Is height or weight to turn your convertable seat?

mugwump · Sep 11, 2010

Just wondering? We have a Radian (65?) and its weight limit for rear facing is 30 pounds and its height limit is 36 inches. I discovered this one evening when we were out and I was wondering when to turn our DD around. So, should we have turned her when she was 36 inches tall or was it ok to wait until she was 30 pounds?

Cordelia

bbartlettnfld · Sep 11, 2010

Height limits are most often just a guide as children carry their height differently, they could have a long torso or be leggy.

As long as your daughter has more than one inch of shell above her head then she is still safe to be Rear Facing in the Radian.

My son is Forward Facing in the Radian because he is 30lbs but he has at least 6 inches of shell above his head.

I am sure your daughter still has plenty of head room to be rear facing until she reaches the 30lb weight limit.

BethAnn

QuassEE · Sep 11, 2010

Agreed.

Although the height limit is technically a *limit*, there isn't a single person in the field of child passenger safety that would ever say that obeying a numerical limit (when all children grow differently) rather than the 1" rule would be beneficial. The logic behind the height limit is that we want to ensure that a rear-facing child's head is still contained within the shell in a collision. As long as you have that 1" of buffer, I would not consider the seat to be outgrown rear-facing assuming the child is still within the weight limit. My daughter was rear-facing in a Radian until shortly after her 5th birthday, and still had over an inch above her head

This is the only time we advise parents to break the rules, so to speak. If you're really concerned about this, do a search on the numerical height limitations on Canadian seats here in the forums and you'll find a lot more background and some great discussion on a number of threads.

-Nicole.

mugwump · Sep 12, 2010

Good to know, we turned her at 30 pounds when she was close to 38 inches. Radians are so long, it would take a very long time to ourgrow them by height

Is height or weight to turn your convertable seat?

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