any leeway on weight

Just a question about how magical the exact wieghts are for making car seat decisions. For instance, if your child is plenty mature, 4 years old, tall enough and ready for a booster but weighs say 36 or 37 instead of 40, could you safely use the new Britax booster with the side impact protection? (I believe the start weight on it is 40 pounds)

On the other hand, does your child need to immediately change from 5pt harness to booster if they are in a combo seat the minute they hit 40 pounds if that is the limit on the seat or could you say use it safely until 42 or 43 pounds?

Just wondering how exact those numbers are. I want to be safe, but I also don't want to have to buy a car seat for just a few months of use if I can avoid it.

Thanks!

Just to add another question in there. I assume you take into account what the child is wearing since that is part of the weight that would contibute to forces on the belts in a crash. That can easily add 1 or 2 lbs. And what scale do you go by

Unregistered said:

Just a question about how magical the exact wieghts are for making car seat decisions. For instance, if your child is plenty mature, 4 years old, tall enough and ready for a booster but weighs say 36 or 37 instead of 40, could you safely use the new Britax booster with the side impact protection? (I believe the start weight on it is 40 pounds)

Click to expand...

no, you can't. the seat has not been tested on a dummy less than 40 lbs. so if you used it in the way you describe, you would be making your child into a crash test dummy.

On the other hand, does your child need to immediately change from 5pt harness to booster if they are in a combo seat the minute they hit 40 pounds if that is the limit on the seat or could you say use it safely until 42 or 43 pounds?

Just wondering how exact those numbers are. I want to be safe, but I also don't want to have to buy a car seat for just a few months of use if I can avoid it.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

yes, they do need to get out of the harness at 41 lbs. i say 41 because the harness is rated from (example) 20-40 lbs. to me, that means it includes 40 lbs. some people differ on this point. of course, there is room to get nitpicky...do you take them out of the harness at 40 lbs, 1 oz? or wait until the 41 lbs mark? most people don't have scales at home that give the ounces so we just have to do the best we can. my instructor told my class to "keep them in the harness until they were a good and solid 41 lbs" or something along those lines. the message is, harnesses are always safer so if the child still fits by height, it's important to use it as long as possible.

my own dd weighed 3 different weights on 3 different scales, with about 2 lbs leeway. i planned to weight until she was a good solid 40 before thinking of a booster for her since she still fit her harness by height. i ended up getting her a higher-weight harnessed seat so it became a moot point when the new seat came. so she's somewhere above 40 lbs but still harnessed in her bigger seat that harnesses to 80 lbs.

as for mamamia's question....do your kids really wear 1-2 lbs of clothes? i don't think mine do...i know they don't in the summer LOL!

i guess i would go with a dr's scale with their shoes off and clothes on (wearing an average day's clothes).

In the winter I would say a good pound of clothes, then winter boots are going to add some weight. In the summer the clothes weight is likely negligible. Of course for my 1 year old-those wet diapers can add a bit of weight! LOL!

awww....you got a title! when are you gonna become a tech?

i would say their weight with average clothing on (for the season) without shoes is accurate enough.

and the dipes......well...the pee was inside her and then it's on the outside in the dipe...so she's not gaining any weight by peeing it out LOL!

one other thing...and you may already know this....heavy coats in the winter can be a problem for getting the harness properly tight. putting them in the seat, putting the harness on and buckled and then put the coat over them backwards is the way to go. not sure what they do in MN when it's -12 though...it's a tough issue in the colder states.

here in OR a fleece jacket is usually fine and that is thin enough to wear under the harness. anything thicker than that can become a problem.

I'm in MA...

so it gets cold! Itend to warm the car up before putting them in. My new sienna has vents right over the captain's chairs, so the car seats cool off/heat right up. My kids are happy to be out of their coats in the car anyway. All this talk of compression of bulky fabrics-what about all that plush fabric and comfort foam on those britax seats ?

Yes, I have to become a tech-I will go when Julie goes! Seriously, I don't have anyone that can watch my girls for 4 days. Now if I could do it in 2 weekends, I would be there in a heartbeat! Of course once I did it I would face even more ridicule If one more family member or friend asks me "when are you going to turn that poor kid around?" I swear I am going to slap them! She is only 14 months and 22 lbs. I was thinking I could have a custom made vinyl sticker saying "Rear-facing is Safest for Infants and Toddlers under 30lbs" with a little happy RF infant.....

Tee hee...Im working on it...I really am!