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What are the dangers in using an infant car seat for a older child?

I have a friend who still uses an infant car seat for her almost 15 month old baby. The baby weighs more than 20 lbs and is past the height requirement. I try to tell her how dangerous it is, can some one please help me with this.

Public Comments

1. Everything is designed to have a breaking point...... if you go over the rating you don't know what can happen.
Usually they make the shoulder straps kinda on the small side so people can't do this.

2. Car Seat Mistakes.............

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/safety/car_seats_safety/car_seat_mistakes.html

3. Improper neck support could easily lead to a broken neck. Your friend is valuing $75 over her child's life, great parent.

4. It is dangerous, if the seat cannot handle that weight. The danger is simply that the materials used in the seat are designed and stress-tested for particular weights (forces actually, but those correlate to the weight of the child at various speeds).

In other words, if the child is too heavy for the seat, it may simply break/sheer/etc meaning the child and the seat go flying! If she happens to own a Peg Perego seat, it may not be so bad as they can generally handle children up to 22 lbs (check the manual of course). The weight and height restrictions are universal, by law, so manufacturers design and stress-test the materials used to that standard. That doesn't necessarily mean the seat cannot handle extra weight, but it is likely they cannot as most manufacturers won't spend the extra $ to make a seat exceed the criteria...

The height of the child is less of an issue: It is MORE related to comfort, but again, a very long child could be endangered if their limbs are snapping around OUTSIDE the confines of the car seat (they're designed to keep their limbs in the 'zone' of the seat), so joint/tendon/ligament damage could result...


Hope that helps!