medical carseats

What are some SN carseats on the market that insurance or other programs may pay for. Do they have any real benefit compaired to the regular seats on the market?

I'm not special needs certified, so hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along soon. That said, as far as I know, it's is generally preferable to keep SN kids in traditional child restraints for as long as possible (Rear facing as long as possible too). Some SN seats have additional support bolsters, etc. which might be a big benefit, depending on what the specific needs of the child are, and most will accommodate much larger children/adults than traditional restraints. I believe some SN restraints can do double duty for other uses as well, but again, I'm no expert.

Are you asking about this for a specific child? If so, more information about the child and his/her special needs would really help us make suggestions. :thumbsup:

A friends daughter was born with spinal bifida and also has celiac. She is 5.5yrs and is a bit small for her age. Until recently she had good muscle tone upper body but has disabilities waist down. Last week she got a bad UTI that turned septic and almost died. She is now doing better as she has been taken off the ECMO machine. Only time will tell how she will recover and what kind of damage was done to both brain and body.

She'll be needing a new carseat when she goes home. I was thinking about a Radian. The family has been through so much I was hoping to find them a seat that she will be safest and most comfortable in. Her first ride home will be a minimum of seven hours drive time, and I'm sure she will have lots of appointments in the future. The family couldn't afford one before and most defiantly can't now. I personally can't afford to pay cash, but have been poking around on swap to trade my extra CD's for something. I thought I'd check out special needs seats as I heard insurance companies may be willing to pay for one for her.

I figured a RF seat would be best if she fits, I know by weight she does, hight I'm pretty sure. Although I'm not sure about how it will work with her legs. As for FF seats I'm not sure what would do, something a bit more reclined? I know the FR85 SICT is rather comfy and has a bit of recline. The radian does but even in my car it is still very upright. I feel the GN has too much head slump issues. I really liked the new gracosmartseat as I heard it was a bit more reclined. I really don't know much about SN seats at all.

Regrettably I have no knowledge of which restraints may or may not be able to be funded through given insurance policies. If it helps however I have listed some of the currently available special needs seats/restraints below. The list is by no means comprehensive, but hopefully can help in some way. There are some experts on the forum who I'm sure can offer more extensive advice.

Special needs seats can offer certain options that are unavailable from “conventional” restraints such as additional support cushions, attachable positioning devices, or simply higher weight limits. This is not to say however, that “conventional” seats cannot achieve the desired solution. They are often suitable and generally cost much less than dedicated special needs seats. When purchasing a seat for someone with special needs, the same mantra applies as to purchasing any seat; the best seat is the one that suits the needs of the child/occupant best, is compatible with the vehicle(s) in which it is being used and is able to be used correctly by the parents/carers.

Merritt Manufacturing

• Roosevelt – Forward facing harnessed seat which caters for children from 35 to 115 pounds and up to 62” tall. Various accessories available.
• Churchill – Booster for children weighing up 175lbs. Again, various support accessories available.

Snugseat

• Hippo – Similar (I believe) to the original Britax Marathon. Designed for children in hip spica and other casts and splints. Rear facing, 5 to 33lbs, forward facing up to 65 lbs
• Traveller Plus – Very similar to the Britax Husky/Regent. Forward facing, harnesses to 105lbs.
• Pilot – High back booster for children weighing up to 120lbs. I think this is based on the Sunshine kids Monterey booster, but I’m completely sure.

Columbia Medical

• 2000 Therapedic™ IPS Car Seat - Forward facing harnessed seat to 102lbs. Support and positioning accessories available.
• 2500 Therapedic™ IPS Car Seat – Similar to above but has an upper weight limit of 130lbs. Again, support and positioning accessories available.
• 2400 ‘Spirit’ APS Car Seat – Can be used for occupants between 25 and 130lbs and up to 66” tall

Recaro Reha

• Monza Reha Adaptive Car Seat – Booster with torso support harness for users up to 110lbs. Although harnessed, the seat ALWAYS requires use of the 3 point seatbelt as the internal harness is only for support.


E-Z-On Products

• 86Y Harness – This is not so much a special needs product specifically, as it fills more a niche gap for certain situations where a harness is required but a booster is not a viable option. It can however, if required, be used for such a situation if so suitable and can be quite a cost effective option.

