Nisha
New member
Why oh why didn't I think of this last week?
I was helping with a big car seat check last Saturday. One of the families I helped (tried to help ) had a little girl, 3 1/2 who weighed about 32 lbs and was about 40" tall, in an AO of some sort. They had just taken the harness off the day before because they realized her shoulders were over the harness on the top usable slot. So they had her in it as a booster. I had never worked with an AO (even though I've heard plenty about them) so I was reading all the labels trying to figure out what to do with her, because the l/s belt fit her terribly, it didn't go on her shoulder and it sat so there was a 1-2" gap between her chest and the seat belt!
When reading the labels, I discovered that she was not heavy OR tall enough to use the seat as a booster. I talked to the parents, we looked at the harness slots, I talked to them about getting an express there at the check, but they really didn't want to get one because if they were going to buy a new seat, they wanted a nicer one (don't really blame them there).
The reason I'm kicking myself is when I was telling my sister about this yesterday, it hit me that the little girl COULD have sat RF in that seat!!!! :doh: I usually don't preach ERF to parents unless their children are 2 or younger, or exceptionally small, because I don't practice it with my 3 1/2 year old, I don't feel like I can preach what I don't practice. So, I didn't even think about it
Instead they left the check with her in the seat as a booster, the way they came, and since the Dad said they have a nbb at home that has a 30lb min on it, I'm sure they took her home and put her in that instead! I told them about the benefits of EH and how much better off she would be even in a GOOD HBB, but I don't know if it did any good.
They didn't have the harness with them so we couldn't have put her in RF at the check, but I could have at least told them about it!
I was helping with a big car seat check last Saturday. One of the families I helped (tried to help ) had a little girl, 3 1/2 who weighed about 32 lbs and was about 40" tall, in an AO of some sort. They had just taken the harness off the day before because they realized her shoulders were over the harness on the top usable slot. So they had her in it as a booster. I had never worked with an AO (even though I've heard plenty about them) so I was reading all the labels trying to figure out what to do with her, because the l/s belt fit her terribly, it didn't go on her shoulder and it sat so there was a 1-2" gap between her chest and the seat belt!
When reading the labels, I discovered that she was not heavy OR tall enough to use the seat as a booster. I talked to the parents, we looked at the harness slots, I talked to them about getting an express there at the check, but they really didn't want to get one because if they were going to buy a new seat, they wanted a nicer one (don't really blame them there).
The reason I'm kicking myself is when I was telling my sister about this yesterday, it hit me that the little girl COULD have sat RF in that seat!!!! :doh: I usually don't preach ERF to parents unless their children are 2 or younger, or exceptionally small, because I don't practice it with my 3 1/2 year old, I don't feel like I can preach what I don't practice. So, I didn't even think about it
Instead they left the check with her in the seat as a booster, the way they came, and since the Dad said they have a nbb at home that has a 30lb min on it, I'm sure they took her home and put her in that instead! I told them about the benefits of EH and how much better off she would be even in a GOOD HBB, but I don't know if it did any good.
They didn't have the harness with them so we couldn't have put her in RF at the check, but I could have at least told them about it!