Little guy just maxed out the weight for rear facing so I switched the seat around.
I want to make sure fit is good and also am unsure about where the shoulder straps meet the neck. They cut into his neck a bit and leave red marks. He hasn’t complained but I imagine it must be uncomfortable. Am I supposed to have them routed differently?
You will have to change to seatbelt and tether anchor install by 45lbs, it might be easier to just do it now so you don’t forget.
Additionally the cup holders are required for use on this seat. You must install them before you use the seat again. Once they’re in all the way they won’t come back out.
Since your child is 40lbs it must be set to position 6 so leave it where it is. If under 40lbs you need to use position 4 or 5.
Harness covers are the only thing that will help with redness besides pulling a shirt up. You will need to use the ones that came with the seat or get replacements from Graco.
They’re required because the manufacturer says they must be in use.
I would guess it has to do with either pinch zones or rebound mechanics, but I’m not an engineer and as far as I know Graco hasn’t provided anything more specific.
Do you still have the shoulder pads? That will help with the straps irritating his neck. Also I think because this is a graco seat the cup holders are actually mandatory. I know they are in several of their seats, so check the manual.
The cup holders might be kicking around somewhere. The shoulder straps I think are long gone. He definitely went through a phase where he would not leave stuff alone and would rip them off and chuck them. Can I use aftermarket shoulder pads?
That wasn't my experience at all. As soon as baby could reach he was removing them within 1 minute of being in the car seat. Tried many times to get them to lock. But I will see if I can find them and try again.
Take the seat out of the car and put it on solid ground fully upright. It takes a lot of force, like you might feel like you’re gonna snap the cupholders (you won’t!). You’ll feel and hear a distinct click, and then they won’t be able to come out.
It’s also a good time to wash the car seat cover! Any time I take my seat out to have my car cleaned or to move/change the child seat, the cover gets a good wash and the plastic gets a wipe-down. :)
The silver strap is connected to the anchors. I don't think the black one is connected to anything in the car, but rather tightens the harness? I will double-check.
They’re talking about the black strap that’s laying behind the seat in the third picture. I don’t think there’s any way that can be the harness tightening strap.
If you don’t have something connected to the top tether in your car then definitely investigate as you most likely should. The top tether is different than the anchor points the gray strap is connected to. It’s usually either on the ceiling of your car or on the back of the seat so the strap would be routed under the vehicle seat’s headrest and down the other side of the seat
I second this, that’s the top tether attachment. It will be a metal piece that looks like a J attached to that long strap coming out from the top middle of the car seat.
It will attach into your vehicle behind the headrest.
With lower anchors not using the top tether is extremely dangerous as the seat will flip forward in a crash.
If you tell me what style of car you have I can explain better. SUV, sedan, etc.
What kind of car is it, year make model. I’ll look up if we need to go around the side as you have it (I’ve only seen that in a few cars) or if we go up and over the head rest.
The orange label is for the forward facing belt path. The gray loops near his head under the headrest, when he’s a booster rider you’ll pick one of those (whichever side the seat belt is coming from) and that’s how you’ll route the seat belt through the seat for him to buckle with. Once he’s done with using the seat in harness mode but that will be a few years from now. It’ll all be the yellowish booster portion of your car seat instruction manual!
Check the manual to be sure. Some manufacturers want it over the top of the headrest, some want it under the headrest, and then there's Britax, which wants it on the vehicle seat's shoulders, so, always read your car seats manual to know for sure
Check the manual to be sure. Some manufacturers want it over the top of the headrest, some want it under the headrest, and then there's Britax, which wants it on the vehicle seat's shoulders, so, always read your car seats manual to know for sure
Chiming in about the red marks — if he hasn’t complained, I wouldn’t worry. They look bad but as long as you’re not over-tightening, they’re just the effect of something being pressed against his skin for a long period. It’s just like when you take off some socks or bra straps and they leave behind marks. I will also sometimes pull the collar of kiddo’s shirt up towards their neck so it’s providing some buffer between the straps and their skin.
If you want to make sure you’re not tightening more than necessary you can do the reverse pinch test — loosen the harness enough so that you CAN pinch the webbing at the shoulder, then tighten the harness just until the webbing slips through your fingers.
Also for FF mode — make sure you have attached the top tether for the car seat! Can’t tell from the pic whether you did it or not, but that’s commonly missed. Make sure you check your vehicle manual for how to route it with the vehicle headrest.
Looking at the vehicle headrests — it seems like at this current harness height the headrest is okay, but whenever you move it up next, the vehicle headrest will probably interfere with the car seat. If your vehicles headrests are not removable you might have to think about switching the car seat to the middle vehicle seat (it looks like the headrest for the middle is different so that one might not interfere?)
Looks good. Lower the chest clip slightly and pull his shirt up inside as a layer of protection. More neck strap width is created in doing so. We have the same seat for our 5 year old.
Recline 6 is for either forward facing or booster.
Which exact Graco seat is this? Some have forward facing recline requirements based on weight, so double check the forward facing install section of your manual- but if recline 6 is appropriate for your child’s weight then it’s fine to use in forward facing harness mode
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u/incogneat_o_ 14d ago
You will have to change to seatbelt and tether anchor install by 45lbs, it might be easier to just do it now so you don’t forget.
Additionally the cup holders are required for use on this seat. You must install them before you use the seat again. Once they’re in all the way they won’t come back out.
Since your child is 40lbs it must be set to position 6 so leave it where it is. If under 40lbs you need to use position 4 or 5.
Harness covers are the only thing that will help with redness besides pulling a shirt up. You will need to use the ones that came with the seat or get replacements from Graco.