Built in car seat (5 point harness)

Angela - posted on 09/29/2012

YEP, RF is def. doable at age 5. My daughter is almot 4(in November) 112cm,17.5 kilos or 44 inches, 39lbs. She is still RF. She is comfortable enough to fall asleep in it. Her legs do bend! I will keep her RF a bit longer. She is getting to a point now where if she grows much more it won't be doable comfortably. She is the size of a 6 year old now despite her age of

this is a great site and has photos of kids RF to give you an idea.

http://carseatblog.com/2556/graco-my-rid...

Laura Zoey - posted on 09/19/2012

Her comment wasn't clear, it could go either way I think.

Sherri - posted on 09/18/2012

@Laura that wasn't the question we are talking about the built in 5pt harness seats that are in some minivans. Those you can not rear face at all, those are FF'ing only.

Laura Zoey - posted on 09/18/2012

Rf til 5 is doable in a convertible seat. Their legs bend! Remarkable isn't it!

Sherri - posted on 09/18/2012

Lori u can't for the built in 5pt harnesses.

Lori - posted on 09/18/2012

have a question. If you put them rear facing up til age 5, where do you put their legs.

Lori - posted on 09/18/2012

I love my 5 point seat. I have two grand daughters, and it is easier than having to remove carseats all the time. They are very safe. They have shoulder and lap harness. You don't have to worry about whether or not you have the car seat fastened correctly

Angela - posted on 10/30/2011

I have a carseat that will safely rear face Claire until at least age 5. She has never been forward facing so I do not have an issue with her and I would not care if she did not like it. Just as I would not care if she screamed her head off to me putting her in a car seat. IT IS A MUST 100% of the time.

Because it was time to move Claire out of her baby car seat, I did ended up doing a lot of research on the safest car seat to buy.

What I learned was the Swedish usually have their kids rear facing at least to age 5 years. They also have very low death rates due to doing so.

So my next question was okay what car seat will accommodate it? In the Netherlands they are behind the times with car seat safety. They just only a few years ago even required them. They had little to choose from. So I ordered mine from Sweden. It cost me a lot because of VAT and shipping but it was to me worth it.

If a child is over 55lb I would consider it okay for this type of seat. In fact I could see how it would be useful. But not for any child under that weight class.

Call me a over protective Mom, but Claire will be rear faced for as long as I can do so.

Teresa - posted on 10/28/2011

Ditto Sherri. I had no idea our van had them til one of the girls was messing w/ a seat. The seat back covers it all up when you aren't using it.

Sherri - posted on 10/28/2011

April it is an option and you don't have to use them as they fold back into the seat when not in use. So you could still buy the car and just not use them if you didn't want too.

April - posted on 10/28/2011

i actually turned Zachary forward facing at 1 year (20 pounds), thinking that's what i was supposed to do. then upon doing more research, i turned him back to rear facing at 18 months. he will remain rear facing until it's physically impossible for him to remain that way. at 35 inches tall and 30 pounds, he is rear facing. Back to the OP-- no i would not purchase that type of car unless i had children over the age of 5 that exceeded the weight for rear facing. Even then, i don't know. Has this been crash tested? Is it even safe? I've never seen one of these before.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/28/2011

I think a big down side for me is there's no side impact safety.

Caitlin - posted on 10/28/2011

A friend of the family had a grandparent that bought a car with this type of restraint in it to use when they had the kids a few weekends a year. Apparently it was great, but they are older also. Wouldn't use it for a young kid!

LOL.. my oldest daughter is almost 3 and is only 28 pounds.. We have a rearfacing seat for the new baby that goes up to 50 lbs i think? maybe 45.. either way, a lot.. That would cover my firts daughter until elementary school almost! My 20 month old though.. she's already 26 pounds.. crazy how they differ indeed!

~♥Little Miss - posted on 10/28/2011

This does not look comfortable at all. I think it is more of a novelty to have something like this....like really good in a pinch....or for grandparents that don't always have the grandkids. I would not use something like this regularly. My daughter weighs 23 lbs and she is still rear facing.

