Question: Where do you get a car seat installation checked in Milwaukee?
Answer: Not in Milwaukee.
As my wonderful Editor and I were preparing to welcome the newest little cheese curd into the world, we were doing what all first-time parents do best: stressing over every little thing. Perhaps not so little of a thing was the installation of car seat bases into both of our vehicles, to allow for either of us to transport our newborn around town.
Considering I’m an Engineer by trade, you’d think I’d have no trouble installing a plastic car seat base into a newer-model car – I think I did an okay job. Most new cars have bars in their seats for just this purpose, making it literally a snap to hook the bases directly to the frame of the car. There’s also plenty of great information on Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s website.
But you never want to take a chance on the safety of your child (well, at least the first one). We wanted a second opinion on our install job, and every person we talked to reiterated the old adage: “The Fire Department checks car seats.”
That’s a myth, at least in the City of Milwaukee.
All photos by Joe Powell for The Squeaky Curd.
I gave a call to my local Milwaukee Fire Department Station 7. To be honest, the person on the line seemed a little annoyed by my questioning – they must get a lot of calls about it. He directed me to my local Police Department.
I rang up Milwaukee Police Department District 2, where the officer on duty let me know they don’t make those checks, and kindly suggested I call the Fire Department. Yuh-oh.
Even though they don’t deliver babies, the nearest hospital to my home is St. Luke’s Medical Center. I figured they must know of a medical facility that could help me out. Their suggestions: the Fire Department of the Police Department. Does no one do this sort of check any more? Who is looking out for the babies?
Luckily, the woman at St. Luke’s guaranteed me that fire departments somewhere must do the check, since her own daughter just had the Greendale FD do one that week. So I gave St Francis Fire Department a call, since they’re right down the road from me in Milwaukee. Sure enough, they had 1 person on staff with the necessary training. I set up a visit for that week.
Car seat installation check at the St Francis Fire Department.
We rolled up to the beautiful St. Francis fire house, and a firefighter by the name of Joe Carufel (pronounced “Careful”: you can’t make this stuff up) pulled out a huge manual and checklist and went to work poking, prodding, and yanking on my amateur car seat installation. Overall, he said, I did okay (yeah!). Firefighter Carufel fixed my errors and got us road-ready.
Turns out there’s an intensive, 5-day national training course that certified technicians have to go through, which is a reason there aren’t many places left that do the checks. However, while none of the MFD locations have someone certified, there are still options around the area and within the city (all require prior appointments).
More info can be found at Safe Kids WI, along with pop-up events. Don’t cut corners: it’s worth the effort to have your kids safe and secured. We hope this map and information makes the process less cumbersome than what we encountered.