• Vests – The E-Z-On vests come in various models which are used frequently in special needs transport. We currently use the 203 and 103Z vests. They can be used for occupants up to 168lbs and various accessories are available (although we have no experience of using any of the accessories). The 103Z vest closes behind the wearer and can be used for passengers who cannot understand that they should not unbuckle themselves while the vehicle is moving. In difference to the 103Z vest, the 203 vest opens and closes at the front and used in situations, where the occupant needs to be held upright if they are unable to manage it themselves. Given the widespread usage of E-Z-On Products in special needs scenarios, I would suspect they would be able to be purchased through insurance.

There are other brands such as Special Tomato, Angelride and Carrie, however I have very little knowledge of them so I suggest searching them on the internet or asking an expert here on the forum.

I hope this goes someway to answering your question. As I said, others on the forum have a far more extensive knowledge of special needs seats and how they might be funded and also more experience with working with certain seats. I would strongly suggest consulting a special needs trained technician and also the given insurance company to make sure of the options before proceeding with any purchase/trial.

The thing with insurance paying for SN car seats is, car seats expire, and often insurance will only pay for one ever, or will only pay for one piece of durable medical equipment every 5 years and kids need other equipment too, or stuff like that. So usually we advise using a traditional seat as long as possible to maximize the use of those insurance funds, among other things.

Also, SN seats aren't held to quite the same testing standard as traditional seats. Yes, they're tested and designed to be safe, but concessions have to be made when transporting kids with special needs to their other medical needs, and these seats are designed with that tradeoff in mind. So if they CAN use a traditional seat safely, it's best, because we know those have been held to the legal standard for non-SN seats.

If she has low tone recline would definitely be good. Whether RF will work or not will probably depend on multiple issues.

So if she can RF go with a radian, if not what should we look at? Any chance of insurance or another program paying for a non medical seat for her? I think I remember her being in a booster last time I saw her before she got ill. Our checkpoints only have cosco seats that she has out grown.

If we had to go with a medical seat due to low funds which one would you recommend? Maybe I could loan them my regent I just got back from another SN family.

The MyRide has a nice recline FF but at 5.5, I'm not sure how long she will have in it.

Thirsty4Knowledge said:

The MyRide has a nice recline FF but at 5.5, I'm not sure how long she will have in it.

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:yeahthat:
If you could get some specifics about her weight, and torso height (sitting, from bum to shoulder), that would help a ton! A small 5.5 yo might certainly have room in a Graco MyRide, or could be almost out of it. That seat is well know for its FF recline. Several members of this board have used it with success for low tone kids.

I remember her being around 27 lbs and wearing size four last fall, and with her being so sick and her 7 hours from here I have no idea where she is. Although her mom did say she was back up to admit weight. So maybe 30ish. I asked her half brothers mom but she didn't know any currents. As for torso I won't beable to get that for quite some time. Her mom has lots on her mind as they almost lost her a few days ago and her brain damage is still unknown at this point. She also has a 6.5 yr and a 6m that are down there too. Not to mention her exMIL and two aunts got hit by a taxi when walking to the hosp from the hotel. Two of them ended with bad injuries. The dad at this point still is not answering any calls or texts he is just spending time with her. I was hoping to start looking for deals and saving what I can. They have not talked about discharge at this point.

Even though they are separated I'm still freinds with both parents, I'd like to help out in anyway I can but besides when the mom texts me I really want to give them some space. So many people are constinatly sending messages and requests for updates and info. These two are my favorite war vet heroes and have been through so much. I hope to give them one less thing to worry about. Kind of like a homecoming gift.

Gotcha. Sounds like they've all been though way a ton of awful stuff lately!

It sounds like she'd fit in almost anything by wight, but hight can be a different matter. Do you remember her being particularly short or tall? Is there anyone (besides mom or dad obviously) who might know what size shirts she currently wears? That could help with getting a general idea about torso height.

Unless she's particularly tall for her weight, or has a really long torso, I'd bet she'd still have a fair bit of time in the MyRide. Another seat with a pretty nice FF recline is the First Years/Lamaze True Fit. It has a very tall shell, and a nice cushy cover, so that certainly might be worth looking into.

Regardless my thoughts are with the family. Fingers crossed that they get some GOOD news soon!

Oh my, what an ordeal. Lots of positive thoughts to the family.

As for seats, I agree with what the others have recommended. If she fits, the MyRide is very supportive and reclined while forward-facing. The issue is torso height.

If the fit in the MyRide would be questionable, I'd look at the Frontier 85... not necessarily the SICT, I don't think it's necessary to spend the extra money, but it's up to you and the family. It's quite reclined forward-facing (be sure to flip that bar on the bottom of the seat forward when using it in harness mode. It has the highest harness height of any conventional seat on the market (non-special needs seats). One thing I like about the Frontier 85 over the True Fit is head support. The True Fit is very wide in the interior and side-to-side head-flop could be an issue. The Frontier 85 has nice headwings that might help in this situation.

