Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the leading institutes on children’s safety issues, recently published a blog post, Over the Top- The case for the tether, about the importance of top tethers. CHOP conducted a study that found, not surprisingly, that top tethers are pretty darn important things.
We already know that tethers reduce head excursion in properly installed seats. This study examined how top tethers affect incorrectly installed seats, too. The results showed that, combined with a loose seatbelt installation, top tethers still reduced head excursion. When combined with a belt misrouted through the wrong beltpath, top tethers reduced forward rotation of the car seat.
Obviously, a properly installed seat is ideal, but with more than 80% of seats installed incorrectly, maybe it’s good to have a “second line of defense,” as CHOP put it.
The problem we face, though, is that tethers are no longer the easy answer they once were. Changes in LATCH requirements are leading many vehicle manufacturers to change their LATCH limits, and some are including top tethers in those limits. That means that in some vehicles, you must discontinue top tether use once a child reaches 40 pounds. Other vehicles have higher limits or none at all for top tethers, but this information often isn’t available to consumers, and manufacturers themselves often seem unsure of the answer.
SafeKids, the certifying body of American CPSTs, has made things “easy” by stating that we must not use top tethers beyond 40 pounds unless otherwise allowed by the manufacturer. Gone are the days of telling parents to use top tethers whenever anchors are available.
I realize that LATCH is confusing. The aim of new regulations is to make things easier, but easy isn’t always better. Top tether use shouldn’t be limited in order to make things uniform or to protect manufacturers from theoretical liability. Given what we know of the benefits of top tether use, it should be limited only if there are known disadvantages, and so far no one has come forward with those.
@JP- You are exactly right. It IS the bigger and taller kids who benefit most from the protection afforded by the use of a top-tether. The issue is that in over a decade, the manufacturers, regulatory agencies and other agencies involved have simply not been willing or able to figure it out or fix the problem. In my opinion, no one has provided any real information to indicate that there actually is a problem with top tether anchors in the first place. I sincerely hope this failure to act doesn’t result in another bureaucratic response, like the label requirement we will be seeing for the lower anchors in 2014. More importantly, I hope this failure to address the issue does not result in an injury to a child.
I don’t understand how a vehicle manufacture can have a weight limit on the child and not the lower anchors themselves. It isn’t logical to say I have a 40 pound kid limit (Odyssey) and then am free to use (roughly estimating here) my 16 pound old Marathon or the 40 pound Foonf (that sucker is HEAVY!) That’s a big difference in weight. The manufacturers who give the 65 pound total limit are basically giving you the same limits at the 40/48 kid limit allowing some wiggle room for a heavier or lighter seat. I feel like they’re all being super conservative here and offering a safety feature in a car that appeals to the consumer but then not wanting to be responsible if it fails. I know the lower anchors can break – they are broken in my dad’s car but he doesn’t even know when or how they broke – so this is really something they need to test, test, test and give us real answers on. It’s not an “optional” item when you’ve shelled out 34k on an Odyssey thinking you’ve bought one of the safest cars you can for your kids. If tethering makes my kids safer, and we know very well that is does, it makes no sense to include them in a car and then advise against using them for bigger kids. It’s the bigger, forward facing harnessed kids who need the benefit the most, isn’t it? If they’re going to break at higher weights, figure it out and fix the problem. If they’re not going to break at higher weights, give the consumer the facts.
@Candy – Graco states in the Nautilus manual (somewhere in the area of pg 27)”use vehicle belt not LATCH connectors for installations with children weighing more than 48 lbs”. Your vehicle manufacturer may have a different limit for LATCH but Graco is okay with its use until 48 lbs. At 45 lbs, I’d just go ahead and switch it over to seatbelt (plus top tether) now since he’s close and it’s on your mind at the moment. The 2 year old’s seat can definitely be installed with LATCH if that’s easier for you. Since the Nautilus doesn’t have a lock-off for seatbelt installations you need to understand how the seatbelts in your vehicle lock in order to properly install the Nautilus. You may have locking latchplates or you may have a switchable retractor. If you have any questions please post it on our forum and someone there will be happy to help you figure it out. http://www.car-seat.org/forumdisplay.php?f=19
I have the evenflo chase harnessed booster seat for my 37 lb 4 yr old. the seat says to harness til she is 40 lbs but there is another slot above the one she is using now. I plan on using the harness until she is too tall to use it. I do use the tether with the latch system and you cant move the seat at all. without the tether, it jiggled a little. better to use them than not.>>>
Tara, you still should not use the seat above the weight limit. If your kiddo takes till the top slot to reach a full 40 pounds, then by all means keep using it till she’s too tall. But never, ever use a seat beyond the weight limit of the seat, even if the kiddo isn’t too tall for it. Carseat weight limits are set in stone. The controversy is mostly about the vast majority of seats now that harness to higher weights than 40 pounds. Hope I just read your post wrong, and I’m glad you’re using your tether!
