Rear Facing Angle - Radian XT

I just bought a Radian XT for my son who has outgrown his bucket. I have read that the rear facing angle for older babies doesn't have to be 45 degrees, so i emailed SK and got a generic non response that said to refer to my owner's manual.
My baby is 11 months old and just over 22lbs.

Any help clarify this would be great.

No, you don't need a 45 degree angle for an older baby. The 45 degree angle is to prevent head flop which could compromise their airway. Babies with good head control that don't flop forward can be installed at a more upright angle. Just ensure the child's shoulder straps are at or below the shoulder while in RF mode and there isn't more than an inch of play at the belt path and you should be good to go

HTH

No the angle does not have to be a full 45 degree recline for older babies with good head control. Most seats can be more upright, up to 30 degrees from vertical. I think SK doesn't give an actual limit, but they do not insist on a 45 degree install, either. What you have to watch for in a more upright install is that baby's head doesn't flop chin-to-chest, which can restrict air flow. Sideways flop is ok.

The Radian is a seat which is particularly resistant to changes in recline, though. You cannot use pool noodles or towels to increase the recline, and you cannot remove the RF foot to decrease it, so in general the recline you get depends on your vehicle seat. There are some tricks to getting the Radian to install more upright, though. The main one is to pull the foot out from the seat bight a little bit and then push down in the toe area, preferably while standing behind the Radian and using your hips/belly to push the seatback more upright, as you tighten.

There is a bit of info on this here, if that is not enough we can provide more detail:
Adjusting Radian Recline (pic-heavy)

mommycat said:

No the angle does not have to be a full 45 degree recline for older babies with good head control. Most seats can be more upright, up to 30 degrees from horizontal.

Click to expand...

The bolded part... You mean the other way around, right? Upright is up to 30 degrees from the vertical line. 30 degrees from the horizontal line would mean it's more reclined than the optimum 45 degrees. Or am I reading this wrong?

And yes, this is very different with how angles actually measure in mathematics, hence the confusion for many of us

hipmaman said:

The bolded part... You mean the other way around, right? Upright is up to 30 degrees from the vertical line. 30 degrees from the horizontal line would mean it's more reclined than the optimum 45 degrees. Or am I reading this wrong?

And yes, this is very different with how angles actually measure in mathematics, hence the confusion for many of us

Click to expand...

Yikes! No, you are right, I typed the opposite of what I meant... I fixed it above. Thank you!

mommycat said:

No the angle does not have to be a full 45 degree recline for older babies with good head control. Most seats can be more upright, up to 30 degrees from vertical. I think SK doesn't give an actual limit, but they do not insist on a 45 degree install, either. What you have to watch for in a more upright install is that baby's head doesn't flop chin-to-chest, which can restrict air flow. Sideways flop is ok.

Click to expand...

The Radian manual indicates that the seat must be installed at a 45* or greater angle measured from horizontal. (yes, they go and measure from horizontal while everybody else measures from vertical.)

In actual practice with the radian, it would be a rare vehicle where you could get an install that was too upright. (Of course I happen to own one of those rare vehicles, so I know it is possible, lol.)

mommycat said:

No the angle does not have to be a full 45 degree recline for older babies with good head control. Most seats can be more upright, up to 30 degrees from vertical. I think SK doesn't give an actual limit, but they do not insist on a 45 degree install, either. What you have to watch for in a more upright install is that baby's head doesn't flop chin-to-chest, which can restrict air flow. Sideways flop is ok.

Click to expand...

The Radian manual indicates that the seat must be installed at a 45* or greater angle measured from horizontal. (yes, they go and measure from horizontal while everybody else measures from vertical.)

In actual practice with the radian, it would be a rare vehicle where you could get an install that was too upright. (Of course I happen to own one of those rare vehicles, so I know it is possible, lol.)

You can say that again!

Thanks for the manual info, Trudy!