Nedra
Car-Seat.org Ambassador
My sister is wanting to keep her kiddo in an infant seat as long as possible. The main advantage of this is for traveling and being able to do the baseless install. The seat is a B-Safe and the child meets all the requirements of the seat. However, they have found that when they need to do the baseless install, her feet are cramped. I told her that this wasn't a safety concern, since I know that kids can have their legs dangling all over the place and it's still okay. But she reminded me that with the baseless install, the belt must go over the child's legs, so having her legs bent up means that the belt is passing up and over then instead of straight across from one belt guide to the next.
I hope this makes sense.
So the question that this raised for me is whether this is a known issue and what other people do. Are you just supposed to switch to a convertible (or only use the seat with the base) once the child's knees interfere with a flat belt line in the baseless install? Or is there another way to make a baseless install fit safely? Like, could you install the seat and then have the child bend her knees OVER the belt instead of needing them to be stuffed UNDER the belt? Do the manufacturers have recommendations about when a baseless install becomes unsafe?
I hope this makes sense.
So the question that this raised for me is whether this is a known issue and what other people do. Are you just supposed to switch to a convertible (or only use the seat with the base) once the child's knees interfere with a flat belt line in the baseless install? Or is there another way to make a baseless install fit safely? Like, could you install the seat and then have the child bend her knees OVER the belt instead of needing them to be stuffed UNDER the belt? Do the manufacturers have recommendations about when a baseless install becomes unsafe?