Infant seats who develops weight and height limits?

[dianaco]

Is anyone as fustrated as I am with infant seats? I thought my infant carrier would carry my daughter at least 6 months due to the 20lb weight limit, but the catch is the baby must be 26 inches or less to ride safely in an infant seat. Well I have a 3 1/2 month old and I need to go buy a new rear facing carseat. If I had any idea what a SHORT-time my daughter would be able to ride safely in an infant seat I would have never wasted $70 on one:-( Well now I must run to go spend $200 on a britax car seat to ensure my little girls safety. I also can not believe the state of California has mandated carseats for children less than 6 years of age.

Are their really babies that are shorter than 26 inches and weigh 20lbs??

[strollerqueen]

You're right!!! That would be one chubby baby!! I ran into this problem 3 years ago when my daughter was born. And boy, was I frustrated! I remember she was 9 months old and her feet were way sticking out of the car seat. At that time, the 26 inch limit wasn't mentioned anywhere, only the 20 pound limit. I STILL read a lot of car seat safety articles that never mention the 26 inches, just the 20 pounds.

Anyway, my pediatrician noticed her feet over the edge and said to get her out of it right away, because if we got in a car wreck her ankles would be broken!! I started searching for a rear-facing car seat, because she was under a year, that would take a longer child. Again, at that time, there was only ONE on the market--the Britax. I bought it immediately and had it installed properly.

Just days later, we were hit really hard in the rear end. My car was totalled, the trunk was all smashed in, the rear door wouldn't even open. And my daughter wasn't hurt at all!! The police at the scene were astonished, and commended me for having the right car seat installed the right way. They said if she had been in another seat installed another way, the outcome would surely have been a lot different.I just thank God the accident hadn't happened the week before, when she was still in the Evenflo On My Way! which, BTW, never fit well in the sloped back seat of my car. That was another thing no one ever mentioned back then--that not all car seats will actually fit in all cars. I'm quite sure car seat makers know this, and to not inform the public is a shocking example of profit before safety.

[webma]

Do you all know where can I find this information when shopping for
a car seat? I've only ever heard the weight limit for the infant seats and would sure like to have known about the length issue before buying the carrier.

Plus I had a devil of time getting the car seats to fit into our cars (a 4 door saturn and toyota corolla). It took 3 police officers who had gone through the installation training (including the expert guy) 45 min to get it installed correctly in the toyota. I don't know if the seat makers assume everyone has a mini-van or an SUV or what. Part of the problem was that the base was too wide to fit well in the space between the seat belts in the middle.

What do you do if you have two kids in car seats other than buy a new car?

[jra]

Just so everyone knows, not all seats only go to 26 inches. You really need to read the info per each seat. I think I have seen some seats that go to 27 inches and the FP Stay in View that I have goes up to 29 inches.

[ksummy]

If you purchase a Britax, check out www.babyuniverse.com We recently purchased one from them and it was considerably cheaper than anywhere else. They are less expensive, you may not have to pay out of state tax, and at the time they were offering 5.95 UPS shipping. We received it in less than a week.

[shandrin]

Did you know that the height limit is just a guideline? Your baby needs at least one inch from the top of it's head to the seat shell in order to be properly protected. What really matters is TORSO height rather than overall height so some kids may outgrow a seat at 26inches other may not.

http://www.carseat.org

Has tons of info on safety seats including addressing the feet touching the seat issue which isn't a concern.
:)

[shandrin]

Also another site for info,
http://www.safekids.org

Plus for help fitting seats
http://www.carseatdata.org