Convinced friend to turn 22mo back RF!

A few months ago I got back in contact with an old friend from high school. She has a son who will be 2 in February, she said he's about 26 pounds. I've talked about the carseat boards and my interest in CPS quite a bit and briefly mentioned that her son could still be RF in his carseat (Cosco Touriva, 35 pound RF limit) but that I won't push her on it. She never mentioned it again, and neither did I. I didn't want to be pushy.

So today she came over and we were talking about it again, and she asked me to turn his seat RF for her! So I went out to her vehicle (older Ford Explorer 2-door, lap/shoulderbelts outboard, no seatbelt at all in the middle--backseat is just a two-seater) and installed it RF on the driver's side in less than 5 minutes. It's pretty upright but her son is almost 2 so that's okay. It was just TOO upright at first so we undid the belt and reclined it a bit more and re-buckled. We thought it would be harder because of the locking clip, but it was simple. She really wanted to tether it RF when I told her about Britax, but I convinced her she could not do that with her seat.

Her son wasn't with her (he was at grandma's) so we couldn't try him out in the seat but she was going to pick him up when she left here. I hope he likes it, so she'll keep it that way. At 26 pounds he still has loads of time to RF in that seat.

I showed her the CPSafety stay rear-facing page and explained to her about internal decapitation and she was all for turning him back.

On the down side, she told me about the local techs who checked her infant seat and then helped her put in the Touriva--they didn't say a word about her not using a locking clip, and her belts are ELR. They told her it was just fine the way it was. Ugh. I have no faith in our local techs.

scatterbunny said:

On the down side, she told me about the local techs who checked her infant seat and then helped her put in the Touriva--they didn't say a word about her not using a locking clip, and her belts are ELR. They told her it was just fine the way it was. Ugh. I have no faith in our local techs.

Click to expand...

That's scary. Was the seat sliding all over the place?

She said it was!

Luckily she figured it out on her own when she bought a new seat that came with a locking clip (some crappy OHS that she'll be replacing soon, it's the spare seat) so the Touriva was installed properly, FF, when I checked it out today. She did a great job, I was impressed.

But she said someone from our local hospital checked her infant seat and said it was fine, and someone from the local health department checked the Touriva and said it was fine, with no locking clip. Very scary.

Oh my gosh! I mean, all you'd have to do is give it a good tug to know it wasn't installed right w/o a locking clip. It's no wonder there is such a high misuse rate...the techs can't even get it right.

That is GREAT that she listened!

I wish I could convince my best friend to turn her boys back RF. Her oldest ds just had his 3rd birthday and he is very small. Her younger ds is 17 months. Both of her boys are in Marathons and both she and her dh are great about good installs and harnesssing them correctly. But she just isn't interested in RF. She knows all the benefits, but isn't willing to do it. She hasn't said, but I'm about 99% sure it's because they wouldn't be able to see the DVD player. It makes me sad b/c I love her boys and don't want anything to happen to them.

Alicia-N-2SafeBugs said:

Oh my gosh! I mean, all you'd have to do is give it a good tug to know it wasn't installed right w/o a locking clip. It's no wonder there is such a high misuse rate...the techs can't even get it right.

Click to expand...

Exactly. I was in shock when she told me that they said the install was fine like that. I mean, I can understand the "average" person thinking it would be fine, that the seatbelt will lock in a crash and hold the carseat tight (nevermind the fact that there will be some slack in the belt when that happens, or that the carseat can move all over the place on turns ), but a TECH should know better.

I think possibly the people who helped her at the hospital weren't certified, last I knew the only certified techs in my county worked at the health department, but if the hospital people weren't certified then they should NOT be giving out carseat advice or opinions.

It feels great to have a friend finally listen. I've been into CPS for 3 years now and this is the first friend to make changes based on what I've said.

Great job! I'm glad she took your advice to heart and wanted to turn her son rear-facing again!

That is so great!!! You must feel very good that someone took your advice and now their child is much safer because of it! Shameful about those techs...I think about all the cops/firefighters/nurses that were in my certification class and wonder how they are doing now. A couple guys from the coast (firefighters) fell asleep daily in class and the other people had zero interest. So very sad that employers send these people to class and then expect them to be able to do a good job of installing carseats and educating parents when in reality I doubt they even care.

That's totally it, Danielle. I think employers should ask for volunteers to take the class, that way they'll get people who have at least a little interest in the subject. At my class (the one I dropped out of, LOL) I was the only volunteer there. Everyone else was there for their job. And most did not pay close enough attention.

Yeah I was the only volenteer in my class as well and all the other students thought I was nuts for WANTING to learn this stuff. Pshhh I already knew it all it wasn't like I actually had to study like they did. I just wish learning A&P was as easy as it is to learn all about carseats...I guess it all depends on how much you enjoy learning the stuff. Anyway you need to get certified so we can do a check together and promote extended rearfacing and harnessing to all of Oregon!

I really DO still want to get certified, but I could not stand the instructors, and I'm pretty sure the classes in Oregon all have the same instructors... I don't know that I could do the week-long class again with those people without having another panic attack (reason I quit the class last time).

Bravo on convincing your friend to turn her little one RF, yayyy. I wonder if we could persuade one of the CPST-Instructors who frequent the board to arrange a special certification class for us boardies, kind of like CPST training for the "gifted" so to speak, lol? I don't mean to sound snobby, but it would be wonderful to have a class with motivated folks who want to learn and aren't just there grudgingly due to a job requirement.

I'm ROTFL at "CPST training for the gifted".

A good idea, though! A class made up entirely of those of us who are passionate about this and actually WANT to learn as much as possible. I don't know if they could realistically fill up a whole class in each area with volunteers, though, KWIM?

True. Maybe a "certification for the gifted" conference/convention could be arranged for us tech wannabees, lol.

LOL on the Gifted Tech class....I would have loved something like that! My instructors were super nice, but I feel like they left out SO much vital information and even though I brought it up, didn't talk about extended rear-facing and wouldn't even consider talking about extended harnessing.

I was the only person in my tech class that was there on my own too. Everyone else was required to be there for their job. The firefighters in my class we really great guys, but they worked the night shifts during our class week and they were EXHAUSTED during the day! I have to wonder how much they retained. One of the guys has 2 kids and we used his car for intalls. He had his barely 4yo lightweight daughter in a BPB and his 1yo in a FF seat. He didn't learn anything in the tech class that taught him otherwise. He also had a HUGE thick aftermarket seatcover and said he wouldn't be taking it out. So much for learning it's not a good thing! There was one particular lady in my class that bless her heart was as nice as could be, but there just wasn't much going on upstairs. She just couldn't seem to get it. She passed the tests, but I had her as my partner during checks and she just wasn't cutting it.