Thursday, February 20, 2014

Best convertable infant car seat for compact car?




T P


My daughter is 9 months and about 18 pounds(preemie) and is quickly outgrowing hergraco carrier.I have a small car- a 2 door hatch back Ford Focus,so my main issue is finding one that will fit my car.
Anyone have any suggestions for a good,small convertable car seat? Id like to be able to use it for a long time and dont want to have to buy another any time soon.

Thanks!



Answer
Car accidents are the #1 killer of children under age 12. Another person said that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends to age 2 and the NHSTA recommends until age 3. I believe that all children should rearface as long as possible. This also means that you should keep on buying a higher weight limit rearfacing seat.

5 children in the United States die every single day due to incorrect use of car seats or not using car seats at all.

I would recommend any car seat that fits your vehicle, your child, and is used correctly each and every time.

To achieve this, car seats must be installed with less than one inch of movement from side to side. 1 inch is the maximum amount of movement. I would get the car seat in your car rock solid. The car seat fits your child (when rearfacing) when the harness straps are at and below your childs armpit level AND when the child's head is one inch away from the shell. If the child's head is above the car seat, then the child will be exposed to injury because our American seats are not tethered rearfacing and they do not have foot props to prevent downward rotational force.

Please note that since your daughter is now 9 months old, her convertible car seat can be installed at a more upright angle.

I would recommend the Radian RXT or R120 as this can rearface up to 45 lbs and has a top slot of 17.5 inches. It is an extremely narrow seat, so if you ever need to fit three car seats in a row, this is the car seat for you. But anyhow, the amount of room it takes up is a little extreme, which can be remedied by installing at in at a more upright angle in the middle seat as the car seat could fit between the 2 front seats, but the downside is that you may be unable to install the car seat in the center seat with LATCH. LATCH is basically metal hooks that hold crash forces of a car seat and the car seat is attached to the car by these hooks, instead of using the seat belt. If your car manual doesn't say that you can use latch in the center seating position, then you CANNOT use latch. Latch anchors are connected to each other and will fail. I would go to toys r us and test out the seat in your 2 door vehicle.

Rear facing seats:
Radian RXT (45 lbs rear facing)
Britax Marathon, Boulevard, or Advocate- (16.75 inch top slot as advertized by britax and up to 40 lbs rearfacing) I'm not sure if I would recommend the use for a small car because they are extremely bulky, but if you could get it to fit, it would install like a breeze due to the lock off it has built in.
Safety First Compass True Fit- has an 18" high top slot (up to 40 lbs rear facing)

I wanted to let you know that the Swedish have the lowest child fatalities in car accidents because of their rear facing car seats. They rear face their children up to 4 or 5 years of age or whenever the child outgrows their rear facing seats. Their seats go up to 50 or 55 lbs! They accomplish this by having 2 rearfacing tethers and a foot prop to accomodate larger taller children. Because of the foot prop and tethers, taller children are able to use the seat until the tips of the ears are even with the headrest or shell. American seats will never be able to accomplish this weight limit because they are not allowed by US Standards to have support from the seat with tethers and foot props. The rules is that the seat must be able to measure up to standards with only the seat belt supporting it. There have been only 5 or so cases of children in Sweden who have died in a car crash in a span of 2 years! Rear facing is safest and is meant for everyone!

Also, Swedish car seats can be installed at up to 10 degrees from vertical, to allow more room. It is actually slightly safer to be at a more upright angle. The only reason why newborns are at 45 degrees, is to support their necks.

Switching baby from infant car seat to full size car seat.. toy solution?




DanerBug


My baby loved playing with the toys dangling from the handle of the infant car seat. Now that he's in a full size car seat I haven't figured out how to have toys dangling for him to play with. Does anyone have a solution for this?
I should clarify he's 8 months old and the car seat is rear facing. If I just gave him toys to play with he'd toss them. I was hoping to find some kind of bar that could be attached to the car seat but I couldn't find anything.



Answer
Most cars have a handle, that I guess is to be used to aid you in getting out of the car, just above the window. I hang toys from there




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