Sat there was a safe kids event that we drove into.. it was a disaster!

just in passing, I saw it and I made hubs turn into it.. I wanted them to check the angle on my marathon.. and the height of Juliannas booster..

It turned into "how old is Fiona, you should turn her forward facing now" issue.. she was the only one I did not have concerns about... I fought back this time.. I didn't have a safe stop anyways... so they couldn't (I had them with my spare seats in the dinning room. ) Anyways... She called over another guy for a second opinion "they asked her weight, the weight limit rear facing of the seat, adn height limit rfing.. I told them her weight and the weight limit rfing, then I told them there was no height limit, that as long as there was more than an inch of shell above her head she could rear face.. that I have spoken with Russ at sunshine kids numerous times. I also told them that there are no reported cases of broken legs... that she is 5 times safer, that yes at this age if she complained I would turn her ffing (she is 3.5) but she pref ires rear facing to ffing.. so I keep her rfing.

They asked If I had spoken to a pedi about it... Oh I did it..I was nice up until this point.. I said "I never bring my car seat questions to my pedi, she is not a child passenger safety tech." To which he replied.. but "no, I mean I would be worried about it restricting her growth." Another tech over hearing this heard, and said "haven't you all seen that video of the crash test of the dummies, rfing and ffing.. how far the ffing dummies head flies..I am so excited someone has actually come in here and wanted to keep her child rear facing.. he turned to me and said "We always have to argue with people to keep their barely 1 year olds rear facing, I am so excited someone actually came in and is fighting to keep their kid rear facing... He told me he agreed with me.

They didn't make me turn her.. the just had me leave with a "talk to the pedi about her growth though" and that was it.. I was so glad someone stuck up for me.. I will not be speaking to her pedi.. I am getting the my ride and keeping her rfing even longer haha.. I was so embarrassed though. .I must have looked like a quack fighting with the car seat check people at the safe kids check.


ETA: they were impressed with my installs, they thought that I must have had them installed, but I did them myself..they were like "wow we never have people come in with them installed tightly and correctly and did it themselves" so yeay I was gloating the whole ride home haha.
 
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SusanMae

Senior Community Member
Unless you leave your child in their seat 24/7, I can't imagine how having a child RF could restrict their growth. That's just plain stupid.

Good for you fighting them Mama!

Susan
 
I am going to add a pic, to make sure she is not bizzarly really too tall to rf anymore
IMG_2337.jpg

IMG_2335.jpg

I just want to make sure.. I want her to be as safe as possible.. I have a my ride 65 pre ordered too so I can put the radian in my passat (she does have a good 3 inches of shell in the mr 65 believe it or not) she is leggy.. she has 5 inches of shell still in her radian.. but if she really is too tall to rear face I will return it and get a GN for the minivan instead.
 
Unless you leave your child in their seat 24/7, I can't imagine how having a child RF could restrict their growth. That's just plain stupid.

Good for you fighting them Mama!

Susan
It helped that I had left the safe stop at home, they had no idea what I was talking about.. I had to explain that ffin under 40 lbs in a radian needs a safe stop on the back.
 

Qarin

New member
I dunno, it sounds bad, and I'm sure it was uncomfortable, but you rock for holding your ground, and I think the tech who came to your defense totally rescued the situation in my mind.
 

libranbutterfly

New member
Good job fighting them. Before I became a tech, I had my Marathon installed RF for Kamille. The tech was horrible, saying she didn't know why I wanted her RF (she was 2.5) and that she would be just as safe FF, and her legs had to be cramped. I told her I would turn her when she was at the limits, and after my husband installed the tether anchors. She then said that Kamille would not fit in the seat AT ALL when I turned her FF, and I would have to buy her another seat. I told her I was prepared to buy any seat I needed to keep my child safe, but that she still had 5 inches of torso growth, and I was pretty sure she wouldn't grow that much in 6 months. When she went back inside, I noticed that she had installed my seats very loosely, and not adjusted the seat I was passing down from Kamille to Lexi, and ended up having to reinstall them both myself anyways, in the parking lot.
 
They also told me Julianna could come out of the booster in two months on her birthday.. :thumbsdown: I said "Over my dead body' She said I had the booster correct for her height, and said ct state law is 6 and 60 lbs, since she will be 7 in two months she can come right out of that... augh!
 
yeah, it's totally going to stunt her growth :rollseyes: Seriously, where do these people come up with this kind of logic?!?! That's a new one on me!

