My DH and I have a question and we have been looking in our car seat owners manuals and still have questions.
DD is still rear-facing since we started doing more research than we did with DS. We plant to keep her rear-facing until she is 3 or 30 pounds. FWIW, Sydney weighs 20 pounds and is 18 mo. I don't know her height but I will tomorrow morning since she has a Well baby visit. I am guessing she is about 32" though.
Here is our question or issue...I happened to notice her shoulders are slight above the second (or middle) strap hold on her Graco ComfortSport carseat. So, according to what I know that means that she needs us to move the straps to the next set of holes. BUT, according to the manual, that means she needs to go forward-facing which DH and I don't want to do because she is so little (20 pounds but really petite). We just bought this carseat for her last summer and were really hoping we wouldn't have to buy another so soon.
Can we move her straps to the next set of holes and keep her rear-facing?:banghead:
DS is almost outgrowing his last set of strap holes and he is 36 or 37" and not the 40" they say for outgrowing the seats. He only weighs 30 pounds at 3yrs 9 mo). We are thinking he will need his new carseat this summer and are planning for it. I want to get a Britax so he can stay in the 5 point harness for as long as possible. What is everyone's suggestion for that? I am starting to scout things out for him and figure whatever seat I get for him should be the seat he uses until he now longer needs a car seat.
Do I have freakishly long-torsoed babies or is this normal? :giggle:
titania
05-11-2008, 08:42 PM
for your rf dd-- her harness straps need to be at or below her shoulders, so it sounds like she is fine. for now. i have no idea what you will need to do when she gets bigger/taller. im sure a tech will chime in here on that. good question.
for your son--it sounds like he is ff? if so, the graco nautilus is a great seat that will most likely be the last one he will need. it harnesses to 65# and then converts to a high back booster and then a backless booster. all that for the low low price of $150 ish. :giggle: walmart and bru are carrying them, and if are in michigan, meijer has them too. :thumbsup:
mama2logan&evan
05-11-2008, 08:43 PM
I'm not an expert but from what I understand for rear facing the shoulder straps are supposed to be at or below that shoulders so if I understand what you're explaining she's ok to stay in her seat without adjusting the straps.
mcpforever
05-11-2008, 08:49 PM
Here is our question or issue...I happened to notice her shoulders are slight above the second (or middle) strap hold on her Graco ComfortSport carseat. So, according to what I know that means that she needs us to move the straps to the next set of holes. BUT, according to the manual, that means she needs to go forward-facing which DH and I don't want to do because she is so little (20 pounds but really petite). We just bought this carseat for her last summer and were really hoping we wouldn't have to buy another so soon.
Can we move her straps to the next set of holes and keep her rear-facing?:banghead:
Do I have freakishly long-torsoed babies or is this normal? :giggle:
Disclaimer: I am not a car seat "guru" :giggle:
But from what I understand the straps are supposed to be BELOW the shoulders if the child is RFing anyway, so you should NOT move the straps up a slot at this point.
As for your DS, I understand the Britax Regent (FF only seat) has the highest 5 pt harness slots out there. The Graco Nautilus (FF only as well) has straps that are almost as high and converts to a booster later. (It also costs only $150. :thumbsup: )
Shaunam
05-11-2008, 08:58 PM
You can use the bottom or middle slots for rf'ing (found info in online manual). Go ahead and move them up to the middle slots. You *could* keep them in the bottom ones, but as she gets taller, the straps might start slipping off her shoulders since the slots would be so far below her shoulders.
The comfortsport is usually outgrown rf'ing (and ff'ing) very early, so you may want to consider getting her a bigger convertible in the future.
For your DS, I would suggest a graco nautilus, a britax regent or frontier, or a radian.
As for them having freakishly long torsos...not necessarily. You didn't say what seat your DS is in. If it's a comfortsport also, I'm honestly surprised he's made it this long. They sound pretty average to me though!
jackyl08
05-11-2008, 09:39 PM
My DH and I have a question and we have been looking in our car seat owners manuals and still have questions.
DD is still rear-facing since we started doing more research than we did with DS. We plant to keep her rear-facing until she is 3 or 30 pounds. FWIW, Sydney weighs 20 pounds and is 18 mo. I don't know her height but I will tomorrow morning since she has a Well baby visit. I am guessing she is about 32" though.
