Not all boosters provide good belt fit. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has released their list of the best booster seats. The IIHS ratings are based solely on how well each booster seat positions the lap and shoulder belt, its primary function, and are not an assessment of crash performance or vehicle fit. The Institute looked at 60 models and found nine that are considered Best Bets, six Good Bets, and eleven seats that do a poor job of fitting the belts. See the list of Best Bets, and the full post, on our Cars blog.

Another child death in Simplicity drop-side crib. After the death of an 11th child in a Simplicity/Graco/Winnie the Pooh crib, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is renewing its efforts to warn consumers about the dangers associated with drop-side cribs manufactured by Simplicity Inc. and SFCA Inc., of Reading, Pa. In September, a 7-month-old child from Princeton, Kentucky became entrapped and died in a Simplicity crib when a part of it broke. Read more in the full Safety blog post.

Recall: Toy dart gun that asphyxiated 8-year-old. Two years after the death of a child who was asphyxiated by a toy dart, OKK Trading has recalled 22,000 toy dart gun sets because of the hazard they pose. In November 2007, the 8-year-old boy died after reportedly chewing on the toy dart and inadvertently swallowing it. The dart became lodged in his throat, obstructing his breathing. Read more in the full Safety blog post.

More than 447,000 infant car seat carriers have been recalled by the Dorel Juvenile Group because the handle to the carrier seat can break loose. The company has received 77 reports of the handle fully or partially coming off the car seat/carrier resulting in at least three injuries to infants including bumps, bruises and a head injury. The manufacturer is advising consumers not to use the handle of the car seat/carrier until a repair kit has been installed.

This recall involves car seat/carriers branded Safety 1st, Cosco, Eddie Bauer and Disney that were manufactured from January 6, 2008 through April 6, 2009. They were sold as part of a travel system. The stroller portion of the travel system is not affected by this recall. The travel systems were sold at department and juvenile product stores nationwide from January 2008 through December 2009 for between $120 and $220.

Learn more in the full Safety blog post.

Today's babies & kids deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:

Clothing
Disney Outlet: [T-Shirt] $5 Disney Graphic T-Shirts Event

Toys
LeapFrog: [Toys] LeapFrog 25% off all Books, Games, Accessories for Tag, Leapstore, MORE (also Expedited Shipping)

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or products becoming unavailable as the day progresses.

These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or the Web sites that sell them. Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for children's products, check out our free Babies & Kids Buying Guides.

If you’ll be visiting the grandparents’ house (or anyone’s home)—especially on a routine basis, for an extended period of time, or if you’re going to leave your child in someone's care for a night out—here are some safety strategies to consider:

• Ask grandparents to remove potentially dangerous items from the floor as well as from areas your child may be using as a play space.

• Ask Grandma to push small appliances back from the edges of the countertops, put away cords, remove tablecloths, and use the back burners when she is cooking.

• Ask your hosts to put medicines, chemicals, cleaners, and any potentially hazardous items in a locked cabinet.

• Ask you hosts to be cognizant of everyday items they may typically leave on countertops and otherwise within your child’s reach that could be hazardous to a child, such as food storage bags, aluminum foil or plastic wrap containers with a jagged metal edge, refrigerator magnets, and cleaning materials.

• As an extra precaution, you may want to safeguard Grandma and Grandpa’s house by adding a few tip-resistant straps, table guards, outlet protectors, and corner cushions to furniture.

• Follow all the safety precautions you would follow for babysitters at your own house. Be sure to provide grandparents with a safe sleeping environment for your child, such as a play yard. (See our full play yards buying guide, as well as the CPSC’s list of recently recalled baby and child products.)

Today's babies & kids deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:

Entertainment
Barnes & Noble: [DVD] Scholastic Treasury of 100 Animated Storybook Classics w/ read-along activity book $49.99 + free shipping
Barnes & Noble: [Books & Media] Save an Extra 15% off Any One Item

Toys
Amazon: [Toys] WowWee FemiSapien Humanoid Robot for $29.97 w/ Free Shipping

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or products becoming unavailable as the day progresses.

These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or the Web sites that sell them. Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for children's products, check out our free Babies & Kids Buying Guides.

Now that prices have dropped for all three video game consoles—Nintendo's Wii ($200), Microsoft's Xbox 360 ($300), Sony's Playstation 3 ($300)—you might be looking to buy. But video game consoles aren't just for gaming anymore. Depending on which you choose, you can listen to music, stream movies or watch them on a built-in Blu-ray player, connect with friends on Facebook, update your Twitter account, and more.

The hardest part may be understanding which features and games are available with each console, let alone the differences in gameplay. See our video console buying guide to learn more.

Learn more in the full Electronics blog post.

