My SIL's seat installation

VERY scary! I have never seen anything like it. She has a 6 month old baby boy, but I am not sure of his size (I think she said 17lbs, but not sure how tall) Anyway, we saw him for the first time over Thanksgiving. My dh mentioned to her that if she had any questions about carseats she should ask me. So she asked me to go check out her bf's seat in his car. I have never seen anything like it. They had it installed in the middle seat of an older Toyota Camry. They used to seatbelt to install since they knew not to use LATCH in that position. I think the seat was a Evenflo Titan Elite, but I am not 100% sure. They had removed the LATCH strap since they weren't using it, and they had one end of it hooked to the storage spot. Then they had it tethered to the driver's side headrest (with the LATCH strap!) The actual top tether was just dangling there. They also had the harness set on the TOP slots.
I am not a tech, but I obviously knew it was all wrong, so I took the seat completely out and started from scratch. I installed it and moved the slots down to the correct slots and let her know that rf the slots needed to be at or below his shoulders. I also let her know she couldn't tether the seat like that and she couldn't tether an Evenflo seat rf anyway. This isn't the seat he rides in most of the time, and I didn't get to see the full time seat, but hopefully since I explained some things to her she can go back and read the manual for the other seat and get it right. I asked her to try to find a tech, but I doubt she will. At least the little guy is safer than he was.

Glad she let you look and that you made it better. I'm bracing myself for my cousin's car seat usage for his baby when I see them after Christmas.

Wow, that is scary sounding. However I am very glad that she let you help her & that you were able to. I hope that she takes the information you gave her & was able to make sure her other seat is installed properly. :thumbsup: to you for helping & to your DH for mentioning you could help!

LOL, was she standing there with you when you first saw the seat? It's really hard to hide the shock and horror in those cases, it's much better if they let you go out alone so you have time to reconfigure your face into something more pleasant.

chimpmandee said:

LOL, was she standing there with you when you first saw the seat? It's really hard to hide the shock and horror in those cases, it's much better if they let you go out alone so you have time to reconfigure your face into something more pleasant.

Click to expand...

lol Yes she was standing there when I saw it. She just said "I told you it was rigged!". She knew it wasn't right, but I guess she thought it wasn't a big deal. I just wish I had taken a pic. I have seriously never seen anything like it lol.

Notaclue said:

lol Yes she was standing there when I saw it. She just said "I told you it was rigged!". She knew it wasn't right, but I guess she thought it wasn't a big deal. I just wish I had taken a pic. I have seriously never seen anything like it lol.

Click to expand...

Sounds like me with DS's infant bucket - I knew it wasn't right, but had no idea how to fix it or how to contact someone who could fix it.

oh my... doesn't sound as bad as some things I've heard over the years (no wood, no bungee cords), but WOW.

hope she gets you to help her with the main seat or contacts a tech near her.

chimpmandee said:

LOL, was she standing there with you when you first saw the seat? It's really hard to hide the shock and horror in those cases, it's much better if they let you go out alone so you have time to reconfigure your face into something more pleasant.

Click to expand...

SO TRUE! LOL! I had to plaster a vague smile on my face to cover the :jaw::doh: I felt at my first clinic last week. A sweet grandma came in with a crazy rigged up seat (MR in center with LATCH and belt AND using FF latch strap to keep it from tipping over) and the baby was wearing a huge jacket and the straps were pretty much as loose as they go. They couldnt figure out how to tighten them and had been pulling them from the back of the seat until the slack was removed visibly.

Luckily, the grandma and her DIL (baby's mom) both knew something was terribly wrong and wanted help and were VERY open to any and all suggestions. :thumbsup: