New weight limits for car seats in Ontario!

I only saw part of this report last night as I fell asleep, but here is the report link to the website. This is great news! I do have a big problem with parents who constantly teach their kids that things are 'babyish' (my sister does this constantly and I am always yelling at her for it) though as this mom in the article who complains that she doesn't know how her kids are going to sit in something that is made for a baby - what the heck? What is wrong with some people - our Radian looks very much like it came with our van as it's grey - my daughter has already asked when we can buy one for her new brother who will be here in 6 weeks (we just purchased a brand new Graco SafeSeat). My daughter is a very intelligent just turning 4 year old who knows how important car seats are - that is why she is in her harnessed Radian and will be until she outgrows it. There are no issues at all as we have taught her from day one how important it is - she even notices when kids are in front seats or not buckled in properly. We have a seat belt check for her, mommy and daddy (soon to be new baby as well!) each and everytime she gets in the car. She has begun to notice booster seats in cars of kids in her class who are smaller than her (she is very tall, but just hit 40lbs) and has started to ask why they aren't in the same seat as her? Maybe she can talk to some of the parents like the one in the report who complains that car seats are 'babyish.'

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070518/car_seats_070518/20070518?hub=Canada

What do you all think about the new safety recommendations (apparently it won't be a law, but the higher limit seats are now legal if we as parents want to use them). Still not sure what this means for those of us who just bought car seats within the past few months as they have the old stickers on them.

Tiger

As far as we know, there will be re-stickering of seats currently certified to 48 lbs. What MIGHT happen is some manufactures might make a public statement/announcement through TC that certain seats made during certain time frame would be okay to use to 65 lbs - ie. what Fisher Price did a few years ago with the higher rf limit of 30 lbs for its convertible seat certified to 22 lbs in Canada.

Btw, this is just a change in safety standards and not traffic laws which are set and enforced by the provinces. Just mean if there are anyone wanting to make harness seats with 65 lbs limit for Canada, they now can provided the seats conform to standards.

Thanks for the info - I know it's not law, but at least the option is there for parents who want to harness for as long as possible. I did forget to mention though that I have a problem with the 65lb weight limit as they are suggesting it's only to accommodate 'heavy kids.' What about very long torsoed kids like my daughter - she is only 40lbs, and is just turning 4 years old, but she (like most kids) will outgrow her Radian in height (she is already on last slot) before the 65 lb weight.

Do you know if there are plans to increase the top slot heights? I know this would require more research, etc. This with the increased weight limits would be a wonderfully safe alternative for our Canadian kids.

Tiger

tiger926 said:

Thanks for the info - I know it's not law, but at least the option is there for parents who want to harness for as long as possible. I did forget to mention though that I have a problem with the 65lb weight limit as they are suggesting it's only to accommodate 'heavy kids.' What about very long torsoed kids like my daughter - she is only 40lbs, and is just turning 4 years old, but she (like most kids) will outgrow her Radian in height (she is already on last slot) before the 65 lb weight.

Do you know if there are plans to increase the top slot heights? I know this would require more research, etc. This with the increased weight limits would be a wonderfully safe alternative for our Canadian kids.

Tiger

Click to expand...

I know some manufacturers when designing new seats are looking at higher max harness heights, but any fundamental change like slot height to an existing car seat would require a complete new set of safety testing and would in effect make it a different seat. Good - yes, likely - no. And since most seats are first marketed in the US and certified there I don't see anything like that changing in Canada. We'd be more successful at lobbying Britax to market the Regent here.

Cool that the higher weight limit was on the news... sucks that so many Canadians are so far behind the US on recognizing the importance of car seat safety and going beyond the government set minimum standards... And it bugs me that news stories often seem to miss the point when they could do so much more to educate parents on best practice instead of law.