Do you know what seat she was previously riding in and how she fit in it?

I am not a tech, but have experience with special needs seats. It typically takes at least two months to get insurance to cover a car seat. The child needs a prescription to be evaluated for a seat by a physical therapist. Then the therapist writes a report, gets dr to sign off, submits it to insurance. Insurance drags their feet.

The roosevelt is a very nice seat and is what I went with. The churchill has a min. weight of 65 pounds. The traveller is a smaller roosevelt - it may have a higher weight limit, but the harness height does not coorespond(well, the roosevelt is a souped up traveller). I had two britax huskys, which came before the regents. My seat has an 80 pound weight limit, the same harness height, and a much better price point. The roosevelt is giving ds 4 more inches of torso height, plus weight.

The pilot is a monteray with a 4 pt harness that is very wide. I had concerns about it. The monteray is not a great fit for most small, skinny kids. The recaro reha is a smaller booster with a 4 point harness. Did not try it in person, because we suspected ds would be too close to outgrowing it at 8 years, 63#, 52".

We tried the columbia 2400 seat, their newest. It was nice, with the greatest offering of additional supports for severe physical needs, but several techs had concerns about the harness buckles placement. Ds really preferred the roosevelt. The 2000 and 2500 are essentially the same seat, just one is bigger. They look like a scooped out shell. The special needs certified tech I know, who is also a physical therapist and runs a special needs car seat fitting clinic says that she would recommend it for kids with very low tone/poor torso/head control. She said that you can add support in to it. Most special needs seats are ff only, and are more upright.

There is also the special tomato, which I would look at if you needed an all-in-one kind of deal - the seat can attach to a special needs stroller, a sitting chair, a table, etc. Ds has one that fits a table.

AustinMusic said:

Merritt Manufacturing

• Roosevelt – Forward facing harnessed seat which caters for children from 35 to 115 pounds and up to 62” tall. Various accessories available.
• Churchill – Booster for children weighing up 175lbs. Again, various support accessories available.

Snugseat

• Hippo – Similar (I believe) to the original Britax Marathon. Designed for children in hip spica and other casts and splints. Rear facing, 5 to 33lbs, forward facing up to 65 lbs
• Traveller Plus – Very similar to the Britax Husky/Regent. Forward facing, harnesses to 105lbs.
• Pilot – High back booster for children weighing up to 120lbs. I think this is based on the Sunshine kids Monterey booster, but I’m completely sure.

Columbia Medical

• 2000 Therapedic™ IPS Car Seat - Forward facing harnessed seat to 102lbs. Support and positioning accessories available.
• 2500 Therapedic™ IPS Car Seat – Similar to above but has an upper weight limit of 130lbs. Again, support and positioning accessories available.
• 2400 ‘Spirit’ APS Car Seat – Can be used for occupants between 25 and 130lbs and up to 66” tall

Recaro Reha

• Monza Reha Adaptive Car Seat – Booster with torso support harness for users up to 110lbs. Although harnessed, the seat ALWAYS requires use of the 3 point seatbelt as the internal harness is only for support.


E-Z-On Products

• 86Y Harness – This is not so much a special needs product specifically, as it fills more a niche gap for certain situations where a harness is required but a booster is not a viable option. It can however, if required, be used for such a situation if so suitable and can be quite a cost effective option.

• Vests – The E-Z-On vests come in various models which are used frequently in special needs transport. We currently use the 203 and 103Z vests. They can be used for occupants up to 168lbs and various accessories are available (although we have no experience of using any of the accessories). The 103Z vest closes behind the wearer and can be used for passengers who cannot understand that they should not unbuckle themselves while the vehicle is moving. In difference to the 103Z vest, the 203 vest opens and closes at the front and used in situations, where the occupant needs to be held upright if they are unable to manage it themselves. Given the widespread usage of E-Z-On Products in special needs scenarios, I would suspect they would be able to be purchased through insurance.

There are other brands such as Special Tomato, Angelride and Carrie, however I have very little knowledge of them so I suggest searching them on the internet or asking an expert here on the forum.

I hope this goes someway to answering your question. As I said, others on the forum have a far more extensive knowledge of special needs seats and how they might be funded and also more experience with working with certain seats. I would strongly suggest consulting a special needs trained technician and also the given insurance company to make sure of the options before proceeding with any purchase/trial.

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