Q: When to stop using head support in car seat?

Aliki · July 2010

This is a really dumb question, but when do you stop using the head support that comes with the infant car seat? Is it when LO looks too snug in it? Or when you can't raise the head support any higher? Or is it by age?

LO is almost 3 months old and she's big: she's 26 inches and 15 lbs. 2 oz. She doesn't have strong neck/head control and is still wobbly, but she's so tall that I think she's uncomfortable in her car seat. Every time we strap her in, she shrieks and kicks/punches. Her head is rubbing up against the head support and I've raised the shoulder straps to the highest setting already (and it's still below her shoulder blades). WDYT? Thanks.

Melly Mel · July 2010

We took ours out about 3 weeks ago.

Jolaine83 · July 2010

We're almost there, but I consider it part of the safety of the car seat. I won't take it out, I'll just move DS up to a convertible rear facing seat sooner, since the head support is built in there. An infant car seat has no support to keep the head from jerking back and forth in a crash if you take the head support off.

ScissorTailedFlycatcher · July 2010

DD's kept bothering her, so we actually took it out when she was probably 6-8 weeks old.

Aliki · July 2010

kayla&joe:
I was wondering this same thing. What is the height restriction on your infant carrier? Your DD may be getting close to the max and may need to switch to a convertible car seat soon. The height max on our infant carrier is 29 inches. DS is long so I will probably be switching him to a convertible within the next month. HTH!

Mine is 29 inches too. I guess we'll have to start looking for a convertible sooner than expected! Darn giant baby!

Aliki · July 2010

Jolaine83:
We're almost there, but I consider it part of the safety of the car seat. I won't take it out, I'll just move DS up to a convertible rear facing seat sooner, since the head support is built in there. An infant car seat has no support to keep the head from jerking back and forth in a crash if you take the head support off.

Oh! I thought the insert could be removed because the instructions says to go till they are 29 inches in height, or 2 inches from the top of the car seat. The head support doesn't stretch anywhere close to 2 inches from the top (it stops about 4 - 5 inches from there?), so I assumed you could remove it as LO grew, and a few months later, you switched to a convertible.

Jolaine83 · July 2010

Aliki:
Jolaine83:
We're almost there, but I consider it part of the safety of the car seat. I won't take it out, I'll just move DS up to a convertible rear facing seat sooner, since the head support is built in there. An infant car seat has no support to keep the head from jerking back and forth in a crash if you take the head support off.
Oh! I thought the insert could be removed because the instructions says to go till they are 29 inches in height, or 2 inches from the top of the car seat. The head support doesn't stretch anywhere close to 2 inches from the top (it stops about 4 - 5 inches from there?), so I assumed you could remove it as LO grew, and a few months later, you switched to a convertible.

You might. I'm not sure. We haven't gotten to the point where I've completely looked into it. I just made it an assumption. Embarrassed

ScoutYoho · July 2010

I took mine out at about 3 months. Her cranium was getting so darn big she just looked uncomfortable and it stuck to her head everytime we took her out.

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