Ok I have a question, I have the Graco Nautilus for my 3 year old, currently he is 45lbs, do I use the Latch or not???? because I am confused my car manual does not say anything about weight limits. I am also putting my 2 year old in a Nautilus next week, she weighs 34lbs Latch or not? I will continue to use the tether on both regardless of what I am told here.
I am not going to stop educating parents on both sides of the issue and letting them decide- and in my 4+ years as a CPST, I’ve yet to have a fully-informed parent choose not to top tether with a forward-facing seat! Sorry Safe Kids- you’re WRONG on this one. The liability of telling parents not to tether is TOO MUCH for me!
We always suspected the laws of physics were bent in Canada, but now we know for sure!
I was just wondering the same thing as you Kecia – if it would be changed in the updated curriculum. It was pointedly excluded from lower anchor weight limits in the session dedicated to LATCH at the Kidz in Motion conference and mention of the US moving towards requiring top tethers was made – so perhaps the recognition that the 2 systems can handle different amounts of weight is progress?
Canada has a pretty long track record with top tethers and we’ve had seats that went as high as 48lbs since the late 90’s – so we have over a decade of data showing no top tether failures in factory installed tether anchors, the last 6 of which there have been seats on the market which harness as high as 65lbs…
Kecia, let’s hope you’re right!
I too always use the top tether on my own kids’ seats, and I provide parents with the info and let them make the decision. (Not that I see many HWH seats – most of the kids I see get free program seats, and those are rarely HWH seats.)
This is bizarre considering here in Canada you must legally top tether ALL forward facing harnessed seats….
What I can’t understand is what exactly is the danger in using the top tether (with a heavier child) with a seat belt installation? There isn’t really any known risk, is there? I can understand that if the seat was installed with LATCH and the lower anchors were to fail because the child and seat weighed too much, the seat would not be secure. But if the tether fails, isn’t it just the same as not using it anyway? This is totally new information to me. My vehicle manual of course does not address this, and my carseat manual was very specific about not using the lower anchors above 40 pounds, but also told me to use the tether when installing it with a seat belt. Thanks for this blog. I’ve become quite the carseat safety fanatic with the help of it. 🙂
I have the evenflo chase harnessed booster seat for my 37 lb 4 yr old. the seat says to harness til she is 40 lbs but there is another slot above the one she is using now. I plan on using the harness until she is too tall to use it. I do use the tether with the latch system and you cant move the seat at all. without the tether, it jiggled a little. better to use them than not.
This is very confusing. What is wrong with doing it? The way I see it, you use the tether, it holds and it helps, or you use the tether, it doesn’t hold and you are in no worse shape then you were without a tether, so how is this harmful??
Why would you not top tether past 40 lbs any way? You still have a chance it would not fail.
I will always use a tether when available for a forward facing child restraint, and I will always advise parents and caregivers who get seat checks with me to do so as well. I believe the benefit of using a tether (even above 40lbs) far, far outweighs the ridiculous vehicle limits when they can’t even give a reason why. It’s a risk I’m willing to take and will continue to do so unless presented with evidence from the vehicle manufacturers or Safe Kids on why we should be discontinuing top tethers at a certain weight. As of now, all I have is evidence that top tethers only significantly help in regards to installation and injury prevention/reduction.
So where does that leave us Frontier owners? Do we give up on the seat at 65lbs since Britax requires tethering and safe kids says not to? All of these attempts to standardize things are resulting in back pedaling on safety. 🙁
I’m really, really hoping that the crazy, illogical, boarding-on-negligence stance against tethering CRs at higher weights is magically missing when the new standardized curriculum for CPS Technician Certification is rolled out in a few weeks.
Some cars do specifically allow tethering beyond 40 lbs. In situations where they don’t, I say something like, “I’m required to tell you that you have to stop using the tether after 40 lbs. However, I choose to continue using them for my own kids.” I explain the issue and let the parents decide. I just wish SafeKids hadn’t put techs in that position.
I *always* recommend tethering past 40 lbs., regardless of the weight limit on the tether anchor (the Recaro ProSport requires discontinuing use of the tether at 52 lbs.–boo hiss). It’s a simple matter of explaining to parents that tethers are a huge safety benefit and that there simply isn’t any evidence of failure. If failure has been seen (in testing), it’s after the main load of the crash force. Sorry Safe Kids, you’ve made things way more complicated and unsafe by issuing that statement.
So……. HUH??? lol. We should be top tethering after 40 lbs or no…? Not that it makes a huge different to me. My peanut 4.5 year old is only 33 lbs, and I intend to booster her when she reaches 40 lbs (probably in a couple years..)!
I’m a CPST and will continue to recommend top tethering whenever forward facing. Sorry SafeKids, I know you are my governing body but I feel the benefits outweigh the risks as is clearly outlined by the CHOP study (in addition to others before it).