Carseat Question - TRINA HELP!!!!!
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive July-December 2004:
Carseat Question - TRINA HELP!!!!!
Trina I have a GRACO infant seat that Jade is in now and she is 26 1/2 inches long and 17 1/2#. She is getting almost too long for it. Her legs just about hit the van seat. I know she is close to having to be switched to a rear facing toddler seat. Do you know what the recommended size is for a child going from one to the other. And age if it is listed. She is 5 months.
I have looked for the book to her seat and for the life of me cannot find it. I know it is in a box in her room with all of her other papers form all of her equipment she uses but the whole box has been moved I think to the attic by accident.
Bump
Hi Tonya! How are things going? Haven't seen you posting in awhile. Jade is 5 mos. already?! How is Timmy?
I assume you have the Graco Snugride. You can view and print instruction manuals from the Graco web site. Look on the label of your infant seat for the model number. There are several different Snugride models, but I believe they all have the same height and weight limits which is 20 lbs. and 26". Although Jade's legs touching the vehicle seat back is not a problem, she does exceed Graco's height limit so it's time to transition to a convertible seat now. There are no set age limits for making the switch because all babies are different sizes at different ages. Regardless of the age, once a baby reaches the limits of the seat it's time for a new one.
Graco Car Seat Manuals
Recommended car seats:
Car-Safety.org
CarSeatData.org
(This web site includes a Compatibility Data base where you can look up your vehicles(s) to see how different car seats fit.)
To find a Child Passenger Safety Tech in your area:
SeatCheck.org
SafeKids.org
In the "CPS Certification" section
Be sure to keep Jade rear facing until at least 20 lbs. and 12 mos. of age. The AAP and CPS experts now recommend children stay rear facing longer, until they meet the rear facing limits of their convertible car seat. More info here:
Rear-facing - Unmatched Safety
Hope this helps! 
Trina
CPS Tech
http://www.parentsplace.com/babies/safety/articles/0,10335,240282_263876,00.html
Rear-facing car seats: What you need to know
by Kathleen Weber
Common Misunderstanding
There are many misunderstandings and misconceptions about the crash environment that lead even the best-intentioned parent or pediatrician to believe a child is "safe" facing forward when s/he is still very young. These come from obsolete ideas and advice that may still appear in older pamphlets and pediatric literature but that have been updated in recent years.
The most prevalent misunderstanding is the idea that muscle strength and control have anything to do with whether it is reasonable to face a child forward and subject his/her neck to the extreme forces pulling the head away from the body in a frontal crash.
Crash Dynamics
This will be a somewhat technical explanation, but it is an important concept to understand. When a car hits something else at, say, 25 miles per hour to 30mph, it will come to a stop at a deceleration rate of about 20 or 25G. But, due to the time lag between when the vehicle stops and the occupants eventually do, the head of a forward-facing adult or child may experience as much as 60 or 70G.
Physiological Impact
Even strong neck muscles of military volunteers cannot make a difference in such an environment. Rather it is the rigidity of the bones in the neck, in combination with the connecting ligaments, that determines whether the spine will hold together and the spinal cord will remain intact within the confines of the vertebral column.
This works for adults, but very young children have immature and incompletely ossified bones that are soft and will deform and/or separate under tension, leaving the spinal cord as the last link between the head and the torso. Have you ever pulled an electric cord from the socket by the cord instead of the plug and broken the wires? Same problem.
This scenario is based on actual physiological measures. According to Huelke et. al. (1), "In autopsy specimens the elastic infantile vertebral bodies and ligaments allow for column elongation of up to two inches, but the spinal cord ruptures if stretched more than 1/4 inch." Real accident experience has also shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from its spine by the force of a crash. Yes, the body is being held in place, but the head is not. Is it a statistically rare event? Yes. If it's my child, does it matter that it's rare?
Facing Directions
When a child is facing rearward, the head is cradled and moves in unison with the body, so that there is little or no relative motion that might pull on the connecting neck.
Another aspect of the facing-direction issue that is often overlooked is the additional benefit a child gains in a side impact. Crash testing and field experience have both shown that the head of a child facing rearward is captured by the child restraint shell in side and frontal-oblique crashes, while that of a forward-facing child is thrown forward, around, and often outside the confines of the side wings. This can make the difference between a serious or fatal head injury and not.
Turn-Around Time
There are no magical or visible signals to tell us, parents or pediatricians when the risk of facing forward in a crash is sufficiently low to warrant the change, and, when a parent drives around for months or years without a serious crash, the positive feedback that the system they have chosen "works" is very difficult to overcome. When in doubt, however, it's always better to keep the child facing rearward.
In the research and accident review(2) that I did a few years ago, the data seemed to break at about 12 months between severe consequences and more moderate consequences for the admittedly rare events of injury to young children facing forward that we were able to identify. One year old is also a nice benchmark, and the shift to that benchmark in the last few years has kept many kids in a safer environment longer and has probably saved some lives, some kids from paralysis and some parents from terrible grief.
Leg Length
As a side comment, some convertible child restraints indicate in their instructions that a child should face forward when his/her feet touch the vehicle seatback, or alternately when the legs must be bent. This prohibition is not justified by any accident experience or any laboratory evidence, and we are hoping that these instructions will soon be revised. The only physical limit on rear-facing use is when the child's head approaches the top of the restraint shell. At this point, s/he should be moved to a rear-facing convertible restraint, or, if the child is already using one, to its forward-facing configuration.
Parents and pediatricians need to know the real reasons for the current push to keep babies rear-facing to at least one year of age, in order to be able to make an informed judgment. Perhaps this will help spread the word.
References:
(1) Huelke DF et. al. Car crashes and non-head impact cervical spine injuries in infants and children. Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1992. SAE 920562
(2) Weber K et. al. Investigation of dummy response and restraint configuration factors associated with upper spinal cord injury in a forward-facing child restraint. In Child Occupant Protection, SP-986. Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1993. SAE 933101
Kathleen Weber is the Director of the Child Passenger Protection Research Program at the University of Michigan Medical School
A 5 pt. harnessed car seat is the safest choice.
Five-Point Harness or Shield - Choosing a safer seat
Rear Facing - the harness straps need to be AT or BELOW the shoulders
Forward Facing
- the harness straps should be AT or ABOVE the shoulders
- Many convertible car seats REQUIRE the harness straps in the top slots when forward facing. There are exceptions but not many, so it's important to read the instruction manual.
The harness should always be snug. No more than one finger should fit under a harness strap at the collar bone. If you can pinch the harness strap webbing it's too loose.
Sorry to interfere but WOW! Jade is a big girl! I cant believe shes 5 months old!
Wow, Trina, all of our carseats were the t-shield variety. We were fortunate enough to never have a bad accident with them, so everyone is fine. I'm glad my kids are old enough to not need carseats anymore. We had 2 Centuries and 1 Fisher-Price, but way back in the late 80's to early 90's.
Bumping for Tonya.
Dawn - Yes, car seats have changed quite a bit since then. Even since my DS was born in 1996.
Thanks allot Trina I appreciate all of the info. Jade is too big so we are going shopping Saturday for a new seat for my princess.
We are all doing really well I will give an update on our household when I get a few minutes. Talk to you soon ladies.
I like the Fisher-Price seat since it was so easy to fasten! I know diapers even changed between my 2 kids and have changed lots since they have gotten older!
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