Help CPS tech w/ Parkway

[shall85296]

I just got the Parkway for my 3yr old. He is 40" & 32 lbs. Well within the guidelines of the Parkway booster. However the information written on the seat states that you should keep your child in a 5 pt. harness until they outgrow the limitations of that seat (in his case, his marathon). So the obvious question is - why would they make a seat, and then tell you not to use it? Is it less safe? It seems that amongst our 3 & 4 yr old crowd they are mostly in boosters.
I checked the NHTSA website, and the guidelines were somewhat confusing for 1-4 yr olds.
Thanks for your help as always.
Stacy

[Joolsplus2]

It's *really* a bad idea to put a 3 yo in a booster, because head injury rates are much higher for boostered kids under 5. The 30 pound limit is much more useful for those of us with scrawny kids who aren't 40 pounds till age 6 and way too tall for conventional seats. Why do they make it at all? Because people don't know how dangerous it is, and market forces drive production...the Bodyguard started at 43 inches and 40 pounds, and people just misused it and bought it for little kids anyway, even though Britax made a valiant effort to keep kids out of it with those high minimum limits.
I've put my own 3 yo's in boosters in the past, but no way would I do it now.. see my post below about 'another study proving rearfacing is safest'... it has a link to the study that finds these increased head injury rates for little kids. Of course, there's the unfortunate lot of 3 yo's who ARE 40 pounds and have parents who don't care to research the higher weight options...I guess at least they are better off in a fairly well fitting booster than nothing (???).

Thanks for asking, sorry it was after you already forked over the hundred bucks :P


Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[o_mom]

Well, not everyone has a Marathon - if you had a Graco ComfortSport, I can guarantee it would be outgrown heightwise by now. :-)

Basically, no one wants to tell the parents of a 3yo that after spending $80 on an infant seat, $100+ on a convertible that they now have to fork over another $250 for a larger seat. So, the boosters are tested at 30 lbs and most parents will go for the $50 booster. Yes, they could have skipped that $100 small convertible, but most parents, myself included have a hard time understanding how you fit a Marathon RF in the car and still use the front seat. We could barely fit a Roundabout in the Subaru with the passenger seat pushed most of the way forward.

I think the manufacturers are starting to realize they could have a market - Graco with the Safeseat - so you don't have to even buy a convertible and Cosco with the Apex. You could theoretically keep them rearfacing to 30lbs and harnessed to 65 for $250 total that way. The entry of Fisher Price into the high weight harness seats will also help things by knocking $100 off the higher weight seats.

[Joolsplus2]

You'll probably laugh to hear this, but lots of us who install MA's and RA's are rather surprised to find that the MA takes up less space than the RA in some cars when installed RF ;). And a good MA install never takes up more space than an infant seat RF (not that I don't see your point...good grief, people paid me $20 to spend an hour teaching them how to do this... it SHOULD be completely simple for anyone to just DO!)

Still...it's almost a moral issue at some point... how DARE seat companies make seats with such crazy-low slots...is it just so they can sell us Cargos and Generations after their lame convertibles are outgrown? (and Cosco...their big solution to their eternally low slots used to be shield boosters! yikes!).
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[shall85296]

Tags are still on ... the seat goes back! What I was after was a quick install into dad's car for the weekends, but we'll just keep doing the switch.
Thanks.
Stacy

[Joolsplus2]

<High 5>! Don't worry, he'll be a teenager before you know it and you'll look back on your bruised knees from installing seats with loving fondness :D
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx