Graco Safe Seat - Too Small??

[*jen*]

I got the infant Graco Safeseat for my newborn as I was having a boy and thought the 30 lbs.(not to mention the good reviews) made it a good choice. Well I was right on the weight. He is 7 weeks now and at his 4 week appt. he was already 12 pounds..eeekkk. :) My problem is the straps on the safeseat seem super tight. We put it on the highest setting already and I can barely get his little arms in the straps. What the heck am I doing wrong? Help! My husband hates the seat and complains about it constantly and wonders why we didn't just get a snugride like we had with my daughter. :( I was really hoping to keep him in this seat until he is at least 6-7 months, so any help would be great. Oh and if you are thinking we are putting too much clothes on him, we aren't. I mean he isn't just in a shortsleeve onesie because it is winter, but no jackets, and only one layer of clothing here, usually like a fleece onsie outfit, etc.

[BW1426]

There are different loops for the straps, you need to move the harness to the outer loops. Also, do you mean that he is in the tallest harness slots already? Can you take a picture of him in his seat, so we can see just what you're talking about?

[Qarin]

Yah, remember that in a rear-facing seat, the straps need to come from below (or right at) the child's shoulders, not above.

[unityco]

Hi there. :)

Do you mean you have the straps coming out of the highest shoulder slots? That wouldn't be right. When a child is rear-facing, the straps should always be at or BELOW their shoulders.

The Safe Seat has two sets of loops in the harness which lengthens or shortens it. One set is at the end of the shoulder straps - you can move to the loops at the end of the harness (the loops are what's attached to the splitter plate. The splitter plate is that metal part behind the seat that attaches the harness to the front adjustment strap.) The other loops are where the hip straps attach to the seat. I'm not too familiar with how to extend those, but the manual will have instructions.

Read through your manual and check what their instructions are for harness fit - hopefully it will help you fix your problem and make your seat easier to use. :thumbsup:

[*jen*]

Ok, I need to dig back up the manual. Clearly we are doing something very WRONG. It is like that metal plate(on the back) that you spoke about is stopping it from allowing us to loosen it anymore. There is extra strap hanging off the bottom, but when you try to loosen it the metal plate stops it. And we do have him on the top shoulder strap so clearly we don't know what we are doing. UGH! Thanks guys. I'll dig up the manual and try to figure out what the heck we are doing wrong.

[*jen*]

Ok, found the manual online(much easier than digging it up right now). We are adjusting the waist straps to see if that will help. If not, I'll take a pic tomorrow and post to get more help. Thanks guys!

[unityco]

I'm glad you found a manual! :)

There is extra strap hanging off the bottom

That extra bit of strap are the longer loops. You can connect the splitter plate to that for more harness room. It sounds as if the way it is now, it may not be connected to the shorter loops correctly. It should be done in such a way that the extra harness (the hanging stuff) doesn't get caught up while you're adjusting it.

Please do post a picture tomorrow!

[cpsaddict]

At 7wks, he most likely needs the second slots with the splitter plate(the metal plate) on the end of the straps(the last loop, so there would no extra length on the straps). We didn't need to adjust the waist straps on my nephews until about 6.5mths and nearly 20lbs. He's a chunky thing and the waist straps were fine until a few weeks ago. You should get much more time than 6-7mths out of the Safeseat. My nephew is in the 90th percentile for all categories at nearly 8mths and he has tons of room to grow.

[*jen*]

Yup, we moved the shoulder staps to the 2nd slot and the metal plate to the last loop. We also loosened the hip straps, but will adjust when we get him in it tomorrow(he's asleep now!) I do still have about 7 or so inches of "extra" strap hanging out from the tightener even when I loosen the shoulder straps completely. Is that normal? I feel like something is still stopping it from allowing me to loosen the shoulder straps all the way as the snugride did not have all this extra strap hanging out...hmmm...I need to get to bed, but will post pics tomorrow. Thanks again!

[jen_nah]

Can you please take a picture of the carrier (front & back) with him not in it? And then a picture of him in his seat? I think you may not have the straps routed properly on the back. It's hard to say until we see pictures.

[MissKatie]

The splitter plate (metal piece on the back) is probably getting caught up on something on the underside of the seat. I have had this problem with safeseats before. Hold the splitter plate away from the plastic shell of the seat and try adjusting the straps bigger to make sure it's not getting hung up on anything.