Went to a seat check- now questions

I went for the sole purpose of getting rid of a couple freecycle seats and to donate my tether extender. (They said they could use it for training.) I got there, they looked at my van, my six kids, all my neat seats, and their favorite- my erfing magnet and they glommed onto me, so I consented to let them check things out. I had questions anyway, but I think I would have saved time and gotten believable answers had I asked crunchy when I was at her house beforehand.

First, they loved the magnet that obamamomma sent me. It says "My 2 year old is rear-facing. Ask me why." They did. Then about 10 people asked me where I got the magnet. Where do you find the erfing magnets? I thought I might be able to hunt down an email address and let the sk person in charge know.

2nd. I have the sk dry seat (piddle pad) that I bought for dd3 to put in her radian, but she moved to the regent because she can buckle all by herself. The dry seat is very thin. I don't need to adjust the harness without it. (I let ds2 ride around in underpants recently and decided he needed it more than dd, but moved it back when he went back to diapers again.) It doesn't reroute the straps either. The "head" student checker went on and on about how if we get into an accident, the insurance won't cover anything because you can't put anything in the seat that isn't specifically allowed by the manufacturer. I call baloney on that. All those people running around with misused car seats, froofoo aftermarket covers, protector mats, head supports, snuggees, mighty tights, and the like won't have their kids covered in an accident? I really don't believe it.

3rd. As I was driving there, I saw dd2 in the mirror and thought the headrest of her seat was way too high. The belt guide was many inches above her shoulder. Her head was below the top of the headrest. I asked the guy if the headrest was too high. He gave me a weird answer, which later led me to believe that he thought I asked if dd's head was too high for the seat. He told me that no, it wasn't too high and that she had lots of room to grow in the seat. (Do you think I should put the headrest down a bit so the belt guide is only slightly above her shoulders?)

4th. Ds1 sits in the bodyguard way on the side. Often, the belt slips out of the belt guide. It's because the seat is jammed up to the side of the vehicle. It happened when dd1 sat in the seat too. I actually taped the belt guide closed at one point. I mentioned that and the guy went off on his whole insurance won't cover it if you do that spiel. Then he looked at it, the belt was in the guide. He said it was probably because ds was wiggly and moved about too much. It's not because of that. Do you think taping the belt guide closed is okay? Or do I need to rearrange my van again?

5th. Why do these techs check booster "installation" while the kids are out of their seats? They did that at the last check too and gave me a "bump" for improper belt routing. Dd was out of the seat! She had it routed correctly, but was so excited about getting out and coloring that she threw the belt out from under the arm rest. (This was last time.) This time, no one got the sides of their belts out of place when getting out, so tech climed out and proclaimed that all the boosters were installed and used properly. They didn't even check the belt routing when the kids were in them! (Except for ds1's shoulderbelt.)

6th. I asked if they could show me how to tell if the harness was tight enough or too tight. I know about the pinch test, but I am a kinesthetic learner. I wanted to be shown and try it out myself. The new tech lady stuck her finger between the harness and my baby below the chest clip, pulled the harness up, then used her other fingers to pinch. It was really loose, so I tightened, asked if that was tight enough, she did it again, I tightened a little more, then quit asking because my baby was getting smooshed. At the next stop I loosened the harness. Aren't you supposed to check harness tightness at the shoulder? My kids get loose harnesses between the crotch and shoulders due to their cloth diapers. I thought that was okay. What is okay?

7th. I was about to leave, when instructor lady came over with a group of new techs to gaggle at my car seats. The lady didn't even know the name of the rebound bar on the true fit.

Anyway, it was fun. I told them they couldn't uninstall my car seats because I didn't have much time and I knew my seats were installed correctly. That made the check much better than it would have been.

I will give my answers to a couple of these-

1 - never seen the magnet, but I Want one!

2 - I agree with what you are saying that it sounds a little overboard to say "insurance won't cover it if it's not..." when in reality, insurance companies don't know an infant seat from a booster and definitely don't know if the SK piddle pad can be used on the Britax seat or not. BUT I would also say that with it not being approved by that manufacturer, it is an aftermarket product that your child is basically crash testing if it is in a collision. In CPS world that is not allowed, and for good reason because it's a slippery slope - this is okay, what about the bundle me? what about the strap covers? what about...? There have to be guidelines and the line has to be drawn somewhere. Personally, I think that many of these products would test out perfectly safely, many others definitely would not! If you choose to use it, just be sure that you are 100% comfortable with your child being the "crash test dummy" on this product if it is in an accident. As a parent, there are certain things that I have felt comfortable doing that with. :twocents:

3 - yes I would move the headrest down
4 - Again, I doubt that an insurance company is going to find out about the tape, or even recognize it as a problem if they do, but it is an adaptation to the restraint that is not authorized. I personally would feel like if it is not staying in the guide without tape, there is a problem and I would try and put it in a seating position that didn't experience this problem. I personally would not feel comfortable with tape being what held my child's seat belt in proper position.

