in the car, instead of harm.
For starters, it should be possible to glimpse at the baby’s image from the front mirror without turning to face backward. This makes you a safer driver when you are behind the wheel.
Secondly, it is a fact that kids can be a nuisance whenever they are in the car, what’s with crying, demanding something to munch all the time, tantrums and so on. The baby car mirror can become a good distraction. The child sees his image in the mirror and the awe becomes a source of amusement as you continue driving for a couple of hours.
It is clear that from the backseat headrest, the mirror was directly facing the sun thus reflecting the rays to the baby car seat.
The danger could have been avoided had Amanda used a baby mirror for car without headrest instead of a mirror that is strapped to the headrest.
These mirrors are either attached to the rear windshield or the sun visor and tilted to face the baby in the child car seat.
Installing a baby car mirror on the windscreen requires it to have a suction cup.
You first have to thoroughly wipe the suction cup interior with alcohol so that it is free from any dust or grit that may create air spaces leading the mirror to become a projectile in case of an accident. The suction cup also needs lubrication to reduce friction.
Mounting the mirror on the sun visor on the other hand, requires a sun visor clip.