The most frustrating car seat info EVER!

[Splash]

I watched some stupid stupid show on Discovery last week. I watched it only because in the info it said they would be talking about car seats, and I wanted to know what they said.
So they had this guy that was a car seat 'expert' going over different seats.
He said that the AO was one of the best ones around and a great deal. That it could be used from 5 to 80 pounds IN THE HARNESS or about 30 pounds with a lap belt. He said a LAP BELT. Not 3 point belt, lap belt. It showed a 5-6 year old girl in it, in the harness, with the very top (booster only) slots used. Grrrr.
Then he talked about using booster seats. So this girl gets out of the seat she is in and goes and climb into a car in a turbo booster. The headrest is on the lowest slot, and her shoulders were IN the headrest. The shoulder belt went over her upper arms.
Then they showed a bucket seat. He was saying how good the install was. It was REALLY tilted, and moved too much for my liking (though yes, less than an inch each way, which *he* said was acceptable).
The whole thing made me SO angry. No wonder people can't use carseats right when there are 'experts' like this out there!

E

[jeanum]

Argh! Sounds like sending complaints to Discovery is called for. How unbelievably unhelpful and dangerous can they get?? What show was it? Discovery/TLC tend to rerun shows over time so they could rerun it too, yikes!

[kphil]

Was it "Yummy Mummy" by any chance? They had one on carseats lately that I watched for the same reason you did, and I was totally disappointed by it. Anyone watching it would assume they were now educated on car seat usage (the segment was done with a state trooper, or someone else like that that was supposed to be an expert).

Kirsten

[Splash]

Yummy mummy it was. Dumb show to begin with, but the carseat segment was HORRID!

[jeanum]

Ahh, that show is indeed pretty bad to begin with. My friend calls it Dummy Mummy, lol. It's doubly awful in my book now that they're dispensing such bad carseat info.

[Piglet]

That show is actually Canadian. Erica Ehm, the host, was a Much Music (MTV-like channel in Canada) VJ for years and suddenly decided to dispense parenting advice! My guess is that they showed the AO because it is the most popular seat in Canada by a mile. It is available in every store in 3 trim levels and people think it is awesome... until they start using it and start hating it! We have just started seeing Britaxes readily available in higher end stores in the past few years. While there is no excuse for misinformation, I think that a lot of the great info out there is just beginning to get publicized in Canada. If you wanted to find it, you always could, but it wasn't being distributed by agencies/hospitals/police/etc.

Just yesterday I was at the health clinic getting the kids vaxed and found a notepad for the nurse to record the child's weight. It said "children must be in a forward facing harnessed car seat between 20 and 40 lbs". I made the nurse read it and she was surprised it was in their waiting room. I asked her to pull them because it is okay from the 40 lb. side of things (you can only use a booster after 40 lbs here), but I would hate for someone to make the wrong choice on the 20 lb. side. Oh, the notepads were made by the Insurance Adjusters of Alberta - yeah, way to look out for the safety of our kids!

Sorry for the off-topic rant, but that was just another similarly misguided carseat "expert".

[o_mom]

I thought there were at least 3 seats rated to 47/48 lbs in Canada? (Cargo, Bolero & Marathon?)

[jujucb]

We do :) Evenflo combo seats go to 47lbs and Graco combos and the MA to 48lbs. The Evenflo and Graco seats are only good beyond 40lbs when tethered. This higher weight range is just a bonus for the few people (or at least that's how it seems to me) who believe in the benefits of ext'd harnessing. 40lbs is the norm (and the law) for when to move to a booster.

[Neatfreak]

> The Evenflo and Graco seats are only good
>beyond 40lbs when tethered.

And tethering is the law in Canada for FF seats :)

[Joolsplus2]

Makes Cosco seem even worse by comparison, doesn't it? Why can't THEY make a seat that passes to 47/48 pounds when top tethered? (well, the apex, now, but for years and years the graco and evenflo's have been higher weight in canada, but not cosco...)

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

anyway, sounds like a crappy bit of advice on that show...how sad.
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 3 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx