Graco My Ride for SN children!

I'm sure many of you already know how absolutely in I am with this seat for DD. But I wanted to give a little bit more thorough review now that we've used it a while.

Obviously the recline of the seat and something about the way it is shaped "cradles" her and keeps her from slumping, even with super low tone and scoliosis. I tried her in it ff'ing in two different cars now and the recline is STILL more than adequate for a very low tone child! Her head did not fall forward at all and she still didn't slump. Remember, this is a child with NO head control or torso control at all. None, nada, zero, zip. :thumbsup:

The leg room rear-facing when at a 45 degree recline is better than any seat I've used, except for maybe the radian (about the same). This is great for kids who have very high tone and cannot bend or fold their legs comfortably to fit rf'ing longer. DD is a good size...33" and her feet are *just* touching the back seat. She doesn't have spastic limbs, so leg room isn't an issue, but it's nice to see that even legs straight out, an average child should fit rf'ing to age 2 or so.

I do have to use a rolled diaper (flat diaper, not a bulky prefold) between her and the buckle. She has a very small butt though at 21 lbs and 2 years old.

The straps are close enough together that even very narrow kids shouldn't have a problem with the harness fitting correctly and staying on their shoulders. That was one problem we had before other seats. That combined with her slumping, she could get a shoulder out of her harness sometimes.

There's no grooves or belt guides or anything like that to catch a feeding tube on and rip it out.

The only downside is lack of head support on the sides. Not a huge deal. We have to use a prefold to catch all the drool anyway, so I just stuff it under her chin and then wrap the rest up around her head so she can rest on it (see siggy).

My main concern with SN kids is seating clinics usually start around 1 year of age. A lot of kids are just outgrowing their buckets then and I've seen WAY too many 20 lb children go into britax travellers. They may "technically" fit, but obviously this is not ideal. They are swimming in those seats! It's much more practical for kids to be in regular seats until at least 3 years, when most will fit comfortably in a bigger SN seat. Though even 3 years is sometimes too young. CP kids tend to be small, so many aren't even 25 lbs by 3 or 4.

So any of you that are SN trained or work closely with hospitals....keep this in mind. There ARE seats out there that will work for even the most involved kids. I know, I have one.

Thanks for the hands on review, it is wonderful to hear how a seat really works for a child who needs the extra support, etc.

I am saddened to hear of the babies being put into the Traveller Plus at a year/20 pounds. The main things stressed in the SN class I took was that:
1. it is better to use traditional seats as long as possible because children fit in those seats, they are cheaper, and easier to find.
2. Most children with special health care needs should be RF as long as possible.

It sounds like the MyRide is an excellent choice for your girl, both RF and FF. I will keep it in mind when helping families look for seats for their kiddos.

spokaneCPST said:

Thanks for the hands on review, it is wonderful to hear how a seat really works for a child who needs the extra support, etc.

I am saddened to hear of the babies being put into the Traveller Plus at a year/20 pounds. The main things stressed in the SN class I took was that:
1. it is better to use traditional seats as long as possible because children fit in those seats, they are cheaper, and easier to find.
2. Most children with special health care needs should be RF as long as possible.

It sounds like the MyRide is an excellent choice for your girl, both RF and FF. I will keep it in mind when helping families look for seats for their kiddos.

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Oh I know and I'm educating the hospital as much as can just as a parent. If I go for my SN training, maybe I can get them to listen more. Like actually set up a meeting/training session or something. I know when we were setting up DD's seating clinic, they said she would qualify for a car seat. I told them that she was absolutely too young/small for a SN seat at that point, even though she "technically" fit the specs. She seemed shocked that I would turn it down.

When we went for her dev appointment in phys med, I told them that their people were getting too far ahead on car seats (they also were about to give my friend's baby a BT too so it wasn't just me) and they needed to encourage parents to use regular seats as long as they could and rf as long as they could. That was back when the MR first came out and I told them it was the first to Rf to 40 lbs. One of the blogs I follow has a teeny little girl about Charlie's size, but a year older, in a BT and her sister is in some kind of cosco/dorel combo and I just cringe....sister is 5 and probably getting too big for the seat (if not already because of the top slot rule) and I'm thinking, "put big sis in the BT for now and get the little one in a more appropriate car seat!" I'm going to start doing more posts on my blog about it because so many people with SN kids read it.

This is great to read. I had a Britax DC when dd got her tube. It actually caused us no issues at that time with her tube. The crotch buckle was short enough and all that. We never used it FF so I don't know what it would've been like. That DC met a tragic end at the hands of my car seat obsessed kitty. Anyway, we then went with a TF. While I had no huge issues with the seat over all-for the average kid, for us it didn't work. The length and position of the crotch buckle and the tongs going together always caught her button. She got so sore and we saw gran. tissue for the first time in well over a year. My dd is not globally low tone. She does however have off days. The TF was too wide. Head and body slump to the side was awful and I can't imagine what it would've been like for us FF. Sooooo, onto the RN XT. Love this seat RF. The wings are enough to support my dd on off days and the buckle doesn't catch her button. BUT, at 25-26 lbs and using the inner most crotch positon with a cloth diaper to get a good fit and avoid her tube, I'm having doubts that when she hits 30lbs and HAS to use the outermost slot, as instructed by the RN XT manual, we'll get slump, inward angled buckle and a sore tummy again. Plus, she'll be 4 in less than 2 months. We were thinking of going FF, based on age, but would like to retain the option of RF on long trips and if she's having a bad time.

The more I see of the MR, especially with your gorgeous Charlie in it, I think this might be a better fit for us, no matter how much I love my RN. We need that FF recline and we definitely need a seat that won't catch her button/tube.

I can't wait until my next trip to BRU to try this out for real. I looked at them, and passed without installing it or really putting her in the seat. I regret it now.

menfusse said:

The more I see of the MR, especially with your gorgeous Charlie in it, I think this might be a better fit for us, no matter how much I love my RN. We need that FF recline and we definitely need a seat that won't catch her button/tube.

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Hmmm....I didn't even notice if the buckle landed on her tube or not. Of course it will be different for every kiddo. Older kids' tubes tend to be up higher...I know Charlie's has gotten much higher as she's grown. In the SS1, the buckle does land on it, but it never bothered her so I never thought twice about it. I know when she was leaving the NICU with a peg tube, I couldn't use the snugride because of that, but now with her button and it being healed up, I don't think it bothers her.

Shaunam said:

Hmmm....I didn't even notice if the buckle landed on her tube or not. Of course it will be different for every kiddo. Older kids' tubes tend to be up higher...I know Charlie's has gotten much higher as she's grown. In the SS1, the buckle does land on it, but it never bothered her so I never thought twice about it. I know when she was leaving the NICU with a peg tube, I couldn't use the snugride because of that, but now with her button and it being healed up, I don't think it bothers her.

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I honestly don't know what it is. She's not grown that much since she was in the DC, that's for sure, a couple of inches in the last two years. It's not that it lays on it exactly, but it's like it creates a perfect catch for it, well it did in the TF, I'm not sure what will happen with the RN. I tried her on the second slot and it didn't bother her button, but it did angled inward pretty sharply. That bothers her tremendously because she's just generally sore in her belly for reasons we don't quite understand. She can't even handle the pressure of my hand resting on her when I pin on a PF.

The rounded buckle tongs on the MR might help with that some even if we do get a bit of an angle.