We used one with our oldest who was plenty old enough to be FFing IMO but I felt still too small and light and this would reduce injury (3.5 years, 23 lbs, 39"). Jools also used one with her daughter. When you look at the crash tests it's pretty impressive. I think Kiddy is bringing one to the US later on. I feel personally much better having my older lighter child in this vs a 5 point harness. We were no longer willing to RF her any longer for various pesronal and medical reasons. Obviously, 9 months here is not a good idea to forward face, but that's what they do there so I feel it's a better alternative than a harness for over there. They are gonna FF regardless, so atleast use something with less neck load, KWIM? Over here though it doesn't really do much LOL
It doesn't serve much purpose here. If you rear face to 30-35 lbs, you only have 5 pounds before it can't be used. But it's a good niche for those like us who have older lighter kids who we no longer want to RF for various reasons, and don't feel are quite as safe in a harness (we actually used this for sensory issues. My DD can't STAND a harness on her but loves the hugged feeling of this), She wouldn't have outgrown a RFing seat until 7 or 8 so we needed to pick some time to turn her and 3.5-4 was what we picked.
It was also really really nice for cars that were hard to install seats in or we needed a 3 across. Her regular seat at the time was a Radian and a TF. Neither installed well in my parents car and the TF was too wide for 3 across. Our shield used the Start which was a very narrow seat.
It worked perfect for us and I'd love to use it for DD2 but she'll be too big when she's done RFing to use it
So it sits in our basement. DD1 can't use it anymore cause of her G tube
I'm at work but hopefully someone links the crash tests. Pretty impressive!
Here's a thread with pics of my DD and Jools DD in a impact cushion seat
http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=77758&highlight=start+shield