Disconcerting-- store personnel not up-to-date on safety!

tentoes · Aug 31, 2009

Hope this is in the right section..

We were in Baby Love (Tamarac/Ft. Lauderdale, FL) yesterday and the salespeople (whom I thought were very up-to-date in the past, though they know a ton more than Babies R Us) were very blasé about the safety/weights in regard to car seat usage! I heard them tell a mom with an 8 mo. that FF was fine! Then they tried to semi-dissuade me from RF my infant till 2! I thought they were trained! I thought..gah! Then I heard another mom ask the inevitable "..when can I put my child in a booster?" question. They told her-- get this-- they told her it was okay at his age (4!). I couldn't believe my ears! How can they allow people to sell car seats without educating the parent!

Okay, granted I went in there armed with weeks of research, but there is NO excuse for a salesperson (not just this store..) to not educate the parent a least a teeny-tiny bit about current safety-standards!

/rant

carseatcoach · Aug 31, 2009

It is okay (not great, but okay) to put a child in a booster at age 4, according to current safety standards.

tentoes · Aug 31, 2009

chickabiddy said:
It is okay (not great, but okay) to put a child in a booster at age 4, according to current safety standards.

He was a small 4 at that.. Maybe I was coming off a car-seat.org high (I'm still new here and have been inhaling CS.org) so I was super-affected by the salesperson's comment. But they didn't even have a disclaimer (i.e. 4 is okay, but not recommended).

Evolily · Aug 31, 2009

tentoes said:
Then I heard another mom ask the inevitable "..when can I put my child in a booster?" question. They told her-- get this-- they told her it was okay at his age (4!). I couldn't believe my ears! How can they allow people to sell car seats without educating the parent!

4 and 40 are generally the accepted minimums for booster use (and, you know, I actually *love* when I see a 4 and 40 child in a decent HBB like the turbobooster- much better than outgrown harness seats and 40 lbs combos/3 in 1's in booster mode). It's a minimum, though, and like most minimums should not be applied to all, or even most children if you follow best practice. Saying that 8 month old infants can forward face, though, is misuse and dangerous.

I'm not surprised. They're in the car seat selling business- not the child safety business. I would probably write or call the manager about advising consumers to forward face children before 1 and 20. I wouldn't expect them to be sprouting ERFing and EHing info, though.

carseatcoach · Aug 31, 2009

If he is 30#, he can be in a booster at age 4. Not ideal, but not terrifyingly bad information, like an 8mo forward-facing! That's illegal, against manufacturer recommendations, and against any current recommendations.

joolsplus3 · Aug 31, 2009

tentoes said:
He was a small 4 at that.. Maybe I was coming off a car-seat.org high (I'm still new here and have been inhaling CS.org) so I was super-affected by the salesperson's comment. But they didn't even have a disclaimer (i.e. 4 is okay, but not recommended).

ROFL!!!!! I like that! We need to bottle it and sell it "C-s.org vibes in a jar".

After awhile, you'll learn to balance 'what I know is best' with 'what I see in the real world that is so shockingly wrong' and it won't bug you quite so much :thumbsup:

Disconcerting-- store personnel not up-to-date on safety!

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