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View Full Version : Century SmartFit Elite - Too upright for infant?



moconnor
07-09-2000, 08:33 AM
I have a Century Smartfit Elite 3 point harness infant car seat. When I install it, it seems to me to keep your infant in an upright, semi-seated position as opposed to a semi-reclined position that most infant car seats employ. The car seat has the leveling feature which tells me the car seat is properly installed, but this upright angle seems too severe to me for an infant (luckily my baby has a very strong neck, but it still concerns me). Any comments/questions/experience with this?

LMom
07-12-2000, 11:43 PM
I recommend getting the installation of your carseat professionally inspected. Check with your hospital, high-end baby store, or fire dept. for info.

LaurensMom
07-19-2000, 11:27 AM
Please don't assume that just because the leveling indicator displays level that you have installed the car seat correctly. This car seat is a very difficult seat to install properly in the rear facing position. It took my husband and I an hour and a half to install!

As for the recline question you mentioned. Their are two recline positions available while the seat is rear facing. Do you have the seat reclined in the most reclined position? If so, use the neck roll that came with the seat (or purchase one). Hopefully, this will help!

By the way, check out epinions.com for more information about this seat and many other products! It is a great site for anyone in the market for products. (My user ID is Michelej2000)

stephanie
07-19-2000, 11:40 AM
We had the same problem with this car seat. When properly installed (we had it installed by the local police department),the seat seemed to sit too upright for my son - his head kept flopping over the side when he would fall asleep, and he has excellent head control. We wound up reclining the seat back a bit further to solve the problem.

Petey
09-18-2000, 10:31 PM
If you have a base (came with my elite travel system), check for the adjustment. If you don't have a base, it might be helpful to buy one. Mine has an adjustment that allows you to raise and lower the back end of the base (where baby's feet are).

twinmom
01-12-2001, 06:45 PM
We had the same problem, so we had a carseat inspector check our installation of the seats before we left the hospital with our twins. She told us to go ahead and recline the seats further than Century recommended, so that our preemie twins wouldn't have their necks flop forward. This has worked well for us.

I'd recommend that you have a carseat inspector check out the seat, and see what he/she thinks.