tethering rear facing Britax Canadian marathon

[Q]

I just got back from having the car seat inspected and while they told me I did a great job installing it , they also told me that it should not be tethered in the rear facing position. But I'm not sure that they are right. They admitted that they don't know much about the britax carseats because they are just new on the Canadian market but that the recommendations for rear facing are not to teher. To have some give so the child's head is not the only thing that moves and everything else is stationary. Now I picture my 6 month old's head being whipped around and into the back of the seat. Does anyone know why britax's are recommended to be tethered rear facing? :-(

[Piglet]

Hi Sue,

I don't think they are very knowledgeable about Britax seats here. I suspect they see a bunch of first time parents tethering regular car seats backwards (incorrectly), thinking it is helping, when in fact you DO want a bit of give. The Britax design is different and has been tested tethered backwards. If you haven't done so already, post the same question on the car seat forum and I am sure you'll get great answers as to the differences. I know there were other people that found that although Britax recommended tethering backwards, their car manufacturer did not recommend using the car parts that Britax recommended as tether points. There were a lot of discussions on this as well over there. In the end, if you do not tether backwards, the car seat will still be safe, but I would hate for you to not tether for the wrong reasons (i.e. lack of knowledge of Britax seats at the fire department).

[hipmaman]

That's a lot of b*lls they were talking about. But I know exactly what you are talking about though.

As a trained carseat tech and volunteering with St. John Ambulance, I run into this sometimes with colleagues who don't know Britax. But here is the official position that SJA is taking at this time.

Your Canadian MA is certainly legal and safe to tether rf. It's in your Canadian manual and on the seat stickers. That's that!

But, Transport Canada is saying that rf is optional on Britax MA, and SJA will not tether rf for you, but you as parents can certainly do so. The main reason being that techs in Canada are not trained to rf tether by Britax (or anyone for that matter) and cannot risk liability to do so. So, I'm trying to see if we can get Britax to train us.

Although, I have rf tether all my kids' seats, friends', neighbours', while I'm volunteer on SJA time, I don't rf tether any seats. I know how to do it, but I (as well as techs in Canada) are not 'officially' trained to rf tether.

[Tequillacowgirl]

Where do I go to see if I have installed correctly?

[Q]

The firehalls have clinics twice a month, on Wednesdays here (Calgary) I think. But go prepared it's a long wait!! I was lined up for about an hour + a half! Check your city's website page.

[hipmaman]

Where are you? in the GTA, right? Call St. John Ambulance, local health unit, fire department or police department, OPP, etc. they either have their own clinics or can point you to a right place.

If you are in the west end (Mississauga, Oakville, etc.), SJA Mississauga has clinics all the times and we take appointments to avoid long waiting time, as well as making sure we have enough techs to go through the appointment list. Sometimes, we even have people come as far as TO to Mississauga for checks.

[yyzmom]

I have a Britax Marathon and I got it installed at 41 division in Scarborough by Sargeant Garfield. The phone number is 416-808-4100. There is about a 2 month wait for appointments so call early (they spend 30-45 minutes educating you about the seat/installation). They also run car seat clinics around the city so if you need it installed asap try to go to one of them.

[Q]

What did they say about the tether?