Confused About Outgrowing Roundabout

[HaleyGirl]

My dd is 15 1/2 months and currently rf in an RA. She's grown 2 1/2 inches in the last 3 months so I was noticing that her head is getting closer to the top of the seat. I double checked my manual online and it says that the seat is outgrown when the tops of the ears are above the top of the restraint (pg 30). But I looked at the new manuals on the Britax website for the seats that go to 35 # rf and they say that it is outgrown when the top of the head is 1" from the top of the seat (pg 6).

Did they make changes to the actual seat? It was my understanding from reading other posts that there were no changes made, they just tested and approved them to go to 35#. If that's the case, why the difference in when they are outgrown?

Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Trish

[An Aurora]

In the manual you have, they don't specify when the seat is outgrown RF by height. The ears-even-with-the-top-of-the-shell rule is for FF. So, the only change is that they added the height limit for RF ;)

[Gypsy]

Anna is right, the Roundabout is outgrown rear facing when there is less than an inch of hard shell above the child's head.

[jen_nah]

The 1" of seat shell above the head is alway been a standard rule we techs live by for rear facing children. You want that 1" of shell above the head so the seat is protecting their head when a child ramps up the seat in a crash.

The top of the ears below the top of the shell rule for forward facing is a standard rule for all forward facing seats. This gives the child head protection when the head whips back in a crash. It acts like your vehicle headrest. Again, Protecting that precious head.

To be honest I haven't meet a child that has made it to 33 or 35lbs in a Roundabout rear facing. It's just to small of seat to allow that long for rear facing unless we are talking about a very short but stalky child.

[crunchierthanthou]

Seats are outgrown by height or weight. It's pretty rare that a child makes it to the rf weight limit in the RA. It has had several different rf height limits in the past few years. At one point it was the top of the ears even with the top of the shell (same as for ff). Then for awhile the manual didn't state a rf height limit, but they would tell you the top of the head even with the top of the shell. The newest version of the RA manual states the 1" of shell above the child's head rule. They've also put that in the other convertible manuals. Like the PP said, the 1" rule has become the industry standard.

Here's a post with pictures showing how to measure-

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201

[HaleyGirl]

Thanks for all of the responses. We don't expect our dd to get to the weight limit in the RA because she's only 23 # now and getting close to the top of the seat so that's why I was concerned about getting the correct information on the height limit.

We were going to go with the 1" rule to be safe, but wanted to get some tech opinions too. Our manual seems like it could be worded more clearly. From reading posts on here, I've read about the 1" rule for rf and that's why I questioned it, but other parents just reading the manual might go with the tops of the ears for rf because the manual doesn't specify that it's only for ff. It just lists it as the height limit.

Thanks for your help :p,
Trish