Getting ready for my "thing" on Tuesday

and trying to prepare my binder. I want to be able to answer any question thrown at me! I feel I know my stuff (I'm a bit of a car seat fanatic) but I still like to have resources to check back on should I need it, and of course I will.

I've copied some info from here and will print it out to put in my binder to take along with me, and for the techs that provided me with their contact info, would you mind PMing me with it? That way I'll always have it with me too as a quick resource, in a place easy to find. I'll put it in my phone, but I"m having cell issues these days, just haven't found my next cell phone yet (I'm hoping to wait until the new windows 7 phone comes out to see it first!). I can easily access C-S org from my ipod, so instead of having to scroll through everything, I can have it in one place.

OK, next question, I've made lists of all the seats and their specs, with the issues on the Triumph 65, wwyd? Just tell the parents that want to know about that seat that in fact, it is RF to 30lbs no matter what they read or hear? I'm still baffled about the manufacturer's decision to do that.......

Also, I've installed seats using latch, but what about superlatch? I don't have UAS in my vehicles so only do seatbelt installs, but my RN has superlatch. Any advice? Or does it work the same. I read the manual and it appears the same......

Any other great advice you can throw at me?

Winter is coming so, no bunting bags etc unless they're the "shower cap" type, after market products are bad, what about after market products made by that particular manufacturer? For example, the SK sunshade made for the RN?

I won't print out all my stuff until tonight, so any thoughts or advice will be very very appreciated!

:thumbsup:

I have all the same questions. My second check is on Sept 22 and I'm getting my binder all ready too.

What do you have for handouts on ERF and when to start using a booster? Those are the two thing I find people have a hard tome understanding/remembering. I'm trying to find some pictures to print out of good vs bad booster fit.

As I understand it, any aftermarket products ar a no-no unless they come with seat, regardless of which company makes them.

amelia222 said:

I have all the same questions. My second check is on Sept 22 and I'm getting my binder all ready too.

What do you have for handouts on ERF and when to start using a booster? Those are the two thing I find people have a hard tome understanding/remembering. I'm trying to find some pictures to print out of good vs bad booster fit.

As I understand it, any aftermarket products ar a no-no unless they come with seat, regardless of which company makes them.

Click to expand...

Oh, handouts! Maybe someone can share something I can print off to hand out!

People look at me like I"m a freak or overly paranoid when I tell them my youngest is still RF. And when he hits the 35lb RF limit on his TF he'll go into his older brother's RN65 and be RF until he's 40lbs. I love ERF!!!

I'm really not concerned about a 30 RF limit on a seat with a decent height to it. Thirty pounds is a bit of a pipe dream out there in the real world, and I'm happy to see babies RF after their first birthday. If we can get them to 30lbs, that's more than the usual 20 or 22lbs it's not unusual to see.

Showercap covers are acceptable, as they do not interfere with the harness, cover, or bulk of the seat/child. They are aftermarket, but they are fine. The sunshades are fine if they cannot become projectiles. There are two types--the type that have a plastic suction cup (heavy, fall off, can go flying) and the kind that are a film that attaches to the window (light, rarely fall off, not likely to go flying)..which do you think you would recommend were a parent to ask what type to buy? (I love to take the position: "Save yourself a few bucks; Skip it." in many situations.)

As far as having lists of seats and their specs, this might be taking it a bit too far. Sometimes when you tell a parent that this seat or that seat has the best limits, they'll go hunt down that seat...even if it doesn't fit THEIR child or THEIR car best. Also--because new seats are constantly coming into the market, and changes are being made...I've given you two more reasons not to recommend specific seats. We need to educate parents what to look for--high harness heights, high rear-facing weight limits, smaller widths (for three across), good price for their family, fits their child, fits well in their car, etc, etc. I try to avoid naming individual seats except in some circumstances.

For both dragonfly8 and amelia, my cel is 3186597 in the original area code here. Feel free to text me (identify yourself/question) and I should reply within 7 minutes.

-Nicole.

