Going from 5 pt. harness to seatbelt??

[abbygirl336]

:eek::confused::eek:

Our boy is 56 lbs. riding in an Eddie Bauer edition booster/car seat. The seat will hold him up to 100 lbs. with the 5 pt. harness until 40 lbs. He still fits in the 5 pt. harness and I feel he would be much safer staying in it until he can longer fit. My question is: is the holding strength of the 5 pt. harness buckles ONLY for up to 40 lbs. or do you think at 56 lbs. he would still be safe in a collision or rollover???? I don't want him to be unsafe buckled into a harness recommended for up to 40 lbs. but I'm also a bit nervous about switching to the regular seat belt across him (while he sits in the booster). Any suggestions??? Thanks!

[4boysmom]

you have to switch him NOW NOW NOW NOW. The G force difference between a 40 and 56 pound kid are going to be tremendous :eek:! if you are wanting to keep him harnessed the Graco Nautilus is a great seat, IMO.

[Jeanum]

No, the seat is rated up to 40 lbs. in harnessed mode and that's an absolute. It's definitely no longer safe to continue using it harnessed beyond 40 lbs. In fact, it's very common for kids to outgrow the harness by height in that seat before they reach the 40 lbs. harnessed weight limit. The harness is outgrown by height when the child's shoulders are above the top usable shoulder harness position. The top usuable harness position in many of the Dorel/Eddie Bauer/Safety1st/Cosco branded 3-in-1 type seats is actually a notch below a higher position which is intended only for booster use according to the manual and a warning etched into the plastic on the back of the shell. Inadvertently using the harness in the position intended only for booster mode also poses a serious risk of failure in a crash because it's not reinforced. You'll need to absolutely use the current Eddie Bauer seat as a belt positioning booster now, because using it harnessed is risking catastrophic failiure of the harness and/or the plastic harness slots with a child weighing over 40 lbs.

If you want to keep him in a 5-point harnessed seat, you can consider replacing the current seat with a HWH (high weight harness) model such as the Britax Regent, Britax Frontier, Graco Nautilus, or Cosco/Safety 1st Apex, all of which have taller top shoulder harness slots and higher harnessed weight limits of 65-80 lbs. depending on the model.

[singingpond]

:eek::confused::eek:

Our boy is 56 lbs. riding in an Eddie Bauer edition booster/car seat. The seat will hold him up to 100 lbs. with the 5 pt. harness until 40 lbs. He still fits in the 5 pt. harness and I feel he would be much safer staying in it until he can longer fit. My question is: is the holding strength of the 5 pt. harness buckles ONLY for up to 40 lbs. or do you think at 56 lbs. he would still be safe in a collision or rollover???? I don't want him to be unsafe buckled into a harness recommended for up to 40 lbs. but I'm also a bit nervous about switching to the regular seat belt across him (while he sits in the booster). Any suggestions??? Thanks!

As other posters have said, your child, at his current size, is WAY over the specs for this seat in harnessed mode, and that is really very unsafe (not just a little bit unsafe). It is also likely that he is too tall for the seat in harnessed mode (as Jeanum pointed out, the top headrest position on the 3-in-1 type seats is FOR BOOSTER USE ONLY; unfortunately that limitation is not spelled out very clearly in the manual, and is fairly easy for parents to miss). Going back to your original post, the problem may not be so much with the harness buckles; the seat/shell itself is likely to fail catastrophically when used so far past its specified/tested limits. Even though this seat probably doesn't make a good booster (the 3-in-1's generally don't), and will probably look very wiggly and unreliable to you in booster mode, you really need to switch it to booster mode immediately... while you figure out what other choices to make if you want your child harnessed longer.

Katrin

[abbygirl336]

Thank you ALL S O M U C H for your input and advice!! I am so grateful I found this forum and got the answers I needed. We are switching him immediately to booster seat using the seat belt instead of harness. Thank you again!!!!!

[Jeanum]

You're most welcome. :)