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Nurseries and Baby Gear
Carseat with lap & shoulder belt -- cutting across neck
My 3.5 year old weighs 43 lbs and is exceptionally tall. His convertible seat says to switch to lap & shoulder belt after 40 lbs, so we did. However, the shoulder belt is always cutting uncomfortably into his neck. It is fed through the little guide at the top of the seat, but no matter what, it's always leaving a mark or hurting him.
Can anyone help? Is it safe to use one of those add-on seatbelt pads? Are we doing something incorrectly?
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Re: Carseat with lap & shoulder belt -- cutting across neck
My guess is you are using a car seat like the safety first omega? Something similiar to this?
https://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Alpha-Omega-Convertible/dp/B007G9ILI6/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1337636601&sr=1-2
Unfortunatly - they make HORRID boosters. IDEALLY kids should be in a harness until 4 or 5 - so if you have the money - I'd opt for a new seat - maybe (if you don't want to spend a lot of money) - a good seat for you would be the evenflo Maestro: it allows harness use to 50 ilbs and then is a great belt positioner booster.
https://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Maestro-Seat-Booster-Adele/dp/B006PB2CQS/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1337636663&sr=1-1
If you want to booster right now and not spend another $70 (which I can understand in some situations) - a good positioning booster can be found really anywhere (target, walmart, etc) - they should look like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Big-Booster-Seat-Colonnade/dp/B005LZVRSS/ref=sr_1_5?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1337636811&sr=1-5
IF money is not a problem and you want something a bit nicer then any of that the britax frontier (80 or 85) will harness until 80 or 85 (depending on seat) and then converts to a good booster.
https://www.amazon.com/Britax-Frontier-Combination-Booster-Rushmore/dp/B0038W0JI0/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1337636811&sr=1-1
And the old standby
Nautalis https://www.amazon.com/Graco-Nautilus-Car-Seat-Matrix/dp/B0011URFRE/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1337636991&sr=1-2
This harness's until 65 pounds and makes a great booster.
Does that help? I'm not an expert - I just spend a lot of time around carseats and on the boards at car-seat.org
Emily 8.8.08
Madeline 1.2.11
William 8.5.12
I agree, he doesn't sound tall enough at all. And I'm not comfortable with a 3.5 year old in a seatbelt booster. OP, I will take a bite too, and agree with the pp about it being an AOE (rotten boosters anyway). My dd3 was too tall for hers entirely and outgrew it in height (not weight, she's still only 35 ish lbs). I moved her into a Frontier, she's got two adjustment height left to go. I also agree that the Maestro would work just as well, until he's mature enough to sit in a booster, and until his bones have ossified more, and he's got some height in him.
And to adding anything else, absolutely not, unless it came with the seat or is from the same manufacturer, and intended for use with that particular seat. It's never a great idea to use aftermarket products, they have not been tested with that seat, and the seat wasn't designed to function with it. I wouldn't take chances that the device would fail in the event of an accident.
Thanks for all the info! And that is actually the seat we have for him.
I got the numbers wrong in my first message (b/c I didn't check before typing, I just knew he was close to the limit). When I said 43 lbs, he's actually 48 lbs. And the straps on the 5-point harness were all the way to the top position but always digging into his shoulders and leaving marks. He was always saying they were hurting him, so that's why we switched to the belt, thinking it would help.
Maybe it's possible that a kid and a particular seat just don't fit each other? I guess we should go buy a whole new seat. I'll look into the Britax or the Nautalis. Thank you for your recommendations!
OH interesting.. well I'm sure all seats fit different kids and diferent cars
I'm glad you are in a position where you can look at other options!