Wow! I knew the lowest slot on MA was high, but shocked

coleslawcat

New member
I have a MA that I used with my oldest two. I didn't put them in there until they were about a year, but I also didn't think to check if it fit them, it was before I knew better. My youngest is 9 months now and has been using a Keyfit. He is starting to look squished in there, he's a big boy. He's 28.5 inches and 22 pounds. I figured I would move him to the MA. He is just barely even with the lowest slots! I mean, he might technically still be a tiny bit below them. How can my fairly large 9 month old barely fit this seat and yet it's rated to fit babies from 5 pounds up?
 
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EmmaCPST

CPST Instructor
The scary part is I hear fairly frequently from parents saying they skipped the bucket and used a Classic MA or Blvd from birth. :eek:

My son was about 5 months and 15 pounds here, and those are the bottom slots, his shoulders were JUST barely there... he probably should've been a little bigger before I moved him but that was before I knew about these things.

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Phineasmama

New member
Yeah I know several people who have used them from birth :eek: I put my DD in one at like 8 months old and she looked so tiny in it!

I'm glad they lowered the slots on the new generation seats.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
<shrug>, They could just eliminate the 'at or below' rule and say 'use the bottom slot till the child is even with the next slots up' and the problem would be solved (infants don't ramp up and out of seats, the 'at or below' rule was imperative when there were 3 point harnesses or overhead shields with no lap straps to hold them down...and even that isn't true, three point harnesses in EU seats are supposed to be above the shoulders, not below as is common in US seats).
I have no problem using a Britax for a newborn, because the at or below rule is just for clarity (all seats have that rule), not really for safety. Though I'm sure I'd mention it to a new parent who wanted to follow the rules properly ;)
 

4boysmom

New member
Imagine rewinding 8 years when buckets didn't go higher than 20 or 22 pounds... and my then 4 mo who was over 22 pounds didn't fit. We stayed home for several weeks until he fit better. I can't even recall if they were at his shoulders but they were no longer up by his ears like I know they were at birth/earlish newbie days for my next kiddo. It did not dawn on me to get a different seat because at that point it could still be argued that "Britax was best".
 

4boysmom

New member
<shrug>, They could just eliminate the 'at or below' rule and say 'use the bottom slot till the child is even with the next slots up' and the problem would be solved (infants don't ramp up and out of seats, )

my issue was not with ramping up but strangulation/head slipping under straps when the straps are at or above a childs ear ykwim...
 

luckyclov

New member
I've never heard of that, either (which may not mean a whole lot, but...still).

It's always been that the harness should hold the child down when they "ramp up", so their heads don't become vulnerable to outside objects if "ramping up" and out of the top of the shell. Or some kind of other head/neck trauma from not being contained enough in the seat shell.

On the flip side, my understanding of the harness being at or above the shoulders for a FF child is to reduce spinal compression and to hold the child *back* as opposed to *down*.
 

lanwenyi

New member
We planned to start DD in a classic Blvd (shower gift). We had not bought an infant bucket. Imagine my surprise when I put her in it for the ride home from the hospital and saw the straps above her shoulders. That was the longest, scariest, ride of my life. We stayed home until we were able to borrow a friend's Snugride (22). DD had a long torso, so she fit in the blvd by torso height at abt 5.5 wks.

With DS, we knew better, so we picked up a Mico on clearance before he was born. His torso was not as long as DDs (even though he was longer), so he didn't fit until abt 10 wks old.

It wasn't until I got on message boards that I heard of kids not fitting until 5, 7, 9, 13+ mths. That was when I realized I had long-torsoed kids. Before that, I thought my kids didn't fit b/c they were shorter than average kids.
 

arly1983

New member
DS2 fit at 2 weeks but then my newborn boys were loooooong. DS1 outgrew the Snugride22 by height at 2.5 months.

Picture593.jpg


Picture595.jpg
 

BeautifulChaos

New member
We checked Calico baby just for fun, and she was just below the bottom slots at 1 month, and I have a feeling if we'd actually installed the seat @ 45 degrees she'd have fit.
 

coleslawcat

New member
I just installed and he's actually above the bottom slot now. I tested him in it while it wasn't reclined. When I reclined it and installed it he seemed to gain about an inch. I'm still surprised at how high they are. The highest slot on the Keyfit seems lower than the lowest slot on the Marathon.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
I have one for sure who fit, one who would have fit if I'd tried... My daughter was 7 lbs. when she left the hospital. I could see a crazy long-torso skinny kid fitting at just over 5 lbs. It's the exception but hey, good to have options for exceptions?
 

4boysmom

New member
I've never heard of that to be an issue, though :confused:

my kids have done similarly. If you look at Arly's screaming baby picture imagine the straps up one, that is how it fit my little one. A pissed off newbie can get their head under straps that are up at their ears because they don't fill out the seat in width. Is it an epidemic? No, has it even had one injury/fatality? I dunno but it was not a risk I was willing to take with a rearfacer and no one next to them.
 

bnsnyde

New member
My 4-month-old fits in the new generation Britax seats. He probably fit at 3 months, too. He has a long torso.
 

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