Handle up question

murphydog77 · Jul 14, 2014

I've seen it in a couple of places now where people, both general parents and techs, have mentioned that when considering infant seats, they think it's a con that handles must be in the up position. For instance, on the Cybex Aton 2 and Q seats and the Combi Shuttle seats, the handle must be in the up position. Why is that considered a disadvantage?

xursusmaritimusx · Jul 14, 2014

hmmm maybe some parents find it to be in the way? but as a tech i see it as a rebound feature (as some manufacturers say) I know that some parents i talk to are concerned about the handle breaking in a crash and injuring baby but since new testing and reports from manufacturers are proving otherwise. i let them know.

but also i find leaving the handle up as a convenience since you dont have to adjust it when you put it in or take it out.

safeinthecar · Jul 14, 2014

I know one cop tech who was the first responder on a scene where a loose harness resulted in fatal head to handle contact in a side impact. She has a very strong reaction to handles up and would never put her own children in a seat requiring the handle up.

jordansmom · Jul 14, 2014

As a parent I like being able to leave the handle up as a form of anti rebound and because it's one less step to put it in another position.

I can see how parents would like the flexibility of being able have the handle in multiple positions and not feeling limited. I'm also imagining for parents that leave the infant seat installed, it's easier to load/unload a baby with the handle left back.

murphydog77 · Jul 14, 2014

safeinthecar said:
I know one cop tech who was the first responder on a scene where a loose harness resulted in fatal head to handle contact in a side impact. She has a very strong reaction to handles up and would never put her own children in a seat requiring the handle up.

How sad.

But the same thing would happen in a 3-across potentially if the child were in a loose harness. It's not necessarily the handle, but you know that.

jordansmom said:
As a parent I like being able to leave the handle up as a form of anti rebound and because it's one less step to put it in another position.

I can see how parents would like the flexibility of being able have the handle in multiple positions and not feeling limited. I'm also imagining for parents that leave the infant seat installed, it's easier to load/unload a baby with the handle left back.

Aha! I would never use an infant seat that way, so I could never see it as a bad thing. But I bet that's it. Kind of like Aussie rf tethering.

xursusmaritimusx said:
hmmm maybe some parents find it to be in the way? but as a tech i see it as a rebound feature (as some manufacturers say) I know that some parents i talk to are concerned about the handle breaking in a crash and injuring baby but since new testing and reports from manufacturers are proving otherwise. i let them know.

but also i find leaving the handle up as a convenience since you dont have to adjust it when you put it in or take it out.

Yeah, way back when, I used to picture this shard of a handle broken in half.

Syllieann · Jul 15, 2014

I like to be able to have the handle up or down. I consider the requirement for always up or always down to be a huge disadvantage. When baby is younger and I always take the seat out, the handle is pretty much always up. My 14 month old is in the infant seat still and I use it like a convertible for the canopy and ability to take it out of the car on the rare occasion where I just need to run in somewhere very quickly. It would be so annoying to have to put the handle up every time I buckle him in at this point.

aeormsby · Jul 15, 2014

Probably for the same reason I don't think I ever had the canopy on the infant seat with DS - sometimes it just gets in the way. There were plenty of times when I left the seat in the vehicle and just took the baby out, having to re-adjust the handle every time would be annoying - I liked the option of having it up or down.

ketchupqueen · Jul 15, 2014

I will only consider handle up seats for my own kids (either require or allow), but I do believe any locked position seats are just another way to reduce misuse among parents.

Handle up question

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