Some Car Seat help please

[Pepse]

My nephew is 3 in July. He currently weighs 24lbs and is about 31 inches tall. He was born at 31 weeks. He eats like a horse and is still wearing 12 month clothing (my baby dd is 9 months 23lbs and 29 inches lol)

Anyways, i was talking to my sister about car seats and she was explaining how he wanted to be in a booster like his older brother (age 5), small booster with just a seat beat.

I tried explaining to her that at his size he should still be rfing and she said, her seats don't go rfing and his infant seat only went to 22lbs.

They have two car seats that were bought 2nd hand for the older brother when he went ff so probably had them for about 3 year but second hand.

They are an Eddie Bauer but i can't find them online and not sure the exact details.

SO ....

She was telling me that when he turns 4 he can go into a lower booster with a belt. I said, look at his size, he can still fit into baby dd Safe Seat. He can't go into a booster. Her response was well he will probably out grow the harness and then i will just put him in a booster.

My first question:

What is the requirement for a booster seat on a child??

What is the requirement for no car seat at all??

What is a bigger 5 point harness seat that would suit my nephew but not break the bank???

TIA

[Shanora]

First requirement for a booster seat is a MINIMUM 40 pounds! If you read ANY of the manuals it states children must be 40 pounds to use the seats (She's in Canada)

I'm not sure what province your in, but most of them have booster seat laws. Which province are you in?

A seat that wont break the bank, and will keep him harnessed until he's atleast 40 pounds, I would recommend the Evenflo Triumph Advance. It goes to 48 pounds in harness. It is rated for 50 inches in height, and I believe it has a fairly tall harness height (I'm sure someone else will have more info for you on this). That should take him until he's closer to 5 years old. But with his growth, maybe longer.

I hope this helps.

[canadiangie]

I'm assuming you're in Canada...

All provinces in Canada require a child be 40 pounds to use a booster seat. We have no boosters that start before 40 pounds.

It sounds like your nephew has an Eddie Bauer combination seat. Meaning, it's a ff only seat that used from 22lbs to 40lbs with the 5 point harness (providing the child's shoulders are under the top harness slots). Once the child is 40lbs the seat can be converted to booster mode. If the child's shoulders go over the top harness slots before 40lbs is reached a new 5 point harness seat is needed.

It sounds like your nephew is quite small though. I doubt he's anywhere near outgrowing the harness by torso height (shoulders level with the top slots), so he should have plenty of time left in the harness. At 24lbs, and still wearing 12month infant sized clothing, he is much much much too small to use a booster. That would be extremely unsafe, and very much illegal.

Does your sister know that his current seat later converts to a highback booster? Not that he's anywhere ready to use his seat in booster mode, but she won't have to purchase a lowback booster for him when the time does come. I guess I'm just sort of confused here (not with you, with your sister lol).

Bottom line is he CANNOT go into a booster for many many moons to come... like 16 more pounds. Which for most kids is 3-4 yrs.

And not that it's rellevant now, but b/c he was born at 31 wks he would have had an adjusted age as it relates to going ff. Tack no less than 9wks or roughly 2-3 mos on top of age 1 as the soonest he should have gone ff. And that's assuming he was 22lbs at age 1 which we know he wasn't. Basically this kiddo should have been rf until just a few mos ago... (when he reached 22lbs). It's just a blessing of sheer luck that nothing has happened up until now. Hopefully you'll be able to educate your sister on the importance of a 5 point harness... and if nothing else, let her know it's against the law for him to use a booster until 40lbs.

hope that helps,

[Debn31]

Oh boy....I really hope she does NOT put him in a booster!

I am fretting over my 43 lb, 43.5 " tall FOUR year old in a high back booster, I can't imagine putting a little guy in there!

FWIW, my youngest was born early too, at 34 weeks. At 2, he's now 25 lb and 34.5 inches, so her three year old is smaller than my little guy (and he's usually small compared to most of the kids his age we know, well, at least weight wise anyways). We are about to put him back RF after a few months of FF due to the bad fit of the Radian RF in our Corolla (did it till he was 19 months and 22 lb or so? And my knees were crammed against the glove compartment) Still, I am happy, sooo happy to have the True Fit and can turn him RF again (I'm sure he'll LOVE it! :p But he'll just have to get over it! ;) )

Can she get a Cosco Scenera perhaps???
I'm also assuming you're in Canada, btw. I did see Zellers has them ($100).
I would think with how tiny he is at three, this seat should do for a good enough while to make the $100 worth it to her (I hope!) here's a link to look at one...http://www.zellers.com/stores/shop/product/en/zellers/10001/143525%206/26417386/26417386
And it sure would be nice if she could be convinced to put him back RF....

Here's a link, by the way to the recalled Eddie Bauer seats (we had one).

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/childsafety/notices/TP14566P/2007p05/menu.htm

Not sure if that helps (do you know the model #?) but thought I'd add it anyways.

[hipmaman]

Pepse,

The law in Ontario is that all children under 40 lbs (no relevancy to age or height, just 40 lbs) MUST be in a harness carseat - not booster. Besides, the minimum weight for a booster is 40 lbs - which is the weight that manufactures can say it's technically safe to be in their boosters.

