Frustration & Confusion with Safety 1st!!

AllieK

New member
I contacted Safety 1st via email shortly after posting this thread and Wendy advising me to contact them. Well that was literally back in OCTOBER 2016. I had forgotten I contacted them until after Christmas when I tried the seat again, so I sent another email. Two weeks went by with no response so I sent a third follow-up email. Yesterday I got this response:
We apologize for any inconveniences experienced regarding your email. Your questions and concerns are important to us and we truly appreciate your patience. As per your photos, it appears that the extended headrest for the truck needs to be removed while using this booster seat with the back on it. Once the child's head gets to the top of the booster seat you would want to take the back of the booster seat off and put the extended headrest back onto the truck side again. Please let us know if we may be of further assistance.

So now I am totally confused, I thought the Boost Air required support from the vehicle headrest...? Am I misunderstanding that the tech is advising me to remove the vehicle headrest?

I tried calling Safety 1st a few times and the hold time is just not feasible for me on a work day (30+ minutes) so I will need to wait for a day off to call them.

Anyway, removing the vehicle headrest (even if that's permitted, which I'm pretty sure it's not) does nothing to fix the gap between the booster and vehicle seat back, as I stated in my original email to Safety 1st. I have no clue what to do with this seat now because it doesn't work in ANY of our vehicles. I can't return it because it was final sale (yes, a gamble I know) so now I'm out $60 and stuck with a seat I can't even use. :mad:
 
ADS

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
Yes, I think they are poorly wording it because it does require vehicle support.
I think they mean when the ears reach the seatback top without the head restraint you'd need to go backless. If the head restraint off doesn't decrease the gap the same answer would apply.

Unfortunately that looks like a difficult spot for boosters. Sorry your booster doesn't work there! That's frustrating.
 

AllieK

New member
Thank you, KQ. At this point DS is 50", his ears are all the way to the middle of the vehicle headrest, there's no way I could remove it.

I don't want to put him in a backless booster, I feel like he's too young! Is a backless less safe than a HBB? I'm really shocked that the Safety 1st CPST would recommend putting a 5yo in a backless booster, it just seems like so much less support to me.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
Statistically there isn't really a performance difference. As we know it is all down to proper positioning. So it will depend on the 5 year old. Personally one of my kids was in a backless at 6 in my mom's car because that's what fit and would be used properly. So in this case a rep advocating proper use over not compatible isn't surprising. If a child needs the back for positioning or doesn't sit properly without it obviously that won't work for the given child, but while there are a few crash test comparisons from Europe re: side impacts, we don't have any real world data showing a 5 year old isn't safe in a backless booster and do know that using one reduces injury at high rates no matter what kind it is.
 

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