Hi, As I mentioned previously, my manual and seat do not indicate anything about harness slots being reinforced or not for FF. It does indicate that for FF the harness should be at or above the baby's shoulders.
I will reinforce with my co-worker the value and safety of RF and see if I can get the seat in RF, not sure about top slots reinforcement for lower slots. If not, I will place straps at top slots saying it is likely they will be too tall for baby.
K.
This is the thing though - in the scenario that baby's shoulders are below the middle slots, but only the top slots are allowed for ff'ing use, than the child DOES NOT FIT the seat. The safest seat is one that fits the child, fits the vehicle and will be used correctly every time.
If the above scenario of child needing middle slots but only the top ones reinforced applies, than this seat is NOT SAFE to be used ff'ing with this particular child. The only safe mode to use this seat with a child that size, is to use it rf'ing.
If this is the scenario that applies, then my personal approach would be to try the child in the seat to see what harness height she needs. If it's the middle slots and they're not allowed, then just state as a fact "I see she doesn't fit this seat to use it ff'ing, we'll install it rf'ing so that she fits it properly."
If a seat doesn't fit properly, and isn't being used properly, I don't care what brand of seat it is or how safe the seat might be when used properly, said seat would be unsafe - potentially deadly. If they're looking to you to provide a seat for them, then they need to know if they want to use the seat in a mode not allowed that it could cause their child to be killed in an otherwise survivable collision. :twocents:
(Sorry to be blunt, but I think the point of the previous posts maybe wasn't being completely understood in regards to the seriousness of this fit issue. It's not something to say oh well, I'll let the parents know the seat doesn't fit ff'ing, but here ya go - it's a this seat doesn't fit her ff'ing, we'll have to put it in rf'ing issue. Personally, I'm not sure I could lend a seat knowing that it was going to be used incorrectly and didn't fit the child. It'd be a hard debate with myself, that's for sure...)