Question about Graco Safeseat replacement covers/padding

oursonend

New member
I have a Safeseat in Ionic, and ever since I got it home on the first day I have been bothered by the complete lack of padding under the bum and the hard plastic jabby parts down there. I wanted to get the gracopedic foam pad but couldn't figure out how. I didn't realize there were different foam options when I bought it or I would have bought the more padded one (minimal descriptions on the website I bought it from).

That was over a year ago, and now that we're thinking of the next baby, I want the darn padding issue solved! I found on the graco heart to heart blog that they are now selling replacement covers and padding, and I hope to get replacement padding or a replacement cover+padding for mine, whichever is allowed by Graco. But I can't figure out which part to ask for, so I need a hand!

For those of you who have a Safeseat with the extra padding under the bum, is it attached to the cover, or is it part of the foam pad that lays under the seat? I ask because they are sold separetely. If I have to buy a whole other cover to get one with padding under the bum, I will, but I don't want to order one and have it come only to find out that the padding is not in the cover and I need a different foam pad. On the replacement parts order site the descriptions are minimal and I can't figure out whether the foam pad they sell is just the one that goes under the back (on my safeseat model the foam pad extends from an inch or so below the top of the shell down almost to the crease, but does not extend under the bum) or if the extra padding models are one continuous piece of foam padding.

If anyone can help me figure this out, I would really appreciate it! I would prefer to know what I want ahead of time rather than entering a back-and-forth with Graco about it, especially since there were hundreds of replacement cover requests on the customer service heart to heart blog, and I don't want to just get lost in the shuffle. I would prefer to just order it online if I can, or at least to know what I'm asking for when I contact customer service. I would appreciate any assistance with this! :)
 
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NannyMom

Well-known member
The extra padding is foam that goes under the cover, under the bum. However, with a cover that wasn't designed to go with the foam, you may have fitting issues if you add the foam under it. But then again, I could be wrong. Now that I think about it, I think I put the Ionic cover on my Kasey (with foam) SS1 w/o a problem.
 

oursonend

New member
So is it one continuous piece of foam? If I buy the foam for a model that came with it, do you think it would it include the bum foam? I'm not too worried about the cover as I have a lot of loose fabric in and around the bum area on mine. I'm going to guess that they were sewn from the same pattern. Good to know you were able to switch covers!

Oooh here's another question. Is there EPS/styrofoam under the bum on the more padded models, or just the padding foam? I had assumed just the padding but I have the option of buying replacement EPS foam also if need be.

Thank you! :D
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
All we have ius a piece of foam (not epps) under the bum. Baby's sleeping in it right now... so I can't check to see what's additional behind the head. But I know it's not continuous from the bum to the back.

I only switched covers because Baby's diapers exploded in the seat and we had to go somewhere. So I put on the extra cover from my seat (the Kasey with gracopedic foam is my boss').
 

oursonend

New member
Hit a sort of confusing dead end yesterday. I accidentally called US customer service instead of Canada customer service, and the woman told me that my model is not compatible with foam under the bum. I asked why and said I thought the seat frame itself was the same on the different models and she got snooty and said they are not the same frame. I find that a bit hard to believe, but when I asked her if she had any other suggestions of what I could do about the issue, she informed me that this was US customer service and suggested I call Canadian customer service in a not-so-polite way. :confused: It was not on purpose that I called the US line and I didn't know I had until she told me. Oh well. It was a weird conversation. I'm going to call the Canadian folks today or tomorrow and hopefully they will be a bit easier to talk to. This woman didn't seem to be in a great mood unfortunately.I'm still hoping someone will have a suggestion I can deal with other than buying a whole new seat just to get a little piece of foam under the bum.
 

Maggie

New member
DD2 rode in ours (Ionic) for 18 months. Not a complaint out of her. I suggest seeing if it actually bothers the baby before spending the time and money on padding. Things that bother us don't always bother kids. DD never complained about the lack of padding under the butt.
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
DD2 rode in ours (Ionic) for 18 months. Not a complaint out of her. I suggest seeing if it actually bothers the baby before spending the time and money on padding. Things that bother us don't always bother kids. DD never complained about the lack of padding under the butt.

