Car Seat Hurting

finn

New member
My son has had a bruise on his back for months & months, we have never been able to figure out what it was from. Well today he was asleep in his seat & I drove up our bumpy drive, he started to cry a lot. When I took him out of his seat his singlet rode up & he had new red marks right where the bruises are.

It also explains why he hates the car so much, why he struggles to get in every time & why he hardly ever sleeps in the car anymore.

I know that the answer is probably no but can I put something between him & the seat to make it softer and stop the bruising? If not then I will have to get a new seat.

He has to use this seat in the meantime, I have a RYS but I absolutely can't get a tight fit with it in my car & i'm not ready to have him forward facing yet :(
 
ADS

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
No, sorry. Nothing thicker than his clothes. You could maybe bandage that one area with gauze, but that sounds like a hassle and maybe not something he'd put up with.

Wendy
 

Lea_Ontario

Well-known member
You can't add anything, no.

Check the seat over first, see if you can identify what it is that is pressing in on his back.

Check his clothing every time you put him in - make sure nothing is bunched up behind his back, which could be hurting him.
 

MustangMama

Active member
When DD was about 3 1/2 we had her in her Graco Cargo. I installed it so tight that the buckle was poking through the hole where you route the seat belt and prodding her in her back......

I attached a pic of a seat I found with a similar belt path and an arrow showing where it was poking her back.

I wish we would have known how to use latch back then :(
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I agree...what the heck is causing BRUISES on yuor child? Is it a part of the seat somehow, or else a belt that is routed through pushing in?
I can niot imagine that any seat is deliberately designed to injure your child....there has to be some way to fix it??
i agree with Becky, one of teh seats we had, there was literally nothing between the kid and the beltpath, which was fine if it was just the flat seatbelt going through, but due tou one seat belt we tried having a really long stalk, a big plastic piece ende up behind the kid, causing pain..we considered that an incompatibility.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Alpha Omegas used to cause bruises...it was bad enough that Canada had a recall, but no one complained enough in the US to get a recall. Just poor design of the shell...bumpy spots where they shouldn't be, etc. Some kids outgrew it...they just got tall enough that they fit differently in the seat so the lumpy parts didn't press on them anymore.
 

Melanie

New member
Just a thought on where the bruises are coming from...Britax Boulevard has a space with no grey comfort foam when the harness/headrest is in a high setting. This is because there are two pieces of foam that touch at the lowest setting so they leave a gap as the harness setting is raised. (In comparison, the MA has a solid piece of foam because you are manually threading the straps to adjust it so the foam never moves.) There are vent holes in the plastic shell. The only thing between the shell and the child is the cover at that point. In our case, DD's back was pushing so tightly against the shell that the vent holes were leaving abrasions.

I wonder if the seat OP is using is similarly designed.
 

Auntie2six

New member
When DD was about 3 1/2 we had her in her Graco Cargo. I installed it so tight that the buckle was poking through the hole where you route the seat belt and prodding her in her back......

I attached a pic of a seat I found with a similar belt path and an arrow showing where it was poking her back.

I wish we would have known how to use latch back then :(

In my mine and my moms car my nephew who is 27 months old has an eddie bauer high back booster, the one with the harness. I install in the middle and the seatbelt does the same thing. I get it in really tight and the seatbelt ends up pretty much in the middle of the seat in the back. The car is a 98' dodge stratus.
 

Mommy0608

New member
Hi there. I don't really have a solution for you, as adding anything between your child and the seat could be dangerous. :(

I have an EFTA for my 2.5 year old, and she always has a red mark on her back about the size of a quarter after riding in the seat. It took me a while to figure out where the mark was coming from, but I eventually figured out that it was in fact her car seat. There's a bump in the seat under the cover (not caused by the seatbelt, it's installed with LATCH) that rubs on her back. She hasn't complained and it appears to just be a red mark that goes away (no bruising that I can see).
 

MustangMama

Active member
I agree...what the heck is causing BRUISES on yuor child? Is it a part of the seat somehow, or else a belt that is routed through pushing in?
I can niot imagine that any seat is deliberately designed to injure your child....there has to be some way to fix it??
i agree with Becky, one of teh seats we had, there was literally nothing between the kid and the beltpath, which was fine if it was just the flat seatbelt going through, but due tou one seat belt we tried having a really long stalk, a big plastic piece ende up behind the kid, causing pain..we considered that an incompatibility.


Yep that is exactly what was happening!
 

finn

New member
Hi thanks for the replies, I think it just that he has no padding on his back and his spine seems extra boney lol I also think he and the seat might be incompatible :(

We have this seat

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=37085

and as you can see there is no padding only eps foam & the cover isn't that thick. I think whats causing the bruising is where you can see the slots for the harness the foam that runs down the middle is slightly raised and his spine rubs & jars on it & he gets a bruise.

Poor baby cried the whole way home today :(

I thinking of ordering a Maxi Cosi Priori & they seem to have heaps of padding & rear face to 16kg (35lbs).

http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bcus9421&tid=16280
 

Jennifer mom to my 7

Well-known member
I don't think the priori would be worth it for rf. It is really short, and only has 15 inch top slots if that. Why not just get a marathon, or equivalent?
 

finn

New member
The seat he's in now only has 14 inch top slots so i'd be gaining an inch :) It does look taller overall though.

I have to get a seat shipped to me as we only have australian seats that rear face to 12kg (26lbs) & the seat that he's in.

I will investigate marathons.
 

Jennifer mom to my 7

Well-known member
Ahh, sorry, didn't realize you were down under and needed seats shipped if necessary. And of course I can't remember what seats ended up your way either. Where would you have them shipped from?
 

finn

New member
Its all good :)

I have friends in the states and Canada who will ship seats for me, also some ebay sellers ship them worldwide.

The seat needs to be reasonably small, the seat he is in now (brio zento) feels huge but i dont think it is when compared to your britax's.

We have mainly australian britax/safe and sound seats, but australian isn't that up with the play in regards to rear facing.

I could get him a secnera but they are $200 over here & have no foam at all, it would feel like a huge downgrade in safety for him.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
What?? The Zento only has 14 inch top slots??? Just goes to show that slapping a high RF weight limit on a seat isn't going to mean diddly if a kid outgrows it 30 pounds too soon :eek:

Really, I would highly recommend a Marathon... My leggy DD fit fine in it rearfacing in our compact car till age 3.5 (it was just too hard to fold her in half anymore once she was 40ish inches tall), and in our minivan she was comfortable till 4.5 and would have had longer in it if the weight limit weren't 33 pound back then http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx
The installation is a breeze in most cars, the rearfacing tethering is a nice safety feature for heavier kids, and it will fit forward facing for most kids till age 5.
The Maxi Cosi is bulkier and not as tall...I really wouldn't bother with it if it were me :)
 

finn

New member
The only issue I have with the Marathon is that they are expensive & reasonably heavy to ship lol it will cost about $500us for the seat and shipping, I may as well pay $600us and get a multi tech from adventuredad :)

I do like that the marathon has a tether, i'm used to tethers as they are on all Australian seats & our brio.

Your dd is very cute :)

The Brio is out grown when the tips of the ears are inline with the shell, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter how far down the straps are.
 

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