Chicco Nextfit Chest Clip

Nedra · Sep 28, 2013

The nextfit chest clip has two positions -- rear-facing and forward-facing. My understanding is that the purpose of the chest clip is to properly position the straps on the chest so that they are in the right place when a crash happens.

Is the proper placement for the chest clip really DIFFERENT if you are rear- vs forward-facing? Wouldn't the proper placement depend more on the size of the kid? In which case, are the straps really supposed to be in different positions for a 3-year-old who is rear-facing than that same three-year-old who is forward-facing?

On a scale if 1-10, how bad of a mom would I be if I put a rear-facing kid in the seat with the chest clip in the forward-facing position? Is there an age when it would become okay, or is there really a safety difference between rear- and forward-facing strap position?

Carolinadaisy · Sep 28, 2013

Chicco has stated to only use rf position when rf regardless of child size and age. It hasn't passed testing to be used otherwise. I wouldn't risk it!

snowbird25ca · Sep 29, 2013

I would suggest calling Chicco and telling them of your concerns, in the mean time, the seat needs to be used according to directions.

Nedra · Sep 29, 2013

I have contacted Chicco and hope to hear back soon. In the meantime, I wanted to reassure everyone that I am not actually using a nextfit at the moment, so I'm not misusing it. My question was more from a technical standpoint -- why is it that the straps need to be in a different position for the same kid depending on the orientation of the seat? Everything I read seems to say that this feature is so that the seat "grows with your child," but then it's based on parent choice (to turn forward-facing or not) instead of size of kid.

Nedra · Sep 29, 2013

Oh, and the last question "how bad a mom would I be..." wasn't to suggest that I am planning to do that no matter what Chicco says. It was more because I am interested in knowing how serious of a misuse the strap positioning is. I am particularly confused by chest clips because there's so much variability to them. I was at Target and the distance that the chest clips placed between the straps varied a LOT. And European car seats don't even have them! So now I am wondering what the difference is between rear- and forward strap position because no other car seat manufacturers seem to see a need for a difference and I am unsure of how heavily to weight this feature when buying a CRS.

Chicco Nextfit Chest Clip

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