TBH, I don't even bother taking my seats to get checked. I am very confident in the installs as I am a bit crazy about it (thanks to this board! haha!). My luck I would get one of these guys and I would go off on him.
 

tanyaandallie

Senior Community Member
Honestly, I'd conside contact SK!!! I just cannot believe it when techs give such horrible info. It's pathetic when a parent goes in knowing more than a tech!!! I understand that some techs don't push erf, etc but they should actually have a clue what it is and support it if a parent chooses it!!! ACK!!!! That just makes me nuts.
 

thepeach80

Senior Community Member
That explains why Evan is so small, I was restricting his growth w/ that whole 'rfing till 4 thing' lol! It's hard and thankfully most of our techs I think know rfing is safer, but defintiely don't push it. :( I told a mom one time I wanted her to kiss her b/c she had her 2.5yo rfing and she was so confused. She thought I think that that's what everyone did b/c it was safer.
 

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
If that would stunt her growth, so would, well play dolls on the floor. Seriously.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
If RFing could stunt a kid's growth, I'd hate to see what size my 1 year old would be if I turned her, lol. (She has about as much room left in her Radian as your daughter, or perhaps a little less.)
 

trixenama

New member
Why are some techs soo uninformed. I had the tech at a local FD tell me (in front of my daughter) that DD didn't need a booster any more! I live in IL, LAW IS 8 or 80#! My daughter was 6 AND under 80#...ugh. That was a bit of a battle when I told her absolutely not! She couldn't touch the floor when she was seated in the car, and the lap part of the belt was high. NO WAY.

And once I was at BRU checking out all the carseats for the gazillionth time and another mom started talking with me about a certain seat. Her baby was 10 months old. She was telling me this seat works great...etc. It was a FFing only seat! I told her I could not use it for my infant and that hers looked too young for it too. She said, the tech okayed her infant to FF. I asked how? She said he asked her a bunch of developmental questions, like if he crawled, held his head up, etc. I told her I'd never heard of anyone turning around their infants, she should get another opinion. But she didn't seem to take it to heart, ugh.

Maybe the course is not enough...Maybe they should require a certain amount of car-seat.org time per day, to keep their tech status.
 
Why are some techs soo uninformed. I had the tech at a local FD tell me (in front of my daughter) that DD didn't need a booster any more! I live in IL, LAW IS 8 or 80#! My daughter was 6 AND under 80#...ugh. That was a bit of a battle when I told her absolutely not! She couldn't touch the floor when she was seated in the car, and the lap part of the belt was high. NO WAY.

And once I was at BRU checking out all the carseats for the gazillionth time and another mom started talking with me about a certain seat. Her baby was 10 months old. She was telling me this seat works great...etc. It was a FFing only seat! I told her I could not use it for my infant and that hers looked too young for it too. She said, the tech okayed her infant to FF. I asked how? She said he asked her a bunch of developmental questions, like if he crawled, held his head up, etc. I told her I'd never heard of anyone turning around their infants, she should get another opinion. But she didn't seem to take it to heart, ugh.

Maybe the course is not enough...Maybe they should require a certain amount of car-seat.org time per day, to keep their tech status.

I KNOW they said she could come out of the booster in front of her.. I told her now she would not be coming out of it, this tech is not well informed.
 

capeKO71

New member
Yeah - unfortunately, many techs are not informed that this is actually a safe way to travel for kids ages 2, 3 and even 4. Many are finally understanding that we shouldn't be offering to whip the kid around at 1 & 20lbs... but I think many still think "baby" rear facing, "toddler" forward facing.

This is one reason that I found the GMA spot interesting... because it is the first time I saw them really show a toddler rear facing on mainstream TV (even if parts of it did stink).

Here's my 2 cents... you are probably the one and only person they will ever get coming in with a 3.5 year old rear facing (sadly)...

In general, they are making kids safer. Are they following best practices with every child who comes in? Or even giving parents the information about best practices? Probably not... but they are making them safer... and at a large carseat check, until this rear facing information is more main stream, and we get all the Pediatricians on board (or at least stop them from talking about turning babies), this is what checks are about. It was hard for me as a tech when I first became a tech to realize this.

We have made improvements though... even just two years ago, the rear facing info just was not out there like it is today.

-Kate
 

LuvMyCharlie

New member
Well I suppose they oughtta be glad I wasn't there working with them. We would've had a fight. ;) Good for you, Mama. Great job.
 

Mommy0608

New member
I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience. :( That's fantastic though that the other tech new his stuff and rescued you! :thumbsup:

In defense of Safe Kids, not ALL who aren't on c-s.org are bad. ;) The two SK groups that I volunteer with BOTH preach ERF, which is awesome! We never see any kids who are ERF, but we do try as hard as we can to get them to turn the kid back around (as long as they fit). I do realize there are some (many?) techs who aren't up to date on the best practices, which is truly unfortunate. If anyone encounters a situation where the tech is giving out incorrect advice (stunting growth?!) then please report it to Safe Kids. If no one reports it, the person will just continue to pass out incorrect info. :(
 

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