grumpybear
New member
My 2y.o. son is ERF. He is only 28lb and our carseat goes up to 33lb RF so he is well within the acceptable limits of the seat. Everytime we re-install our carseats (after a trip or I clean the car/seat), I try to have our installations checked.
And EVERY SINGLE TIME, since my son was a year old, the techs pretty much tell me that I can FF him now. Every single time, I tell them that research shows that RF is safer as long as the child is within the carseat limits for RF. Then they counter with how long his legs are, how boring it would be, how much easier it would be to adjust the straps when FF, etc etc.
A few months ago, I wrote an email to the Safekids coordinator in our area regarding this since I've known of at least 2 people who FF their RF toddlers after getting their seat checked. These people have done their research about ERF but after the seatcheck decide to FF their kids because, well, the experts told them so. Unlike me, I don't think they visit car-seat.org (which helped me not succumb to the very strong encouragement to FF). Anyway, the Safekids coordinator assured me that she would address this and educate the CPSTs about the benefits of ERF.
Well, yesterday, I had our seat checked again and in the 15minutes that I was there, I was told at least 4x that I should probably FF my son and it would make things a lot easier for us.
While I understand that the tech was just probably thankful that I actually had my 2y.o. harnessed (carseat compliance is HORRIBLE here in my area) I still don't understand why he kept insisting on turning the seat around especially since I told him repeatedly that research has shown that RF is safer.
Obviously our local Safekids coordinator hasn't done a proper job of educating the local techs because besides the ERF issue, the tech did a very shoddy job of installing the carseat that DH had to reinstall the seat again at home (the seatbelts were twisted and the seat too reclined).
I was also taken aback when after the tech installed the carseat, he turned around to ask me, "Is this ok?", referring to the installation (I'm thinking, "you're the tech! you tell me!"). When I asked him about the twisted seatbelts he said that stuff like that happens and is sometimes unavoidable. Well, a few hours later, DH was able to reinstall it without the twist in the seatbelt with a more solid installation.
SO anyway, if you've read this far, thank you. But what then would you do?
And EVERY SINGLE TIME, since my son was a year old, the techs pretty much tell me that I can FF him now. Every single time, I tell them that research shows that RF is safer as long as the child is within the carseat limits for RF. Then they counter with how long his legs are, how boring it would be, how much easier it would be to adjust the straps when FF, etc etc.
A few months ago, I wrote an email to the Safekids coordinator in our area regarding this since I've known of at least 2 people who FF their RF toddlers after getting their seat checked. These people have done their research about ERF but after the seatcheck decide to FF their kids because, well, the experts told them so. Unlike me, I don't think they visit car-seat.org (which helped me not succumb to the very strong encouragement to FF). Anyway, the Safekids coordinator assured me that she would address this and educate the CPSTs about the benefits of ERF.
Well, yesterday, I had our seat checked again and in the 15minutes that I was there, I was told at least 4x that I should probably FF my son and it would make things a lot easier for us.
While I understand that the tech was just probably thankful that I actually had my 2y.o. harnessed (carseat compliance is HORRIBLE here in my area) I still don't understand why he kept insisting on turning the seat around especially since I told him repeatedly that research has shown that RF is safer.
Obviously our local Safekids coordinator hasn't done a proper job of educating the local techs because besides the ERF issue, the tech did a very shoddy job of installing the carseat that DH had to reinstall the seat again at home (the seatbelts were twisted and the seat too reclined).
I was also taken aback when after the tech installed the carseat, he turned around to ask me, "Is this ok?", referring to the installation (I'm thinking, "you're the tech! you tell me!"). When I asked him about the twisted seatbelts he said that stuff like that happens and is sometimes unavoidable. Well, a few hours later, DH was able to reinstall it without the twist in the seatbelt with a more solid installation.
SO anyway, if you've read this far, thank you. But what then would you do?