Infant seat handles Up or Down? Posted on my CL...

lovinwaves

New member
This was just posted on my CL:

"I do not wish to insult anyones intellegence this come from one mom to another please do not flag me because it may benefit a child It breaks my heart everytime I see a unsuspecting parent put the carseat like this and I finalyl decided to tell someone about it.

When you are putting the rear facing car seats with the handle please do not leave the handle in the locked up position when I went to get my carseat installed by the police department they said that often they see when a car crash occurs that the handle will sometimes shatter and penetrate the infant causing death even if the carseat is properally installed same with the sun shade they said to always ride with it down. I hope that someone reads this and realized that they hadn't done it properly, if you don't believe me call the police department I know that we all want whats best for our childeren and that someone that reads this will appriciate it. "
 
ADS

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
I don't believe it. Most seat handles are reinforced to not shatter in crashes. Most brands are allowed to be left up now. There just wouldn't be a pandemic of kids being injured by shattering seat handles, or we'd actually know about it in real research, lawsuits would have been filed, and things would have been changed. :twocents::)
 

abacus2

Well-known member
This is bad advice, but commonly given at checks in my area. There are some infant seats that actually require the handle to be up.
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
I would just reply with the importance of reading the seat manual since some allow up or down, some mandate it being down, and some mandate it being left up. Telling a parent to put the handle down on a Combi seat would be telling the parent to go against the manual.

The instructor of my tech course was also a paramedic & volunteer firefighter. She had been to the scene of a collision where the baby was killed due to not having the handle of an evenflo carrier down. It shattered and a piece of the handle punctured the baby's main vein in the neck. (I'm blanking on the name - I'm thinking aortic, but can't recall for sure at the moment.) She was one who said she would never leave a handle up even on seats that allowed it because she didn't trust it. I never thought to point out Combi seats.

In general around here techs don't want handles up that can be left up because it interferes with rebound. (aka "cocooning," they don't call it rebound or realize that it's behavior vs. design...) They actually have serious misgivings about the Combi requiring that the handle be left up & can't understand why a manufacturer would say that.

So while I understand the reasoning, and it may have been much more of a bigger issue at one time, this mom is wrong about the generalization. The reminder would be much more appropriate to state read your manual and check what position the manufacturer allows. Maybe email her and gently tell her about Combi requiring the handle being left up, and that some manufacturers test their seats that way? Maybe she'll change the post to be accurate since she seems to only want what's best for kids?
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
Yeah, I'd respond to her with the correct info.

And this:

they said that often they see when a car crash occurs that the handle will sometimes shatter and penetrate the infant causing death

is BS. I'm not saying it can't happen--I'm sure it can and has (with handles that weren't supposed to be left up.) Has her PD seen it? Maybe. Do they see it OFTEN? No.
 

Kat_Momof3

New member
yeah... that's just outdated info... and an exaggeration about how much they see it (though with all the babytrend and evenflo handles I see left up in cars, you'd think it would be more.

Combi indeed requires the handle be up... I assume they've never seen that seat, but if they have and didn't check it's manual, they could have put a child in more danger by changing it.

The simple fact is that nowadays the rules have changed and you should always go by the manufacturer instructions in the manual.

Graco used to require the handle be down, but redesigned it to make it safe to be up.
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
I was talking carseats with a Mom at school, and she told me her pet peeve is seeing carrier handles up in cars. Her carseat tech told her the same thing this poster on CL was told.
 

emandbri

Well-known member
I guess I'm in the minoirty, I'd rather have it down. Sure seats have been tested with it up but have they been tested side impact? What about offset center?

If someone came to a check with a combi I would tell them to leave it up but I don't see the harm in putting the others down.
 

bobbysgirl7103

New member
The simple fact is that nowadays the rules have changed and you should always go by the manufacturer instructions in the manual.

:yeahthat: People just need to follow the instructions. I used a SS1 with DD and it was OK with the handle being up. So I didn't worry about it because if it is in the manual then it should be safe.
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
I guess I'm in the minoirty, I'd rather have it down. Sure seats have been tested with it up but have they been tested side impact? What about offset center?

If someone came to a check with a combi I would tell them to leave it up but I don't see the harm in putting the others down.

I don't see any harm in it being down. I just don't like people telling others it HAS to be down. :)
 

cryswilkins

New member
With the Combi at least, the handle up really almost acts like an anti-rebound foot. I would think that it would be that was with others, but I am not sure.
 

MissAllyLou

New member
We always tell parents to leave the handle down when they come into checks, unless the seat specifically says to leave the handle up (Combi). We of course always want to assume that a parent who's been through our checks will always remember to tighten the harness appropriately, but that's not always the case. I've now met 2 children who had skull fractures from flying into the handle of their infant seats because the harness straps weren't tightened enough (I volunteer at a children's hospital). :twocents:
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
We always tell parents to leave the handle down when they come into checks, unless the seat specifically says to leave the handle up (Combi). We of course always want to assume that a parent who's been through our checks will always remember to tighten the harness appropriately, but that's not always the case. I've now met 2 children who had skull fractures from flying into the handle of their infant seats because the harness straps weren't tightened enough (I volunteer at a children's hospital). :twocents:

But if they went that far out, couldn't they possibly have hit something else, too?

In the end, it all goes back to following instructions about EVERYTHING. Since I read that many of the Graco engineers prefer to leave it up on their own kids' seats, with the access to test data they have, I have felt just fine leaving it up on mine. :twocents:
 

jen_nah

CPST Instructor
At our fitting station we do "recommend" that handle to be down on seats that allow it to be in "any" locked postion. Of course we are not telling parents with Combi's (we only see these in a blue moon anyways) to put them down.

I do tell parents that have vehicle with a back glass (ex: truck or smaller vehicles) that the handle would make contact with to keep it down (again on seats that all them to be down).
 

Niea

New member
I'm not a CPST to obviously I don't advise people to do anything, but I personally chose to leave the handle down on my SR. I don't have a clear reason why, to be honest. I just felt that down was probably safest, if allowed.

I also have the pet peeve of seeing so many poeple keep the handles up. Not because of any inherent problems with doing so, but because so many people hang obnoxious and heavy plastic toys from them the risk of them becoming a projectile (and slamming right into baby) is very real. I don't put toys on my handle anyway, but some people will anyway and at least if the handle is down there's less chance of it injuring baby.
 

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