Once you have selected the right car seat for your child, it's time to figure out how to put it in your car.

Seat belts are no longer the only way to attach a car seat. Most new vehicles now come with a latch system.

Ever seen those hooks and wondered what to do with them? Well they connect to the latches on your car to tighten the car seat or base in place.

Installing your car seat properly is key. It could be the one thing that prevents injury to your child in a crash.

The infact carrier goes in the back seat of your car. It snaps into a base in the center position.

"You find the seatbelt path. Buckle it up. Put weight in seat to pull out the slack. If your base has lock-offs, use the lock-off," said Susan Saito, a life safety education specialist.

Also, make sure you can't move the base more than an inch. The seat shouldn't move side to side or back to front. If you can, put your foot in the base and pull more slack.

You must hear the carrier lock into base.

Also, check the gauge on the side of the carrier to be sure it's at the proper angle.

"You want to make sure the child's at a 45-degree angle. With infants, make sure their head doesn't flop forward and cut off their airway," Saito said.

A convertible seat installs differently, depending on whom you are using it for.

"For an infant, the belt path is under the child's legs and you also want to make sure you put the kick stand down," Saito said.

For toddlers heavy enough to be front-facing, that kick stand goes back up and you use the back of the seat as the seatbelt path.

Locking that seatbelt mechanism is a critical step to securing the car seat and children in boosters.

"Pull the slack out of the seatbelt as much as you can.. and pull all this webbing out to switch it into the retracktable mode.. this takes the seatbelt from being loosy goosy to nice and tight," Saito said.

Almost every vehicle has a switchable retractor so you can take the seat belt ot of the emergency or loose mode, which adults use, and ratchet it down tight.

So, a quick recap.

1. Feed the seat belt through the guides.
2. Pull out all the slack.
3. Switch it into retracktable mode.