car seat advice

[corky]

Hi

I was wondering if I could pick your brains for my friend. She has a volvo with built in boosters and a 2.5 year old that is tall for his age but only 32 pounds. She has an Eddie Bauer AO that he's squeezing into but they need to get rid of the head rest (not sure how they would do that). They also have a large 5 month old.

My questions are:

The volvo seat is 3 point and the manual says that if the child is over 32 pounds they can use it but it still doesn't feel secure. What age should he be before he can go into a 3 point booster? Should they replace the AO with something with higher shoulder slots so that it would last longer?
Thanks

Corky

[Neatfreak]

Is the headrest on the Eddie Bauer or on the Volvo? I thought that the headrests in the back of Volvos were removeable ...

[corky]

Th removable headrest is on the Ao, the volvo has an adult headrest.

[Piglet]

I would ask the same question on the Car Seat Forum - it gets more traffic and Jools is an amazing resource (she knows Canadian rules too). Hipmaman is our resident expert, so hopefully she will see this question as well.

[jujucb]

By Canadian law, a child must be in a harnessed seat until they are at least 40lbs. Best practice is to use a harness longer if the seat has a higher harness weight. Also the child should be at least 4-4.5yo before moving to a booster seat. Again, this isn't law, but best practice. That is the age when most kids are mature enough to stay in proper pre-crash position behind the vehicle seat belt the entire ride (even when asleep). From what I've read the Volvo boosters are just like any other built-in child restraint. Decent, but not all that comfortable and not the best fit for smaller/younger kids.

I believe the best way to get rid of the headhugger on the AO is to cut it off.

I'd put the 2.5yo in something that has taller slots and give the baby the AO. Any of the Evenflo or Graco combination seats are good. Right now, I think the Evenflo Generations is the best pick. Transport Canada recently decreased the rf weight limit to 30lbs for all seats. So an older AO with a 35lb limit is best for the larger baby.

Just my .02 cents :)

[corky]

Thanks for the advice. I had the feeling that 2.5 years was too young for the 3 point booster.
I think her husband was hoping that it would be ok since it would be easier than buying 2-3 more car seats. I think it's a small price to pay for safety.

Thanks

Corky

[hipmaman]

Jujucb says it all, so I won't add to her input, except for one thing.

The headrest - If you mean the little pillow, then it's just velcro at the top. If you mean the head hugger, then you have to pull it out 'forcefully' by the area of the harness slots. The plastic harness slot caps might come off when you pull the head hugger, but it's alright and you can push the plastic caps back into the slots when done. Then you have to remove the harness straps from the metal yoke at the back (one at the time is better), thread them through the slots and head hugger slots to remove, re-insert the straps into the slots, re-attach the harness straps to the metal yoke.

Sounds complicated, so yeah, cutting if off might feel like the 'best' choice :) The manual should have the instructions to do this too.