Car seat woes…
One of the pre-Emerson tasks that I had left to do was install the car seat this weekend.
Wow! What a pain in the ass!
Worse, I still don’t have the seat installed properly in either our SUV or sedan!
In both cars, the infant seat has too much side-to-side play on the leather seats no matter how much I tighten the straps. This seems to be a “known problem” with leather seats… Google tells me to use either 1) non-skid shelving liners (seriously? can this be safe? or good for the seating?) or 2) to purchase a skid proof “seat saver” (which I did last night — x2 plus rapid shipping — from Amazon.com). Hopefully, this will resolve side-to-side problem.
I’m also hoping that the seat savers will reduce the angle on our bucket seats. Otherwise, we won’t be able to use the LATCH system on those seats and will need to place the car seat in the rear-middle seat (which isn’t bucketed, but lacks LATCH support). If so, that shouldn’t be a big deal because the seats (thankfully) support the correct kind of belt locking mechanism to support a child restraint. Why are the bucket seats a problem? Even at the highest setting, the car seat still isn’t at an appropriate angle for correct installation. A “rolled up towel” isn’t the answer (despite what some web sites say), because the material can be too easily compressed under force. However, I suspect a wedge of very high-density foam might work as an alternative.
It’s no wonder 5 out of 6 car seats are installed improperly!
3 responses so far
We use the non skid kitchen liners. They work great and save the leather. Bucket seats do stink for carseats. We take our cars to the local police or fire department and have them install them. I TOTALLY recommend this. They are trained for this. They can get it in soooo tight. That leaves no work for you and gives you peace of mind. Absolutely recommend this. We did it for both of our kids.
Kristina — thanks for the feedback! I think I will engage the experts, as this has ended up being much more involved than I’d expected.
Baby’s R’ Us (and other like stores) carry specially designed high-density foam inserts for the purpose of balancing out the car seat at the correct angle. I think they run about $20 each (maybe less?). Or you could check them out, measure and then go to your local fabric/craft store and have your own cut.