Should I Change My Car Seat Policy?

[KTsKids]

I'm not a cpst but I'm friends with many and have done plenty of research and there definitely a few buckets that can get a smaller child past 1 yr. I have a 14 month old in care who hasn't passed the weight or height or 1" rule for his bucket yet.

We just went with a convertible from the start

There are for sure some out there, some manufacturers are making infant seat's up to 35 lbs now. They're just so flippin heavy you'd have to be on steroids to use it as a carrier! My son spit up so much that we tossed his before he got close to growing out of it. The Scenera you mentioned is a great convertible, that's actually what we gave out at the hospital.

[happymom]

I'm not a cpst but I'm friends with many and have done plenty of research and there definitely a few buckets that can get a smaller child past 1 yr. I have a 14 month old in care who hasn't passed the weight or height or 1" rule for his bucket yet.

We just went with a convertible from the start

There are sea few that go up to 35" or 35 pounds now. Almost all kids will surpass the height/1" rule before the weight requirement. But my son would have fit in that seat on his 3rd birthday (with over an inch to go). Every day I cringe, there is a mom with her 20 month old at my daycare center who has clearly outgrown the 1" rule by several inches. I don't know how to bring it up though :-/ I am not a cpst.

[KTsKids]

There are sea few that go up to 35" or 35 pounds now. Almost all kids will surpass the height/1" rule before the weight requirement. But my son would have fit in that seat on his 3rd birthday (with over an inch to go). Every day I cringe, there is a mom with her 20 month old at my daycare center who has clearly outgrown the 1" rule by several inches. I don't know how to bring it up though :-/ I am not a cpst.

Even after years of work as a cpst I've never really found a good way to broach the subject with strangers. It was one thing when I was working at the inspection station, parents were coming to me for information. I've learned to not say anything unless it's gross misuse. If I commented on every seat that was being misused I would be talking about it to 95% of parents that I came across.

How far over the limit is the child? There are definitely times that I speak up. Newborns forward facing, young children with no seat at all, serious installation errors, etc. Unless this is a parent you know personally there may not be a comfortable way to do it, but if you truly feel the child is in a dangerous situation you may have to have an uncomfortable conversation. Could you perhaps mention it to the director of the center or the child's teacher?

[happymom]

It's funny, the assistant director knows as well that this child has outgrown his infant seat (probably at least 2" head above the shell)

Mom puts him in it in the front office part of the daycare and the other day when I was checking on something, she was buckling him in and I kind of gave the assistant director a look and could tell she was thinking the same thing. I don't think it's something they plan to address, but I'm hoping I can get friendly with the mom and at least give her a suggestion for a convertible seat. I'm not even certain at this point that she speaks much english, which makes it difficult-- but our drop off/pick up schedule is pretty close so I have been seeing her frequently since my boy is in the same room as hers.