Here is our question or issue...I happened to notice her shoulders are slight above the second (or middle) strap hold on her Graco ComfortSport carseat. So, according to what I know that means that she needs us to move the straps to the next set of holes. BUT, according to the manual, that means she needs to go forward-facing which DH and I don't want to do because she is so little (20 pounds but really petite). We just bought this carseat for her last summer and were really hoping we wouldn't have to buy another so soon.
Can we move her straps to the next set of holes and keep her rear-facing?:banghead:
DS is almost outgrowing his last set of strap holes and he is 36 or 37" and not the 40" they say for outgrowing the seats. He only weighs 30 pounds at 3yrs 9 mo). We are thinking he will need his new carseat this summer and are planning for it. I want to get a Britax so he can stay in the 5 point harness for as long as possible. What is everyone's suggestion for that? I am starting to scout things out for him and figure whatever seat I get for him should be the seat he uses until he now longer needs a car seat.
Do I have freakishly long-torsoed babies or is this normal? :giggle:
I am reading that she is already in the middle slot and the straps are below her shoulders? If so, this is fine for them to be slightly below the shoulders. Unfortunately, the Comfortsport is not a great seat for rearfacing. Once the straps are really below her shoulders, they will start to slip off. You are correct that you cannot move them to the top slot, either. With the Comfortsport, most children outgrow the seat entirely by age 2-2.5. It is literally not much bigger than an infant seat. She is probably close to outgrowing it rearfacing, but if her shoulders are just slightly above the middle slot, she may still have some time rearfacing in it. To keep her rearfacing and forward facing longer, you might consider the Evenflo Triumph Advance. It's 130-170 and will get most kids to age 5-6.
For DS, it is very common for kids to outgrow their seats by height before the stated height limit. A seat like the Graco Nautilus would keep him harnessed for quite awhile and will turn into a great booster. So, for slightly more than the price of one Britax, you could get a new seat for each child that would last a long time.
mommy2alex2004
05-12-2008, 08:31 AM
Thanks for all of the great advice ladies. I didn't realize that the straps needed to be at or slightly below her shoulders so that means she is A-Okay! Which is good to know. As for DS, we will probably get him a new seat this summer so that works out. My DH said his shoulders still aren't at the top harness slots and he is FF.
I wish I had known when we bought the seats that they wouldn't last as long. We were looking at reviews and ratings and that wasn't mentioned. :cry:
We also have a Triumph in DH's car and I am hoping that maybe DD can move into that to remain RF if need be.
THanks for the Britax recommendations as well as the others. I am hoping those car seats will fit well into our Buick Rendevous. We have considered getting a *gasp* mini-van but since our Buick is less than 2 years old we were hoping to stay in this car a little longer.
mcpforever
05-12-2008, 09:38 AM
I wish I had known when we bought the seats that they wouldn't last as long. We were looking at reviews and ratings and that wasn't mentioned. :cry:
:hugs:
I think most parental reviews are based on ease of use and perceived child comfort and are submitted early in the life of the seat, before anyone figures out how limited their use is.
Also, I think most parents, out of innocent ignorance, turn their children FF as soon as they meet the minimum requirements.
And, unless you have researched growth patterns, you're not likely to know that, as a rule, children outgrow their carseats by height waaay before they reach weight limits.
mommy2alex2004
05-12-2008, 11:25 AM
:hugs:
I think most parental reviews are based on ease of use and perceived child comfort and are submitted early in the life of the seat, before anyone figures out how limited their use is.
Also, I think most parents, out of innocent ignorance, turn their children FF as soon as they meet the minimum requirements.
And, unless you have researched growth patterns, you're not likely to know that, as a rule, children outgrow their carseats by height waaay before they reach weight limits.
So true. We moved DS FF on his first birthday :blush: since I didn't know any better. That is before I joined most message boards and really only knew what the car seat suggested and the pedi said I could turn him around if I wanted to. We still see the same pedi and she said that yes, we can turn DD around but totally understands me not wanting to. She said that she prefers pareents to wait as long as possible but they should probably turn them around by age 16 so they can start driving properly.:giggle2: I do love my pedi.
But seriously, DH and I read reviews and info on the carseats and did look at weight and height measurements. I just am sad that DS is nowhere near 40" and will probably outgrow the seat this summer. He is lucky if he is 37" tall and DD did get meausured today and is 31 3/4" tall. My kids are always 50% tile in height so why does it seem that they outgrow the height part before 40"? (Retorical question).
