Carseats. WWYD?

jennyelf

Kiddo is in the 12-24 month room at daycare and is one of the smallest due to age. A parent of an older (and taller kid) came in one morning with an infant bucket seat so that the babysitter could take that kid home. I know most bucket seats have a max height of 30 inches and max weight of 30lbs and my kid outgrew the bucket seat at 11 months, so that kid probably has too. Pretty sure I've noticed that same bucket seat in the closet on previous days.

Would you say anything to the parent that their car seat might not be safe for their kid anymore?

jbatch

Nope.. I would not think its your business..

LoCarb

No.

If anything, I may mention when there is a sale at BRU on car seats bc it looks like LO may outgrow his soon. Try to sound helpful and not passive aggressive.

eta:spelling

eyenigh

I think it depends on how well you know the parent and how it comes up. My son is in the toddler room now but some of the babies he was with last year are still in the infant room so I'll run into the moms and kids coming in and out and we usually stop to talk about how much our kids are changing. One parent of twins and I were talking and I said "Wow, look how big they're getting! They're going to be ready to move up to their convertible seats-- they're almost popping out the top!" The mom was like "Yeah, I wish I could but I have to keep them in here until they're a year." When I asked her why, she told me that she thought that was the law-- that they had to be in infant bucket seats for a year. When I told her no, and suggested a couple of websites to check to confirm it, she was was thankful and thanked me again for letting her know the next time that I saw her. I recognize that not every similar situation will have this positive outcome.

mb314

Are you sure that the toddler doesn't still fit in the bucket seat?  DS is still in his bucket seat at 13 months, but he's only 28.5 inches and 21 pounds.  I plan to switch to the convertible seat soon, but for now we're still using the bucket seat. 

jennyelf

mb314 said:

Are you sure that the toddler doesn't still fit in the bucket seat?  DS is still in his bucket seat at 13 months, but he's only 28.5 inches and 21 pounds.  I plan to switch to the convertible seat soon, but for now we're still using the bucket seat. 

Definitely. My LO was 30 inches at 12 months and this kid is definitely taller. (LO is now 16 months and the other kid is 20 months).

cecilyandgautam

Are you sure it doesn't fit? My DD was 80-90 percentile for height and our infant care seat maxed out at 32" and she didn't pass that mark until well after her first birthday so I'm not sure how your guesstimate adds up. I'm wondering if maybe your kid is thin but tall or if you got one of the small infant car seats (some max out at 22") but to me, it sounds like your benchmarking might be off. I vote to not say anything. You could be mistaken. 

Also, you don't know if this is the regular car seat she uses every day. Maybe the kiddo puked all over his regular car seat yesterday and this is the back up one - just another reason not to say anything. She may be doing the best she can under unusual circumstances. 

I know you mean well - I see people forward facing and not even trying to get the car seat in the middle, but people normally know what they're doing and are at peace with the risk they're taking on. 

itsmevkb

cecilyandgautam said:

I know you mean well - I see people forward facing and not even trying to get the car seat in the middle, but people normally know what they're doing and are at peace with the risk they're taking on. 

Exactly.  I had people say something to me when I forward faced my now two-year-old right at year.  First, none of their business, second, they had no idea what it was like with him rear facing, third, I shouldn't have to tell them what it was like because see my first point, it's none of their business.

Karla CS

FWIW, when we first had DD, we were putting her legs in through the upper harness of her seat. If anyone noticed, no one said anything. I wish someone had pointed it out to us, because it took until she was nearly 2 months old to figure it out. 

In the same breath though, unless you have a relationship with the parent and know they won't be offended, I wouldn't say anything directly. Your estimates could be off, and it's possible they are indeed knowledgeable about the seat they chose and their child.

If you feel you have to say something, I would echo some of the PP's suggestions - mention how big that their kiddo is getting and that they could be ready for a new seat soon and a sale is going on at BBB or BRU. If that's not something you can comfortably do, ask the DCP if you can provide a flyer.

carlab44

No, my daughter could have fit in her infant seat until she was 2 years old. It had a limit of 35lbs and 33". She was 22lbs and 33" exactly at 2 years. It is also hard to tell car seat fit based on height alone since some kids have a long torso and some have a short torso (and the seat is outgrown based on how close their head is to the top of the seat, not their overall height).

emberlee3

Our infant seat was up to 32 lbs/32 inches.  Girls are smaller than boys.  We just stopped using the infant seat last month (DD was 15 months old) because DD reached 31 3/4 inches.

preggersin2011

I used our infant seat when LO was 13 months and we still had 2 inches and 10 lbs left before she out grew it. I only swapped her to a convertible to get her more upright in RF.
I wouldn't say anything. I've seen it all in the day care parking lot, RF before 1yrs of age, reclined in FF, grandma picking up a 2 yr old and buckling them in w/o a car seat, parents only using part of the 5pt harness, etc. If you look at the statistics I think 1 of 4 car seats are installed wrong, plus there is another number for children not buckled in correctly. Odds are you haven't buckled your child into a car seat correctly 100% of the time. When it comes to car seats, food, and parenting habits I keep my mouth shut & gossip about it later to a friend.