5 - I have seen techs do lots of things that aren't right or don't make sense. I think sometimes they don't know or don't think of it that way, sometimes they are in a hurry, sometimes they see you are knowledgable and everything else looks great and they figure you are doing everything else right so that is probably being done right too? They are supposed to check with the kid in the seat though, technically.

6 - you are right, it is at the shoulders. I could put myself in a harness and depending on if I suck my stomach in or push it out, I can get a good 4 inches for my fingers to go in. Now I am an adult, but babies are the same way, their tummies are squishy! You don't need to squish their spine shorter in order to get it tight There is definitely a happy balance there. pinch it at the shoulders.

7 - I agree, I always find it a little funny when I know something that a tech has never heard of - BUT I guess they are allowed to look at the manuals and stuff to help us install, so they don't necessarily have to be uber familiar with all the new seats before they see them. Still, I understand what you mean!

7 was just an observation. "Wow" kinda thing. I guess I should have put it with the rest.

2. The piddle pad is an aftermarket product. If a manufacturer says you should not use an aftermarket product with their seat then technically an insurance company could say it was improper use? I've never heard of this happening. That is not what I tell parents. If your seat fails in an accident and you are using an after market product then again, technically you are not using the seat properly. I recommend no after market products at all. I know there are some who say, well, this one is ok, this one is not ok. I just don't think it's our place to determine which after market products are ok and which are not. They are not recommended so I wouldn't use one. But, like pp said, an auto insurance company would have zero clue so I can't see that being an issue at all.

3. Generally you want it right above the shoulders.

4. Again, this is not something a manufacturer recommends so technically is not something you should do. Is it going to cause the seat to malfunction? Likely not but it's still not recommended. Is the seat belt slipping out while the car is in motion? If so, then yes, I'd move it. In a crash a piece of tape is not going to hold the belt guides closed. As techs it really is there responsibility to tell you that it is not recommended. They may be a bit over the top with the insurance thing but the info they have provided is correct.

5. They should always check boosters with a child in the seat. How else can you tell if it fits the child! I always have them climb in and show me how they buckle up.

6. She was incorrect. Check for tightness at the shoulders or hips.

ookpix said:

. . . BUT I guess they are allowed to look at the manuals and stuff to help us install, so they don't necessarily have to be uber familiar with all the new seats before they see them. Still, I understand what you mean!

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Not just "allowed" to look at manuals- we are encouraged to ALWAYS use the manual when teaching parents to install and use their seats. This ensures that the seat is being installed and used according to man. instructions (since they often have differing instructions) and is a way to model to the parents that the instruction manual is valuable.

This will become even more important with all of the new seats on the market, especially the ones named almost the same thing.

spokaneCPST said:

Not just "allowed" to look at manuals- we are encouraged to ALWAYS use the manual when teaching parents to install and use their seats. This ensures that the seat is being installed and used according to man. instructions (since they often have differing instructions) and is a way to model to the parents that the instruction manual is valuable.

This will become even more important with all of the new seats on the market, especially the ones named almost the same thing.

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The guy actually read parts of my van's manual:thumbsup: He didn't tell me why he wanted to read it. I assumed it was because I have my radian braced, but I wasn't told that I needed to un-brace it.

They didn't check my seats' installations. I told them I didn't want them uninstalled. It would have been nice if they just looked under and wiggled, but I am pretty sure my seats are installed correctly. I would have liked a confirmation on the regent, though since it installs differently than every other car seat and has very (seemingly) complicated installation instructions.

christineka said:

They didn't check my seats' installations. I told them I didn't want them uninstalled. It would have been nice if they just looked under and wiggled, but I am pretty sure my seats are installed correctly. I would have liked a confirmation on the regent, though since it installs differently than every other car seat and has very (seemingly) complicated installation instructions.

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I thought you just went there to drop off some seats for recycling? And you didn't want them to unistall your seats but it would have been nice if they checked them from the outside?

If you have questions you can always post pictures here of your installs and we can look for you, or you could always go back for a complete check.