Best-practices is that harnessing is better than in booster, especially for young children who are not mature enough to be in booster. In a booster, the only safety device is the vehicle seatbelt and he must be able to sit up properly - no slumping, slouching, leaning, etc. for that vehicle seatbelt to work effectively.

If it's really your nephew wanting to be cool as his older brother, tell him cool race car drivers wear 6-pt harness. If it's your sister, talk to her more about the legal points if none of the safety aspects work on her. At his size, maybe he'll be old and mature enough to be in a booster when he finally reaches 40 lbs.

[Pepse]

thanks ladies, i am going over there tomorrow and will take a look at what seat it is and get the model number and also check the expiry date.


I am in Ontario

It is my sister in law, which seems to listen somewhat to what i have to say.

I will put nephew in the seat and see where he is in the seat as far as harness slots. I didn't think it was possible for him "almost to be out of it" knowing that he is the same size as my baby dd who is still in her infant seat.

I will mention about the Scena one as I actually saw it at walmart today for $69 and thought what a great deal. They will need 2 new seats since the other two are exactly the same and sil drops him off and bro picks him up.

I will let you know my findings after tomorrow

[snowbird25ca]

Here's a link, by the way to the recalled Eddie Bauer seats (we had one).

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/childsafety/notices/TP14566P/2007p05/menu.htm

Not sure if that helps (do you know the model #?) but thought I'd add it anyways.

If it's only a combination seat, then it definitely wasn't part of the recall because it was only the 3in1 seats during that time period with a specific type of adjuster mechanism. :thumbsup:

OP, good luck with talking to her tomorrow. I hope she's receptive and listens to the law at the very least.

[Debn31]

[QUOTE=snowbird25ca;465175]If it's only a combination seat, then it definitely wasn't part of the recall because it was only the 3in1 seats during that time period with a specific type of adjuster mechanism. :thumbsup:

Yeah...unfortunately, it was listed on there (checked the model # to be doubly sure.)
But to tell you the truth, I never DID like the Eddie Bauer, especially RF.
I didn't feel the installation was good enough....
And, I don't know, it had lots of other annoying things (can't remember for 100% what they were now, but I remember we really didn't like it).

In fact, the dislike for it was what led me to the Radians :rolleyes:

Too bad about that all, because we were thinking of looking at the Moneterey too. But, I'll need to wait for the Frontier, which by the way, I saw listed on the TRU site! But it does say that it's temporarily unavailable online, so guessing it's because they're just getting everything all ready. :thumbsup:

[snowbird25ca]

Yeah...unfortunately, it was listed on there (checked the model # to be doubly sure.)
But to tell you the truth, I never DID like the Eddie Bauer, especially RF.
I didn't feel the installation was good enough....
And, I don't know, it had lots of other annoying things (can't remember for 100% what they were now, but I remember we really didn't like it).

In fact, the dislike for it was what led me to the Radians :rolleyes:

Too bad about that all, because we were thinking of looking at the Moneterey too. But, I'll need to wait for the Frontier, which by the way, I saw listed on the TRU site! But it does say that it's temporarily unavailable online, so guessing it's because they're just getting everything all ready. :thumbsup:

I should've clarified my comment a little better I guess. ;) EB seats were part of the recall, but only the 3in1's - the ones that could rf, ff, then convert to a booster. Combination seats are a ff only seat that can convert to a booster. None of the EB brand combination seats were part of the recall. :thumbsup:

The Frontier has been on TRU site for a month or so now, so hopefully they update with availability now that they should be getting a shipping date. :)

[Debn31]

I'll have to double check to see which seat the grandparents have ( dh thought it was Eddie Bauer, but no idea if it's a 3 in 1 or combination seat....)
Asked MIL, and she said "brown"....:eek:
Also asked if they had registered it, she said what's that?
SO ummmm....yeah I'm making them bring it in tomorrow with the manual (here's hoping FIL even knows what I'm talking about with the registration).

yep, definitely the 3 in 1 for us.....
Just glad we didn't get much use of it earlier.

[Pepse]

Thanks ladies

I was there today and it is a Combo Seat. I put him in the seat and he is only in the second slots, i explained to SIL that he will still fit in this seat for a long long time and that he must remain harnessed up to 40 lbs and then because of his small size, that i would recommend getting a larger seat that goes up to 65lbs and keep him harnessed until then. She said that she would see when he hits 40lbs and then decide.

She also didn't realize that the harness moved up slots :eek: so i am sur that is why she thought he would outgrow it.

While i was there, i put nephew in my safe seat and showed her that he fit in it and that was the safest positioin to be in and that they should consider turning him around again. She said, I doubt we will do that. I tried.

Atleast she knows now how to move the harness and to keep him in it until 40bls.

[canadiangie]

Okay, this is just a major guess, but does she have a Summit? I can remember when these were sold in sort of a brown/gold pattern... which dates back a while now. The not knowing the harness moves up part, but the seat being a ff combo is why I think it's a Summit. When you adjusted the harness did you work from the back? Did it have a bar that you raised up into some notches?