Posted Under: News, Previews
This post was written by KETCHUPQUEEN on September 2, 2010 Comments (5)
Howdy, all y’all! Greetings from Dallas/Ft. Worth TX, where I have been attending the 2010 Kidz in Motion Conference, or KIM, an annual gathering focused entirely on Child Passenger Safety (yes, I know some other conferences prefer another acronym; here at KIM, we’re still saying CPS.) I’m Anne, also known as ketchupqueen on the car-seat.org forums. Since Darren, Kecia, and Heather were unable to attend KIM this year, I’ve been asked to share the scoop- updates and information from manufacturers we got at this year’s conference. My friend Christa (celtic1885 on the boards) has been helping me collect, record, and organize the news as we get it so that we can share it all with you!
KIM is a small conference by national conference standards, which means that all the participants and presenters get an opportunity to sit down together, get to know each other, and really talk. I’ve met up with people I know and people I know of, heroes in the CPS community, CPS “celebrities” and other techs just like me (some of whom were just as star-struck when sitting next to manufacturer representatives at lunch- it’s quite a shock the first time Sarah Tilton of Britax fame brings her plate over next to where you are sitting and asks, “Mind if I sit here?”)
The small, intimate nature also means we got to ply the manufacturers with all the questions we wanted to during floor exhibits and clarify new information. We have some interesting updates and news, so, without further ado, let’s get to it!
Two of the most influential characters in modern American advertising history were recently inducted into my favorite museum, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Vince and Larry, the crash test dummies from the ‘80s and ‘90s made it cool to wear seatbelts by showing us with humor how dangerous it is to go without them.
Also gifted to the museum were other auto safety items, like a 1961 Volvo vehicle seat with lap/shoulder belt, a Hybrid II crash test dummy from Denton ATD, and a padded dashboard invented by a reconstructive surgeon.
If you’re in the DC area, be sure to stop by and cave in to your inner CPS geek to see these awesome treasures. You’ll definitely make me jealous!
Booster seats are an important step after a child outgrows a harnessed seat because they aren’t big enough to fit into an adult seatbelt. A booster seat raises the child up so that the lap portion of the lap/shoulder belt falls across the bony hips, not the soft, easily injured abdomen. High back boosters, like the Chicco Strada, have headrests with shoulder belt guides to keep the shoulder belt from irritating a child’s neck and more importantly, keeps the shoulder belt on the hard bones of the shoulder. Booster seats should always be used with a lap/shoulder seat belt.
Who should use this seat?
Chicco recommends this seat for children who are about 4-10 years old, weigh 33-100 lbs., and are between 38″ and 57″ tall. The back can be removed and used for children who weigh 40-100 lbs. The versatility in having a highback booster with a removable back is that if you travel by plane, the back can be removed and you can take the base with you as a carry-on. I would never recommend a booster for a child under age 4 and really would aim for closer to age 5 or 6 as my preference.
My impressions:
The Maxi Cosi Rodi XR is very sturdy seat with nice deep headwings. The cup holder is excellent, one of the best designs I’ve seen, it’s easy to install and remove and the design makes it very stable – thus far we’ve had NO spilled drinks, and most cups & water bottles fit. The seat is easy to assemble, and has a built-in recline to help the seat fit better on various different vehicle seats. The height adjustment is a bit tricky, but not difficult.
The illustrations in the manual are excellent, and the explanations of vehicle seats and seat belts are really well done. The manual can be found here: http://www.maxicosi/.us/media/producthandleidingen/maxicosi/4358-4583.pdf
The seatbelt fit on my 55 lb, 6 .5 year old was pretty good, with the lap belt low on her hips. I tried her 48-lb best friend in it, and it fit him well too. They both said it is a comfortable seat, and Joy has no slumping issues when sleeping in it, although a smaller child might.
My major disappointment with the seat: belt guides are VERY narrow, and in my Suburban the belt tends to get pulled out and not retract, leaving a great deal of slack in the belt. If the seatbelt telemetry isn’t just so, a child who is inclined to move around could easily end up with the shoulder belt two feet from their chest. Because of this, I would only be comfortable recommending this seat to someone VERY CPS-conscious.
