Need to move from infant seat?

[Unregistered]

Hi All,

I currently have the Safe Seat by Graco, because it was able to handle a heavier baby and I thought it would last longer than a normal infant car seat.

My baby is 1 year old and weighs 19 lbs. However, her feet are just now touching the back of the seat. Her head is nowhere near the top of the seat, but since her feet are touching the back seat, is this unsafe? Should I move her to a regular child seat?

Thank you for your feedback!

[Jewels]

As long as her head is below the top of the shell and your baby is less then the 30lbs weight limit then the seat is ok to use. It doesn't really matter if the feet touch the back of the seat as rearfacing is safer and a lot of children rearface until they are 2-3 or more years old. It is recommended to keep children rearfacing until the max limits of the seat.

Here is an article (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201)that talk about how to tell when rearfacing seat is outgrown.

[Melizerd]

If your not using the bucket as a carrier anymore you might consider switching to a convertible seat (one that rear faces as well as forward faces). That would give you more time to RF and be a bigger seat with a higher RFing weight and then have a seat for FFing when they hit the weight limit (between 30 and 35lbs depending on the seat).

[joolsplus3]

Feet off the edge is no issue http://picasaweb.google.com/joolstag/LeahInCarseats/photo#5101172519647707202

If you happen to be at Babies R Us and your kiddos in that seat in the shopping cart, like mine was one day, they might give you grief and a load of BS and tell you it's outgrown (supposedly they learn it in their class... I think it's a sales class, lol), but it's only the head area that matters. Still...never too early to shop for a convertible...you'll want something with a taller seatback to rearface longer (Marathon, Scenera, Radian 65, Evenflo Triumph Advance, for examples)

[ThreeBeans]

As long as the baby is under 30 lbs and there is at least an inch between the baby's head and the top of the seat, you still have room to grow :)

[flipper68]

Repeating what was said below but adding two details:

1) When measuring how much room above DC's head, make sure you're measuring the SHELL height and not the poofy fabric.

2) I'm not familiar with the SS1, so I can't speek to it's harness slots. As babies get bigger, a concern is that the harness height is too low. The harness should be in slots at or below the shoulder. However, once the harness gets much past 3/4" - 1" below the shoulder, you may find the harness starts to slip off the shoulder. Then you would need to replace the seat.

If your child still has 2 1/2 - 3 inches of shell above the head, you should make it well into spring before needing a new seat.