Sofi rode in our Ionic for a year or so with no problems. THe only reason we have one with foam now is because we liked the pink of the Kasey pattern :) Maybe tonight I'll take my non-foam seat (it's no longer Ionic...but similar) out of the box and see how it compares to the Kasey.
 

oursonend

New member
I've already used it for DS for about a year. But my thoughts are that when we drive x-country, I can't be in a hard seat, and after DD learned to talk she complained about her hard seat (her old Scenera) and I just don't feel good about having a baby who can't express his or herself in a hard seat. DS cried in the car A LOT, but since he couldn't talk I couldn't tell what it was that was bothering him after hunger/changing/entertainment/fatigue were ruled out, I really have no way of knowing if the seat bothered him or just random baby angst. :rolleyes:. I dealt with it with him and felt a little bit better because he was often in big squishy cloth diapers, but I know that's an imperfect solution, and we aren't cloth diapering very much anymore unfortunately.

So I want to deal with it in a more official way for the next baby. It has bothered me since I bought the seat a year and a half ago and I'm tired of thinking about it, kwim?

At first I thought it was just a bad design or something, but then I found out that there are other models with padding and it just didn't specify which seats had padding when I ordered it (from sears fwiw). So I just chose the colour I wanted and didn't know there was another option for padding.

I am tempted to just stick a piece of foam in there but I know that's a no-no. So I would rather have official Graco foam to stick in there. It seems simple enough to me but I guess these things are rarely simple!

Oh well. I'll call Graco Canada when I have a few minutes and see what they suggest.
 

oursonend

New member
So I called, but no luck. The woman was very nice and helpful though. It turns out they only sell the behind-the-back foam and EPS foam as replacement parts because the under-the-bum foam is actually glued down on the seat.

So a bit annoying, but I also learned that there are only one or two safeseat models that have under-the-bum foam. I just wish I could buy a Meteor seat here! Same colours I like plus the bum foam. :rolleyes:

So not sure what I'm going to do yet. I have had fantasies about finding a crashed Safeseat and liberating the bum foam for my own safeseat, just not glueing it down, but that is probably just as sketchy as sticking any old piece of foam in (except I would be confident that the Graco foam would pass fire inspection and be the right shape not to interfere with the harness).

Perhaps I'll have to go back to the squishy cloth diapers after all! :rolleyes:
 

heyruthie

New member
so does anyone know which of the US versions of the SafeSeat DO have the special foam? I'm shopping for one, and I may as well get one that has it, since I'm buying. i want a SafeSeat, since they're being phased out, and there are some decent deals....
 

oursonend

New member
So far I'm only certain of Kasey and I think Meteor. But I think there are others.


...so the foam in BabyS' safeseat moves? Weird. It's possible that the woman made a mistake. The US customer service woman told me that the frames between different safeseat patterns/trim levels are different, but I don't believe it. Or maybe the Kasey foam came unglued? I would be curious to know if you ever have a chance to peek under there.

I did learn from the Canadian customer service woman that all of the covers are the same so they will be interchangable no matter the padding level. :thumbsup:
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
So far I'm only certain of Kasey and I think Meteor. But I think there are others.


...so the foam in BabyS' safeseat moves? Weird. It's possible that the woman made a mistake. The US customer service woman told me that the frames between different safeseat patterns/trim levels are different, but I don't believe it. Or maybe the Kasey foam came unglued? I would be curious to know if you ever have a chance to peek under there.

I did learn from the Canadian customer service woman that all of the covers are the same so they will be interchangable no matter the padding level. :thumbsup:

I will check the seat tomorrow, when I'm back at work. But I know I see a corner of the foam peeking out the side (near the belt guide). So it has deffinetly moved at least some.

MY SS1 was Roxy, not Ionic, I was wrong. But it is now Ionic (I had to return it to Graco a year ago, and they sent me a new one). I peeked under the cover, and I'll see how it looks compared to the Kasey. And ya know what.... It does seem like it would be uncomfortable....but then again, with the cover on, it;s hard to tell I guess.
 

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