Additionally, the seat requires the vehicle seat back or head rest to be above the midpoint of the child’s head. For many families, this means the seat is incompatible with their vehicles. The seat does feel more sturdy than many boosters without this requirement, and it doesn’t fall apart when moved or tip when going around tight turns.
Overall, I really want to love this seat, but because of the small belt guides and the head support requirement, I can’t. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. A few comparison photos of Joy in the Rodi, the Recaro Vivo and the Britax parkway (old style) can be found HERE.
Last year it was so hot in Paw Paw, we decided to go again!
This time, I needed a couple models for comparing the new Britax Marathon 70 to the current Britax convertibles. A couple moderators from Car-Seat.Org joined me again and I also asked a couple forum members from the area who had expressed interest in a recent thread about the new Marathon 70 and also had some kids near the rear facing weight limits.
The results of our gathering on the humid, sunny day with temps above 90 in the shade can be found in this thread. Given the heat and all the kids with us, we were not able to be as comprehensive as we might have done on a nicer day. Plus, measurements are always subjective, so please take our opinions and photos with a grain of salt, though we did generally agree on our conclusions.
I do think the kids enjoyed the park. It was relatively large, delux and new within the last couple years. I just hope the next child seat with this much anticipation is released in the spring or fall!
Did you know that there are optimal positions for your outside mirrors? Most of us learn to drive thinking that as long as we glance in our side mirrors and can see the vehicles in the lanes next to us, we’re doing great. But those mirrors serve a purpose to help us see in our blind spots. Some vehicles have much larger blind spots than others and the mirrors can help us virtually eliminate the blind spots and avoid side swipes, or nasty horn honking at the very least.
So, what is optimal positioning for your side mirrors? Position them so that you can only see a smidge of your vehicle in them. Yep, you don’t need to see a chunk of your vehicle in the mirror—think about it. Why would you? If you don’t already have your mirrors in this optimal position and it’s hard for you to change suddenly, make the change gradually. That’s what I had to do several years ago and it took me about a week of changing the mirrors a notch each day to get used to the new position. Habits are hard to break, but if it keeps you from wiping someone out, hey, it’s worth it!
I’m here today at the BebePaluzza show in Schaumbug/Chicago, Illinois. Britax and Harmony appear to be the only child safety seat manufacturers represented at the show, but it did offer me a chance to see the new Advocate 70 CS. On the original Advocate CS, the unique side impact cushions made access to the seatbelt lockoffs and the harness adjuster somewhat difficult. In the new one, there is no problem as the adjuster and lockoffs have moved to the front of the seat and are permanentley attached with no bungee cords. Very nice!
I’ll also be uploading some photos and other comments on this thread at Car-Seat.Org, so stay tuned!
Here’s a video of the Advocate, I hope the audio is OK, I got in just before the crowds but it got pretty loud pretty quickly!
I don’t know who to be more scared for–the deer or the girl. Kacee Larson of Iowa has hit 5 deer in the last 12 months. Perhaps she needs to read Ulrike’s blog post on how to react when encountering deer. I do like the part in the article where the police use the phrase “don’t veer for deer,” because drivers who do can roll their vehicles or drive into oncoming traffic.
Of course, I’m not at all making fun of Kacee. My deer of choice when I was 16 was a Volvo.
The Graco Nautilus is one of the most popular models for our readers, based on referrals from search engine phrases and sales at our affiliate websites. While we never had a formal review of the original, it is one of our recommended models. Soon, we will be reviewing the updated Nautilus Elite model (currently exclusive to Toys R Us) we saw last fall at the ABC Kids Expo. Here’s a sneak peek-
On our long drive to Lake Minnewaska, my mom said something about DS (5) in his carseat that I initially dismissed. After all, she never used carseats for her kids and I think the extent of her experience driving our kids in her car was a Britax Laptop and a backless booster. A while later, after reflecting upon it, I thought I should check something. Of course, that check didn’t come until a lunch stop on our way back home a few days later. Everyone else was still eating and I remembered that I wanted to check it, so I did. Sure enough, mom was right!
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a critical error, all things considered. Even so, it was definitely a mistake. What did I do wrong?
No, there aren’t a lot of clues but I will add some later if no one gets it! Sorry no giveaway this time, it’s just for fun! Feel free to guess at will.
