Toby: 11 month old forward facing in Graco Comfort Sport?

[Garrettsmom]

For Toby or anyone else who can help--I have a problem with my son, who is 11 months old, about 32 inches tall (97%ile) and about 23 lbs fitting comfortably rear facing into his Graco Comfort Sport, which is our second car seat. On our most recent trips we have really felt that he was jammed into the seat with the straps extremely tight over his shoulders and could barely snap the buckle. My husband, who installs the seat every time, (and does read directions!) tells me that the top slots of the harness can only be used forward facing. He wants to turn our son around so that we can move the straps up. Apparently there are two spots on the straps where you can attach them to the hook in back, and the higher up location is the one that is suppposed to be used when the seat is rear-facing. Perhaps this is familiar from the Century Accel?! I am wondering a few things...

First, is this a common problem? It would seem like it must be if your child is tall, or else we are doing something wrong.

Second, although we haven't tried this yet, do you have any thoughts on using the lower strap attachment site when rear-facing? This would lengthen the straps, although I don't know if we could tighten them up enough for a good fit. But what is the issue/risk here?

Third, if we don't do that, how bad is it to have my son forward facing at 11 months? This is, at least, only our travel/second seat, but we do a fair amount of travelling.

Fourth, should I be complaining to Graco??

Thanks in advance!!

[Joolsplus2]

Well, I'm not sure I'd complain to Graco until you find out whether you can use the lower of the hooks :). DO call them and find out specifically if you can lengthen the straps that way, and if you can't, then give them an earful! Please do keep your ds Rearfacing, it is SO much safer (so much safer than forward facing, I recently put my 3 year old RF in a Britax Marathon) check out http://www.cpsafety.com , and check the "extended rearfacing" link for more information. good luck, and I hope you can keep using your seat and that it will FIT your ds comfortably! Julie

[KCR4]

My mother in law uses the Century Accel rear-facing. She recently told me that she lengthened the straps by putting the loops on the end of the harness straps into the yoke, rather than the loops that were inserted originally into the yoke. Is that what your husband is referring to?

[Garrettsmom]

Yes, this is one thing we are wondering about, as the directions apparently say that the lower attachment site is only for use with the seat forward facing.

[KCR4]

I am looking at the manual on the gracobaby.com website. I haven't read the entire manual, but on page 22, Operations and Adjustments: Changing Harness Strap Slots, it discusses the two sets of loops and which go on the splitter plate - for "Infants and Small Toddlers" and for "Toddlers" (figure e) - I don't see anything about forward facing or rear...I would check the manual again and call customer service....is it possible your husband is looking at the section on shoulder slots for the harness straps, which is different than the loops for extending the straps??? I'm just fumbling around here, maybe an expert can weigh on this....

[Garrettsmom]

Thanks. I guess I'll have to look at the manual myself! It may be that the language they use, "toddlers", is what they use to describe forward facing kids and thus dh assumed that meant the lower attachment site was off limits. I'm still hoping Toby or another CPS expert will weigh in on this, but anyway I did call Graco customer service this morning and here's what they said:

The lower attachment site is, as you mentioned, for "toddlers" and older kids and the higher up one is for "infants and small toddlers". They told me that the problem is that when people use the lower site they often do not have the child in the seat properly. I think the issue is that the straps would be too loose. She mentioned that there should only be space for one finger between the shoulder and the strap. She was explaining to me that rear-facing children need the straps to actually "pull" them down into the seat, which is why you use the harness slot that is at or below the shoulder. In any case, she told me that we could use the lower slot if we then took it to a car seat check place and had a technician tell us it was OK. She said as a rule they don't recommend it because too many children end up not properly restrained, but if it was checked and we were told it was fine, then they were OK with it. So I guess that answers some of my questions. The problem will be if a tech says "no good". Then I don't know what we do!

[tobymc]

It sounds like you are on the right track.

I would have suggested calling Graco.

I have heard of some children having trouble with the Evenflo seat with the two harness lengths, though I don't think I'd heard it with the Graco.

I'm assuming that despite the cold weather, you do not have your little one bundled up very much. That can cause the problem you are seeing. You want to put a few warm but light layers on your child, with the rest of the layers on TOP of the straps (like a blanket, or larger jacket).

I'd also strongly recommend a trip to a carseat tech. You've got a lot of the stuff correct, but it is so much easier for a tech to SEE a child and see what is going on. The tech (assuming you get a pretty experienced one) should also be pretty interested in what Graco said, especially if they can't find any other way to get the straps loose enough.

You are correct that the straps should NOT be that tight on a child like your son, and this problem should NOT drive you to forward face your child now.

Good luck and tell us how it turns out!