Wow! I knew the lowest slot on MA was high, but shocked

[Pixels]

I've never heard of that, either (which may not mean a whole lot, but...still).

It's always been that the harness should hold the child down when they "ramp up", so their heads don't become vulnerable to outside objects if "ramping up" and out of the top of the shell. Or some kind of other head/neck trauma from not being contained enough in the seat shell.

On the flip side, my understanding of the harness being at or above the shoulders for a FF child is to reduce spinal compression and to hold the child *back* as opposed to *down*.

The Graco SmartSeat requires the straps to always be below the shoulders RFing, never at, citing increased chest Gs. Knowing that, I am disinclined to allow straps above the shoulders for any RFer in any seat. It's not just ramping up that's affected by strap placement.

 

[arly1983]

my kids have done similarly. If you look at Arly's screaming baby picture imagine the straps up one, that is how it fit my little one. A pissed off newbie can get their head under straps that are up at their ears because they don't fill out the seat in width. Is it an epidemic? No, has it even had one injury/fatality? I dunno but it was not a risk I was willing to take with a rearfacer and no one next to them.

LOL, every pic I have of him at this age in a carseat he is screaming. He hated the carseat with a passion.

 

[ketchupqueen]

The Graco SmartSeat requires the straps to always be below the shoulders RFing, never at, citing increased chest Gs. Knowing that, I am disinclined to allow straps above the shoulders for any RFer in any seat. It's not just ramping up that's affected by strap placement.

So, even seats that allow it? (Combi infant seats, European/Aussie seats?)

Personally, I think the SmartSeat has some issues that need fine tuning and those issues may not apply to other seats directly.

 

[Pixels]

So, even seats that allow it? (Combi infant seats, European/Aussie seats?)

No, if a seat specifically allows harness above the shoulders then it was tested that way and passed. I was referring to the assumption that it's okay to allow a newborn to ride in a seat with the shoulders below in spite of manual directions to the contrary, and the assumption that the only risk is ramping up. There may be other injury risks as well.

I was speaking only of North American seats, not European/Aussie seats. I am not aware of any US seat that actually allows shoulders below the slots RFing; I just checked the Centre, Connection and Tyro manuals and they do specify that the shoulders must be at or below the slots. What seat allows shoulders below the bottom slots?

 

[ketchupqueen]

A clarification has been issued that the Shuttle, Navette, and other current Combi infant seats allow shoulders above the bottom slots on small infants as long as the harness tightens appropriately, etc. Vera Fullaway will provide this in writing in the form of a letter providing this information and additional guidance if requested, just email. We heard about this some months ago, but I was reminded of it again as it was published in SafeRideNews this month.

 

[fyrfightermomma]

I had the freak child who fit at birth and was on the 2nd set by 6 months. At 18 months he's working on the 3rd set.

 

[joolsplus3]

my kids have done similarly. If you look at Arly's screaming baby picture imagine the straps up one, that is how it fit my little one. A pissed off newbie can get their head under straps that are up at their ears because they don't fill out the seat in width. Is it an epidemic? No, has it even had one injury/fatality? I dunno but it was not a risk I was willing to take with a rearfacer and no one next to them.

I still don't see it as a risk, I've been reading this stuff for 14 years and never heard of it happening. Now 3 points, which routinely had only one or two height slots, this was very common... http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1473474&postcount=114

I asked the crash engineers at Lifesavers once if slots above the shoulders was an issue, and they were genuinely perplexed. A tiny baby just doesn't ramp out or barely even make the seat tip back, the forces are really all spread into the seatback, the harness just kind of holds them in place, but not even as much as gravity does.

Anyway, forever disclaimer, no one go misusing your seat just because Jools has been pondering this particular issue for a decade and a half and doesn't think it's a problem for her own kids

 

[jjordan]

I tried this new baby in our classic boulevard at about 3 weeks old and she fit pretty well. (No pictures because she was NOT happy and I didn't want to leave her in there just to get pictures!) At the time she could still wear newborn onesies, so... not sure what was going on there. If she's like my other kids, and I'm hoping she is, then she'll fit in her 22# infant seat long enough to get through the winter.

 

[mamakc]

We switched DS to a RA at 2 months old and he fit just fine. Not a clear pic of the straps, but I promise he fit good. It was right after I learned all about cps and went crazy perfecting everything