Becky - posted on 10/27/2011

Haha, Zach is almost 26 months and still has about 4 lbs to go to hit 26 lbs! He could've been rear-facing till he started school, I think. But we have a DVD player in our vehicle and Zach got smart enough to realize that Cole got to watch movies and he didn't and started getting pissed off and screaming in the car. We were planning to take a long trip and didn't want to listen to that for 7 hours, so we turned him at 23 months.

Janice - posted on 10/27/2011

LOL Laurelai my daughter will be 2yrs Sun. and she is 26lbs! Isn't it crazy how much they can vary!?

Janice - posted on 10/27/2011

Wow, I've never seen this. I think it would be nice to have in a pinch for an older child. For example giving a ride to your child's playmate. Definitely for bigger kids only though -booster age/size. Doesn't look safe for younger ones but I really dont know for sure exactly how the mechanics of this compare to a molded piece of plastic with straps which is basically all a toddler car seat or booster seat is.

Sherri - posted on 10/27/2011

In the US we are so fortunate to have seats that will rear face till 40lbs or 18kg.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

12 kg isn't that bad. Eric was a big boy and he was 12kg or 26lbs at one year. That would keep most kids rf until at least a years. Some til 2!

Stifler's - posted on 10/27/2011

Exactly Loureen, I have never seen a seat big enough for a kid bigger than 12kg or whatever rear facing.

Charlie - posted on 10/27/2011

I agree Sherri !

I did turn my eldest at 6 months as per regulations and his height and weight after reading more about rear facing I decided to keep Harry rear facing for as long as possible however we just dont make seats here for toddlers to rear face in.

The only rear facing ones were lucky to fit my infants and it's illegal to import seats from overseas.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

I know, I still don't like Matt turning Fierna upside down at 5.5 months so the idea of her head being thrown to her chest in a crash just makes me sick! Whiplash is dangerous for AdULTS! Even more so for teeny baby necks. And huge Mellon heads. Lol does Australia just never see infants in crashes? Or do their baby's seriously defy thebiology and have necks strong enough at 6 months"
I know if you google 'joelsjourney' you will see a 30lb 18month old who broke his neck in a forward facing seat. I couldn't imagine that crash with a 17lb 6 month old forward.

Sherri - posted on 10/27/2011

Exactly Laurelai. For all Australia has I can not believe you forward face your children at 6mo's old. That is positively mind boogling to me.

Australia in this aspect is soooooo far behind.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/vi... Rearfacing toddles do just fine! Eric's quite content rf at 38inches, 30lbs, and 2.5 years old. It's no big deal to him. He's always been rearfacing so he has no issues with it.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

Trust me, renae has NO idea that she wants to forward face! She can not want what she doesn't know exists.

Stifler's - posted on 10/27/2011

I turned Logan forward facing at like 6 months. I can't actually imagine him rear facing now at not even 2 let alone 4. He'd be impossible to take anywhere. Renae is starting to get pissed off with being rear facing and she's 5 months. And you can get a 5 point harness for adults it's called a racing harness.

Corinne - posted on 10/27/2011

My sisters car has these seats and they're awesome. If I could drive and afford to run a car I'd have one with those. I wouldn't be putting such a small child in that though.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

Good point, even regular seat belt straps don't need replacement after an accident.

Sherri - posted on 10/27/2011

Don't know how it worked. However, if you were in a car accident where the straps were compromised which would be the only reason it would need to be replaced. Since there is no actual car seat to be replaced. More likely than not the car would be totaled.



Insurance companies only replace car seats from car accidents anyways if they meet several of the following criteria. Air bags are deployed, there was serious injury, car was impacted on the side the car seat is located on, car is deemed totaled.



So really the seat itself even in an accident would not need replacement only the straps would.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

But what about if you are in an accident? Does insurance replace the whole seat?

Sherri - posted on 10/27/2011

Before the recommendations were changed to rear facing till 3 and tethering systems. They were so much safer than a store bought car seat and we had them in our old car.

The reason they were safer is because there was no way for a seat belt to malfunction and the car seat to go air borne. Also there was no way to install it incorrectly. However, with the new safety standards and recommendations they now are not safer for a child under 4.

