Question Kiddy World Plus - Shield Question

Beachmom33 · Aug 4, 2015

Hi there! I'm new to this site, but so far I'm loving it and all of the amazing posts! I am in the process of becoming a CPST, and a few of my close friends are instructors. I bought this seat because of my son's health issues. I have never heard of this one before until my friend told me that this would be a better option vs. a harness at this age. My son is 23 months old, 36 inches tall, and 25 pounds. He constantly gets car sick and we have tried EVERYTHING. We have bought new seats, we took the mirror down, got his ears and eyes checked, everything. I wanted to RF him as long as possible, but since I bought this seat he has NOT been sick. So, my question is, when tightening the shield, how tight do I get it. When I called Kiddy I was told get it snug but not too tight(I'm used to the pinch test) I was like okay that makes sense...Well, this morning I go and put him in to take him to daycare and I find myself questioning my install. I have the seat attached to the vehicle by LATCH, so I know he will not fly out of the seat, but I don't want him slipping out of the shield. I pulled him up and he didn't come out, so that made me feel better, but when talking to my tech group here nobody has experience with this seat so they can't tell me, and the training they have had with it was not in person. I will call Kiddy again, but because this community is so knowledgable I wanted to reach out and ask here. I also think my fear comes from the "unknown", this is an unfamiliar seat to me and I am trained with the other seats and not this one. So I am hoping to gain some knowledge to take back to my community. Thank you in advance for your help!
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LISmama810 · Aug 4, 2015

Hi there! Unfortunately, I think not a lot of people have experience with this seat in general. We emphasize extended-rear facing, to the point that (typically) once a kid is done rear-facing, there's not really much point to that seat, you know? It really is more of a niche seat that doesn't get recommended a lot.

I did have one that I played with for a while but didn't wind up using due to compatibility issues with my vehicles.

You want the shield to be firm against the child, but not squishing him. Your test of not being able to pull him out is probably a good one. If it's making you very uncomfortable, though, any properly used harnessed seat is also a safe option for him.

(I know that other people will come along and encourage you to try rear-facing him again. It also sounds like you know that rear-facing is usually the best option, but I believe you when you say you've tried everything, including ruling out other medical issues. We strongly encourage people to rear-face to 2 years old, and your child is practically there, so I'm not going to lecture you about it.)

_juune · Aug 4, 2015

Beachmom33 said:
I also think my fear comes from the "unknown", this is an unfamiliar seat to me and I am trained with the other seats and not this one. So I am hoping to gain some knowledge to take back to my community. Thank you in advance for your help!
Posted via Mobile Device

I'd love to say something along the lines that all the seat are crash tested to the same standard, etc. I'm in Europe where shield seats are steadily gaining popularity mostly due to very good results in consumer (ADAC) crash tests. Yet there is i.e. this, where once crashed in real cars these kind of seats have issues with large excursion or even ejection of test dummies, and also loads on the abdomen are concerning, which is something that has not been measured up until now because the sensors are brand new and were not available previously. There's also the infamous UTAC roll over video, where a dummy is ejected from a shield seat in a simulated multiple rollover event. That caused tougher requirements to be added to the R44/04 [Europe's car seat standard] rollover test. Cybex [another manufacturer of shield seats] claims their newest shield seats pass the new requirements, though.
Added: sorry, I got interrupted and posted unfinished. What I wanted to say is that I, too, feel like there's a lot of unknown about these kind of seats

tiggercat · Aug 4, 2015

_juune said:
I'd love to say something along the lines that all the seat are crash tested to the same standard, etc. I'm in Europe where shield seats are steadily gaining popularity mostly due to very good results in consumer (ADAC) crash tests. Yet there is i.e. this, where once crashed in real cars these kind of seats have issues with large excursion or even ejection of test dummies, and also loads on the abdomen are concerning, which is something that has not been measured up until now because the sensors are brand new and were not available previously. There's also the infamous UTAC roll over video, where a dummy is ejected from a shield seat in a simulated multiple rollover event. That caused tougher requirements to be added to the R44/04 [Europe's car seat standard] rollover test. Cybex [another manufacturer of shield seats] claims their newest shield seats pass the new requirements, though.
Added: sorry, I got interrupted and posted unfinished. What I wanted to say is that I, too, feel like there's a lot of unknown about these kind of seats

Wow. Those photos of repeated ejections really say it all, don't they?

jwilliams · Aug 4, 2015

I've had a busy day, and maybe I'm losing my mind, but could someone explain this from slide 26 of that document? "It is assumed that the use of shield technology will increase due to the positive assessment given today." What the what?

SafeDad · Aug 4, 2015

Beachmom33 said:
Hi there! I'm new to this site, but so far I'm loving it and all of the amazing posts! I am in the process of becoming a CPST, and a few of my close friends are instructors. I bought this seat because of my son's health issues. I have never heard of this one before until my friend told me that this would be a better option vs. a harness at this age. My son is 23 months old, 36 inches tall, and 25 pounds. He constantly gets car sick and we have tried EVERYTHING. We have bought new seats, we took the mirror down, got his ears and eyes checked, everything. I wanted to RF him as long as possible, but since I bought this seat he has NOT been sick. So, my question is, when tightening the shield, how tight do I get it. When I called Kiddy I was told get it snug but not too tight(I'm used to the pinch test) I was like okay that makes sense...Well, this morning I go and put him in to take him to daycare and I find myself questioning my install. I have the seat attached to the vehicle by LATCH, so I know he will not fly out of the seat, but I don't want him slipping out of the shield. I pulled him up and he didn't come out, so that made me feel better, but when talking to my tech group here nobody has experience with this seat so they can't tell me, and the training they have had with it was not in person. I will call Kiddy again, but because this community is so knowledgable I wanted to reach out and ask here. I also think my fear comes from the "unknown", this is an unfamiliar seat to me and I am trained with the other seats and not this one. So I am hoping to gain some knowledge to take back to my community. Thank you in advance for your help!
Posted via Mobile Device

Welcome to Car-Seat.Org!

There is nothing inherently bad about restraints of this type. The original Britax Laptop was a great energy absorbing restraint system for older kids. As LISmama810 said, there are some compatibility and use issues with the World Plus, which are reasons we never published a review of it at CarseatBlog. I did not use our sample much, so hopefully someone who used one daily can help you. That it is tight enough that you can't pull the child from the restraint is a good indicator.

If you are still uncomfortable with it, is a forward-facing 5-point harness likely to cause the same issues for your son? You are close enough to 2 years old to where this is a reasonable alternative as well.

creideamh · Aug 10, 2015

I had a KWP for a few months, tightening the LATCH belt as far as I could without legitimately suffocating her and thinking that was perfect and safe until one day, she got mad and managed to push the shield out just enough to wriggle under. I had read previously this was a relatively common occurrence in Europe but wrote it off as the different install (seatbelt, no locking mechanism there vs the LATCH belt here). Needless to say, that was the end of the KWP for us.

I would second the suggestion to consider a FF harness seat, perhaps a Britax with HUGS? That's what I ended up choosing for the car where I needed the FF seat (ERFed til 4 in the main car). The neck loading isn't an overly convincing argument for a shield seat when we have seats with top tethers and energy-absorbing chest pads. My two cents. I love Euro seats and new/different technology, but she's never escaped a harnessed seat...

Question Kiddy World Plus - Shield Question

Beachmom33

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LISmama810

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_juune

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tiggercat

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jwilliams

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SafeDad

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creideamh

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