after market products?

Hey there folks!

Questions about after market products.
Are SKJP seat covers "acceptable"?

Does anyone know of seat covers that come up to form a "tray" of sorts on back and sides?

What sorts of appropriate head huggers (older baby- 6mo in MA) either on sides or to avoid front flop would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help.
d

danou said:

Hey there folks!

Questions about after market products.
Are SKJP seat covers "acceptable"?

Does anyone know of seat covers that come up to form a "tray" of sorts on back and sides?

What sorts of appropriate head huggers (older baby- 6mo in MA) either on sides or to avoid front flop would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help.
d

Click to expand...

Head huggers will not help with forward head flop. In fact, putting extra fabric behind babies head may make it worse. What you can do is recline the seat a little bit more, and then put rolled up blankets beside babies head.

If a babies head is flopping forward, the first thing that comes to my mind is that the car seat is not reclined enough for that child. I've had to put 6 month olds back at a 45degree recline at checks before because of front head flop. Especially when they fall asleep.

The only product that I'm comfortable recommending is Baby Hugz.

They are tubes of fabric stuffed with fluff. You add them to the sides of the child after the harness is buckled and snug. They do not go behind the child in any way or interfere with the harness. And since they do not go over the baby's head there is no chance of anything slipping behind the head and pushing the head forward which could cause airway issues. They work great with the Marathon in my experience.

picture seen here:

http://www.thesecretcloset.ca/mediac/400_0/media/ayla_hugger_pairs.jpg

I believe the actual name is Huggers. Company name is Baby Hugz.


Is your Marathon reclined enough for your baby? At 6mos it may still need to be at 45 degrees. That said, I can also understand why a baby might still need extra side support even if at 45 degrees.

Sorry to say I don't think you will like my response...

What do you mean by seat covers - I think you mean seat protectors? that go under the carseat to cover the vehicle seat? No aftermarket carseat cover should be used on a carseat. In general, we also do not recommend a seat protector because it can add compressible material under the carseat and/or mask a bad install. Some are worse than others. Usually, we say a thin receiving blanket or thin towel can go under the seat if needed. To protect the vehicle seat back with a RF child, you can also drape a towel over the seatback and hold in place with the removable headrest if possible.

You do not want to add any solid tray or other product in front of the child. The same goes for toys. Anything you would not chuck at baby's head at high speed should not be loose in the vehicle or attached near the baby in the car (sun shades, toys/mobiles, etc). I would also be wary of the containers/trays that are mesh and have a flexible wire edge to keep them extended - I would worry about the stabbing hazard. I have had one of that type toyboxes and the wire edge snapped and poked out of the material several inches - scary!

Here is Transport Canada's Consumer Information Notice regarding aftermarket products:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/safedrivers-childsafety-notices-d200401-menu-336.htm