is there anything to do if the straps hurt their legs?

i posted about my friend who put her 3 and 4 year old in backless boosters b/c the belts across their legs are really tight. well she took them out of the boosters and put them back in teh seats (i think they are Costco seats...not the Scenera though).

is there any way to fix the seats? she says she has it on teh top level above their shoulders and as loose as possible.

also the girls keep unbuckling the chest clip. is there anything to prevent that?

Are the straps actually leaving marks on their legs? If not, then she may just have to suck it up and tell the kids that it's for their own safety to have the straps "snug as a hug". If she starts to teach the kids WHY the straps are snug then slowly they should adjust and learn that mommy is not going to loosen it no matter what.

Making the straps as loose as possible is NOT an answer. This would cause the kids to be ejected if they were in a crash.

If the straps are making marks on the kids' legs, is it because they're wearing shorts? You could take a very thin blanket and put it between their legs and the straps.

If the seats are 40-pound seats and the children are 44 pounds as you posted originally, they are safer in the backless boosters than in the harnessed seats. You had posted that one seat was an Alpha Omega -- that can be used as a booster. Is the other seat a convertible or a combination seat?

im sorry for being confused here. every time i talk to her i get a different (or confusing) story.

she threw teh alpha omega away. so no she has the 2 cosco seats that are labeled boosters but are 5 pt. harnessed seats. ????? i keep trying to get the name of the seat but she's not sure.

she says the straps leave marks on their legs and they complain all the time.

plus the issue of unbuckling the chest clip.

They are likely combination seats. She should take the harnesses out and use the seats as belt-positioning boosters, and lock the seatbelts if possible. It is not safe at all to have children over the weight limits in the harnesses.

i keep trying to get in touch with her. im not sure if its a combo seat but im thinking thats what it has to be....i dont think she knows about taking the harnesses out. and i dont know..but i am thinking she probably doesnt have the manual.

and what do you mean by "locking them"???

considering this is TX and they could both be in just a seatbelt, i think she's doing better than a lot of ppl down there. i just worry...and am trying to help her out. i hate that i cant be there to see it for myself so i can help her.

chickabiddy said:

They are likely combination seats. She should take the harnesses out and use the seats as belt-positioning boosters, and lock the seatbelts if possible. It is not safe at all to have children over the weight limits in the harnesses.

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In this case, as the OP posted previously that the children were unbuckling themselves and sitting sideways in the seats, I would have to say that AS A TEMPORARY MEASURE, these children are safer in a 5 pt harness that they are too heavy for ( and has a slim possibility of ripping out and ejecting the children) than in a booster they are not seat belted into at all (which they will definitely be ejected from)

yeh, thats my struggle.
she said she can afford a GN (one) this month and can get another one next month. this isnt an ideal situation but i have suggested putting the higher weight child (which just so happens to be the younger child).

i have heard the GN is hard to get your hands on....im not sure.

so is there anything to prevent them from unbuckling the chest straps?

aisraeltax said:

yeh, thats my struggle.
she said she can afford a GN (one) this month and can get another one next month. this isnt an ideal situation but i have suggested putting the higher weight child (which just so happens to be the younger child).

i have heard the GN is hard to get your hands on....im not sure.

so is there anything to prevent them from unbuckling the chest straps?

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I think if you do a search you'll find some posts about chest clips and stopping kids from undoing them and/or sliding them out of position. (It's late or I'd search and put some links here for you. )

So far as the safety aspect, if the harness is properly tightened them unbuckling the chest clip itself isn't really much of a big deal. She needs to be firm and rebuckle them, but it's important to keep in mind that it's a prescrash positioner - if a harness is tightened properly, it shouldn't be moving out of position in a collision.

You said she has cosco seats, and cosco harnesses are notoriously bad for being twisty. If they're twisted up like I've seen so many of them, they might just be hurting her kids legs because of that. Or maybe their pants are caught and bunched up? Or maybe the kids are just complaining if other comfort issues are ruled out...

The other issue of concern is that it's likely that the kids have outgrown the seats by height in terms of the harness anyways, so there's problems on a multitude of levels. The question is, what will keep her kids the safest in the interim...

Is having an adult sit in the back seat an option? Use an adult back there in combination with some sort of reward system for them staying buckled or leaving the chest clip alone etc. I think that if that's possible, the kids would be better in a booster buckled up, then in a harness that's too loose and they're over the weight limit of. As it stands right now, they're not really safe any way you slice it... too loose harness, undone chest clip, outgrown by weight and possibly height... it's a combo of things that is just a really bad scenario. If she can address them undoing the seatbelt, then it's just one factor to deal with until she can get seats that they fit properly.

OTOH, if there's no way to get them to stay buckled in the seatbelt, then I guess the carseat is the lesser of 2 evils even with the huge misuses until she gets them replaced.

Hugs to you and to her. You're a super friend for trying to help her out with this - and it's wonderful that she's looking for answers and trying to get help. Asking questions is always the first step on the path of learning stuff, so she's headed down the right trail anyways, even if it is a long one for her and her kids.

thanks snowbird. its a difficult situation b/c im so far away and cant help and dont really konw which seats these are, etc. etc.
i will do a search for the chest clip part. i was thinking that even if they do undo them, thats the least of our worries right now due to the other issues....it seems though (and this is just a thought) that the kids dont want to be in seats and are really good at driving mom crazy! lol! She is in the process of becoming a single mom, finishing school, etc. etc.....so admittedly does not have car seats at the top of her "worry" list,yk?

im just hoping she can get her hands on a GN.