For some time now, our sister site, The Consumerist, has been compiling daily reports of Web deals on popular (and some more obscure) products. The Consumerist receives nothing in exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely informational. In the same vein, the Consumer Reports Baby & child blog will begin reposting The Consumerist's regular deals of child-related products like toys.

By reposting these, we're not necessarily endorsing the deals or the Web sites in question—though some of the sites may be included in our Ratings. And it's prudent to take steps with any retailer to protect yourself, including being wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true and checking return policies, which can offer some nasty surprises.

Without further ado, here are The Consumerist's finds for today:

Amazon: [Toys] Star Wars Darth Vader Robotic Arm for $19.98 + Shipping
Walmart: [Entertainment] FurReal Friends Zambi the Baby Elephant $15 + $0.97 Shipping

Note: Today is Free Shipping Day at over 700 online retailers, with delivery by Christmas Eve.

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or products becoming unavailable as the day progresses.

These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or the Web sites that sell them. Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for children's products, check out our free Buying Guides.

Toys are safer than ever before, thanks to tough new laws that help protect children from lead and phthalates, a potentially dangerous chemical found in some plastics. Both chemicals can be toxic if a child happens to ingest them, and since kids often chew on toys, it can happen.

Last year Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which made safety standards mandatory rather than voluntary, and some retailers do a great job of setting their own stringent standards.

Walmart has its own Toy Safety Net program, which requires date coding so that toys are easier to identify in case of a recall or another safety issue. Toys “R” Us and Target have similar programs. So be reassured, but you should still shop with these safety strategies in mind:

• Read labels. This smart advice doesn’t apply only to food shopping. When you’re looking at a toy, check the package to make sure the toy fits the child’s age and stage of development. That’s more than just a way to gauge whether the kid will have fun with the toy; it also indicates whether the item might be a potential choking hazard because it contains small parts, for example.

Beware of any toy that has small magnetic pieces. If two or more magnets get swallowed, they can damage a child’s intestines. Magnet toys can be harmful for pets, too, and they made up a lot of the recalled toys list in 2008.

Also look for “no phthalates” on the package label. And note that toys made in the U.S. have a better track record than many imports. Be especially wary of the “made in China” label; many toys recalled in recent years came from China.

• Check for recalls. You can find a current list of recalled toys and other products on the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recalled product search. Retailers are required to remove recalled toys from their shelves, but some may fall through the cracks. (See the CPSC’s list of recalled toys.)

• Don’t buy toys at the dollar store. When we went dollar-store shopping recently, our safety expert found some cheaply made toys that could pose a variety of hazards. An easy test for small parts: If it fits through a toilet-tissue tube, it might be a choking risk for a child younger than 3.

Also watch out for sharp edges or small parts that could break off. And beware of dangerous look-alikes; at the store we found lighters that looked like a toy drill and a baseball bat.

Finally, shop carefully on eBay or at thrift stores and check to make sure products you find there haven’t been recalled. Don’t give your child any toy with missing or broken parts.

See our toy shopping posts and toy buying guide for more information. And get more great shopping tips in ShopSmart magazine.

On a crisp winter's day with a bright cloudless sky, my family and I went out to choose our Christmas tree. After finding the perfect one, I set up my kids in front of it to take what I thought would be the perfect shot. The scene looked terrific and the kids great. So, why didn't I get my shot? There were a number of things I didn't do (described below) that would have made this a very memorable shot. Read the full post in our Electronics blog.

Learn more about how to take holiday photos here.

Holidays are joyful celebrations, but following certain safety precautions can keep your child safe, particularly when it comes to holiday lights and candles.

Don’t let your child touch holiday lights. In many cases, electrical cords contain lead, which can rub off on your hands and therefore shouldn’t be handled by children. (In fact, wash your own hands thoroughly after you handle your light sets.) Make sure your lights sport the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) symbol with a holographic image. Those with the green holographic labels are for indoor use only; those with the red holographic label can be used indoors or outdoors. (See more holiday decorating safety tips from UL.)

Check all holiday lights, whether old or new. Don’t use damaged lights. Check for loose connections and frayed or bare wires. Also look for broken or cracked sockets. Don’t use lights for more than three 90-day seasons, and don’t overload extension cords. UL recommends that you connect no more than three strings of push-in bulbs or a maximum of 50 screw-in bulbs together. Turn the lights off when you go to sleep. (See our video on holiday light safety.)

Take care with candles. Place candles only in a nonflammable heat-resistant container, at least a foot away from other materials. Keep them out of reach of children, definitely out of a child’s room, and put matches out of kids’ reach so they can’t try to light candles after they’ve watched you do so. Never leave a burning candle unattended (especially with kids around), and put them out when you leave the room and before you go to sleep. (Learn more about home-use fire extinguishers.)

See the Consumer Reports Guide to Childproofing & Safety for more great child safety tips, available in our bookstore or at retailers nationwide.