Hi Nicole,
thanks for your info and contact info!
I wanted all the seats and specs in my binder for my benefit, it's alot of info, but I'm an organization freakand like to have all the info I can have, at my fingertips!

In regards to the sunshade I was talking about, SK sells one that actually goes overtop of the car seat itself.......I've only seen a picture, not an actual one....

I don't know that I have ever used the SL either. I just watched the blog post that has a video of them showing it off. It looks the same as regular UAS clips to me, except that it has 4 prongs side by side instead of 1 prong. Is that right? It looks like it operates the same though.

If you want some pictures of bad seatbelt positioning with a booster, you are welcome to borrow mine. My son helped me do some photos for a kindy fair in the spring. http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=226377039345&view=all Last photos on the page. Under each photo is a description of what is wrong.

If you can't get in touch with Nicole you are welcome to call me too. I will be home tomorrow other than bringing James to and from school so I will have access to the internet if you need anything looked up. I will pm you my phone numbers.

Thanks Nicole and Selina! Those pics are a big help, we didn't go into boosters too much in my course and my friend is getting some people from her dd's preschool to come.

Here's some pictures of the SL beside the regular radian UAS -
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=138744

The work the same way except the release is on top instead of on the end.

When in doubt you can always say to the parent "I'd like you to follow along in the manual as we do this part to make sure the manual is clear enough the next time you need to consult it". Or "I want you to know where this is in the manual for future reference, can you find the part that talks about .....?" Or for seats like the AOE which have many versions "there are many versions of this seat and they each have different rules so I just want to double check that you can remove the base on this model" (or whatever - works good for buckets and allowed handle positions). You basically want to word it in a way that you have confidence and know what you're talking about but want them to learn the manual for themselves.

Have fun!

Unlike "regular" push-button LATCH, superlatch prongs stay open when you push the button. They snap closed when you push them onto a bar. (In the US, at least. I'd assume the same is true of Canada.)

Handouts:
Which is the "best" seat for my child?
Selecting a seat
How long should children ride facing the back of the car?
Boosters are for big kids with five-step test

Those are all from SafetyBelt Safe (carseat.org). I print out "Selecting an appropriate safety seat" and "How long should children ride facing the back of the car?" back to back and that's my one-sheet handout for parents of infants. I think if you give them too much, they just set it aside to look at "later" and never get around to actually looking at it.

I have the "Boosters are for big kids" handout for older kids. I use it as a bit of a cheat sheet, since I can never remember all of the 5 components of the 5-step test, or I combine them and end up with 3 or 4 (but all of the same content).

I don't have, but wish I did, something approximately equivalent for EHing and determining when your child has the maturity and physical size to sit safely in a booster. Not as much of an issue for you in Canada, since you have the 4 and 40 minimum, but here most seats are 3 and 30 and there's even 1 and 30 seats. I also need a handout about aftermarket products and keeping baby warm and safe.

I also have the handle position sheet, just a single copy, for my reference. Often the manuals aren't present, and I don't know what seats will be coming ahead of time.

Most manufacturers okay aftermarket products that they make, and disallow other manufacturers' products. For example, Graco has some toys that are tested for use with their carseats. Sunshine Kids allows the use of the MightyTite, their piddle pad, and their underseat mat. You can't use any of the SK stuff with a Graco seat, and you can't use the Graco stuff with a SK seat, but you can use Graco with Graco and SK with SK. The manuals for the seats state that it's okay to use same-branded aftermarket products.

How did it go?

selinajean said:

How did it go?

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

It went well! Only ended up doing one vehicle, which is totally fine with me! I did everything out loud, went over the form and filled it out, out loud, got the parent to follow me, had her uninstall (to find the CMVSS and DOM stickers) and re install the seat herself, she did awesome! The only thing that had to be changed was, she had said that her son's shoulders were slightly above the straps, and he's FF. It was an EFTA and had the infinate slide harness, and her son wasn't present, but I do know her and she'll put the straps proper now that she knows how they're supposed to be. Other than that, it all went smoothly!

Got to play with a MA, which I've never installed, are they ever neat!

Thanks for asking!