Teresa - posted on 10/27/2011

My van has those. Either something is wrong w/ mine or I just don't know how to do it cuz there IS no adjusting them. I've used it in the past (2-3 years ago) for the kid I was babysitting and a couple of times for my nephew. I don't trust it though. IF mine was adjustable I might feel differently, but I don't plan on sticking any other kid in there. My son (3.5) won't ever use it.

Becky - posted on 10/27/2011

I like the idea of having a 5-pt. harness available though. They should just have those in every seat, it's so much safer! I think, like the person who posted the picture mentioned, if our vehicle had this, we'd probably still use a regular carseat (def. wouldn't have a child of that age ff) but might use it in an emergency situation or with an older child who was kind of on the edge between carseat and booster. Or use it in lieu of a booster for a child who was big enough for a booster, because I do prefer a 5 pt. harness to a booster that just uses the seat belt.



Oooh, where they should put these is in the front centre seat of truck or other vehicles with bench seats! We were looking at buying one because we might one day foster which could mean 4 kids in carseats, but the one we were looking at had no shoulder belt in the centre and no tether bolt, so it wasn't usable for a booster or a ff-facing seat, and I"m not comfortable putting an rf seat in the front. Something like this would be perfect!

Becky - posted on 10/27/2011

They had vehicles with built-in carseats in Canada several years ago and seem to have stopped making them, so I am wondering if they were proven to be less safe than using a carseat? It was before I had kids, so I've never actually used one.

Rebecca - posted on 10/27/2011

Considering how many parents don't properly install their car seats, I would guess it's probably safer than your average car seat. I'm also pro-rear facing as long as possible, but for older kids, I think it's great.

Laura Zoey - posted on 10/27/2011

Obviously I have issues with forward facing before 2-4 years so I'd never advocate its use before then, but as for 4+ yr olds it's not a bad option.

But yeah, what if you get in an accident? Is it still safe? What if you need a tow? Etc angela had some great questions. And for these reasons I'd say no thanks.
I think it might be nice for the families who will let their 4 yr old sit in a seat belt booster or similar bad choices but its not the safest option.
My friend has her daughter who is 5 and weighs 32 lbs sitting in a belt booster. That scares me! Eric's 30lbs and he's rear facing! If she were,ychild she would likely be rearfacing too! If not, at least harnessed.

Elfrieda - posted on 10/27/2011

Finally! I've been wondering when car manufacturers will start thinking about that. I mean, the reason we need carseats is to modify the seat that the car came with to make them safer for kids. Why wouldn't they just build it in, especially in minivans and vehicles that are more than likely to have children in them? Especially now that kids have to be in carseats until puberty. Talk about demeaning.

I'd want to wait while they get the kinks worked out, but I'm totally interested! I hate wrestling with carseats, and it would be great to only do it during the infant stage.

Krista - posted on 10/27/2011

It'd be okay for older children, in lieu of a booster seat.

Minnie - posted on 10/27/2011

Forward facing for a child of an age like the one in the picture? No way. For my five year old, perhaps.

There's a 75% increased risk of internal decapitation forward facing in children under 2 1/2. Their head to shoulder ratio simply is to large and their bones haven't ossified more like an adult's yet.

Still keeping my three year old rear facing.

Angela - posted on 10/27/2011

It is convenient.
Even if it is very safe I would not probably go for this as an option.
What if I need to move the car seat to another vehicle?
What if the car breaks down and I need a loaner?
What about when you go to sell the car? Does everyone want such a thing?
What if you get in an accident, is it still safe after wards? I say this because experts state once a car seat has been in an accident even a small one it is no longer safe.
I think it is more economical and easier to just have one car seat vs. two in case I need one outside the built in one.

Stifler's - posted on 10/27/2011

That is fucking awesome. I'd totally use it. I'm sick of crumbs accumulating under the seat.

Charlie - posted on 10/27/2011

I believe it is but Im not certain.

Angela - posted on 10/27/2011

My gut says it is not as safe... sorry it does not look right but I really do not know. Is this in the USA? I know the states have very high level of safety standards however.