Feel good!

Gave one of our MA's to a family who has taken custody for time being at least of their great neice. They had her in the infant seat and it was doing a number on aunt's back to get it to the car. She had about an inch left of growth in the infant seat but I went in and installed the MA just to show them. I took the infant base out. It was put in their brand new Sienna with the shoulder belt and I could not see an latch hooks on it (I showed them how to install that too). I could hear them clattering inside once I took it out. She had never heard of latch and didn't know what those things in her van was for. I showed her how to do it and she was impressed with the ease! Yay!! Feel good teaching someone else something about carseats. So, I assisted her with installing the MA and couldn't get an anchor point to use the tether RF but she was SO IMPRESSED with how tight the install was...that it didn't move a bit. I know they're not used to the tight straps (hers were really loose when they arrived). I showed her how tight they should be and when uncle put her back in he said the straps were too tight so I showed him how to loosen them and how to retighten them once she is buckled in...and probably said three times they need to be tight enough that only one finger fits under. I am going to send them the brochure someone posted on here recently.

She had also never heard carseats expire and still has youngest son in older son's carseat (he's 11!). She is using it as a booster though (it is the FF/booster convertible seat). What do you guys think of that. Same issues...should she get a new one? So, I was glad to see they like the MA. I recommended that if the little girl ends up staying with them and outgrows her infant seat they should look into the scenera (I believe that's the $40 one at Walmart/Kmart). She said she'll be calling me if they get to there. She said baby's grandma is a paramedic and very picky about her little girl (understandable). I told her they should go get the seat checked together (but I know they won't).

So...I'm so glad I got her setup...I just need to find a CPST course close to home to take sometime so I can do this for real!!!

Thanks for hanging in for this long one. I just felt really good helping them...

carseatfreak said:

She had also never heard carseats expire and still has youngest son in older son's carseat (he's 11!). She is using it as a booster though (it is the FF/booster convertible seat). What do you guys think of that. Same issues...should she get a new one?

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Yes, she should absolutely replace the booster. I know some people will say that it doesn't really matter because it's the seat belt that's actually restraining the child, but the booster does take some of the crash forces. While it may be unlikely that an expired booster that cracked/broke in a crash would result in the child being ejected, the child is still going to 'land' back on that broken seat. Ouch!

ETA: Sorry, I clicked "post" too early - I also wanted to add that it's great that you're helping them out.