I was the youngest so my dad probably had one of my siblings with us to send in the restroom with me lol. But I don't know if he normally went anywhere with us without Mom when we were young. When I first asked dh this question I didn't specify an age and he told me he'd take her to the car lol. I don't think he's ever changed our kids' diapers in a public restroom. He's used the car for that many times.

I always say I'm going to do this and forget. Plus, I think dh thought it was weird. I do have holy water in the house, though.

ugh yeah I can imagine that as a problem! My parents have to think of these things for going out (Dad has to escort her to the restroom) and I remember we had a thread about this regarding adults. They basically think out the bathroom situation in advance, noting where there are Wal-marts and Targets because I think both have family restrooms. I'm pretty sure their church bathroom would be a nightmare to go into with her wheelchair but luckily they live close by.

I don't know why but for some reason I mentally do not ever picture handicapped stalls in men's restrooms. I picture one or two tiny stalls and a row of urinals. I wouldn't want to leave a child on the outside of the stall and if there isn't a handicapped stall I wouldn't want them forced into the stall. There's no room. I know not every public bathroom I've been in has a handicapped stall. I'm thinking like maybe they were built a long time ago and it wasn't required?

Yes, that's another annoying thing about car seats. Parents are expected to remember to do a switch at some point. I don't have a LATCH option on my HBB but I try to remember to buckle the seat in when ds is not in the car so I don't have a potential flying object.

My bad, I didn't know the mifold worked on the lap portion :) I realize a booster's real job is belt positioning, but I guess I was thinking if one model helped with more concerns than the other (say the knees), then one might be superior regardless of initial reason for being made. Just like one person might prefer the thick booster so their kid can see out of the window more easily. I was thinking safety-wise is the knee thing a deal breaker. I dunno.

I put weight info in red and height in blue (most of the info, anyway). While there was mention of both in some replies, I took away the focus as being on weight. I bolded the first thing from each reply to show that the first thing people mentioned was weight. That is why I am saying I felt like people were trying to suggest that I just needed a seat with a higher weight limit. My comment way up about a kid outgrowing an 80lb seat early was not to suggest the kid would be too heavy, but rather that they might be too tall way before weight was a concern. We did too, but I discovered later that the manufacturer date was 2 years prior to when we bought it in the store. It was purchased new, but sold well past the manufacturer date apparently.

One time I lived in a home where we heard scratching under the bathtub (calm down, this isn't really a creepy story). Turned out possums were under the house right there. This house does not have a slab foundation, either. So we've heard animals under the house before. Are you on a slab?

I thought some of the examples cited were implying that my child didn't really outgrow his 5pt harness options because they still fit a __lb kid. Yes, for your own child you know best and leggy vs torso height is definitely important. I don't know ds' height off hand, but he is tall. Dh's side of the family is tall.

Did you click the link? It does seem to make a difference in the example. A mifold wouldn't have a chance at helping with the knees. You are right that different boosters may help differently, but I still think the mifold falls short if we're comparing the run of the mill booster.

The main thing the mifold has going for it is that it's compact and it's meant to adjust the seatbelt over the shoulder. The problem I fear is that it doesn't help with the rest of the 5 point test. There's a test to help determine if your child needs a booster. Of course, this test was designed with the thicker boosters in mind. I don't imagine the mifold would help adjust the belt across their thighs for example. http://csftl.org/boosters-are-for-very-big-kids/ Glad these recent threads brought this to your attention. I don't remember ds' weight. I think he's 50 lbs.

I see several of you mentioned weight limits on 5 pt harnesses. My child is under 65 lbs. It's not the weight limit that is the issue. It's the height. Child's shoulder was taller than red guide slots with headrest in highest position. And like I said the back of the seat expired earlier than the rest so we had to remove it and bought a HBB instead. I watched a video the other day with two car seats set on fire. It was to demonstrate that the after market minky covering (it was a cover that went over the entire seat, with straps laced through) was flammable way before the car seat material was. But what I got out of it was, "great, now if we cover our babies in blankets, there's a flammable item across their lap." At least you can rip the blanket away.

My family went to France and I had on overalls (hey, it was the 90s). This place only had a hole in the floor restroom. I was like NOPE NOPE NOPERS. I held it til I found a western style toilet. I basically would have had to get naked to not have a disaster and I was not going to do that.

My dh said that she wouldn't see anything because their back would be facing her if men were urinating. I'm sure he'd rush her in/out of a stall and try to avoid any visuals, but the thought was pretty unsettling to me lol. I don't care if it sounds "goofy." It would be out of my comfort level. I would have to trust dh's judgement (no family restroom options, child couldn't hold pee much longer, etc), but personally I would do my best to avoid it at all costs. As a grown woman I don't even want to go in there (hypothetical, there's a huge line for the ladies' and no one in line in the men's. I'd just wait). For the record, I accidentally walked in on a male relative peeing when I was a kid. The bathroom door was closed, but connected to the garage. I tried to come into the house through the garage. Was pretty awkward and I guess I'd just hate to risk putting my child through something similar. A lot of my reaction is fueled by the "ick" factor stereotype that the men's bathroom is more disgusting. More chances of stepping in pee?

wait, what? I tried keeping my son in a 5pt harness for a long time, but he outgrew it. He is well below 80 lbs and he's 7 years old. The back of his high back booster Nautilus actually expired and his shoulders were too high for the 5pt harness. At that point we had no choice but to buy another high back booster which uses a car's seatbelt to go across, not a 5pt. I hear that 5pt vs seatbelt (once they get to a certain age/size) is debatable about which is better. There are pros and cons to both. Like the chest clip might keep the chest from moving with the rest of the body in a collision. So don't be too upset if you have to switch out of 5pt well before 80 lbs.

I wanted to sign things for change.org before but I think I stopped myself because I didn't want to give up all my info. My guess is sometimes children are given the eggs by oblivious adults/older children?? Based on that link you have to open a plastic egg before removing toy parts, so eating the chocolate is not supposed to be dangerous. I don't know how the 3yr old got to the toy (maybe they were able to open it themselves. Maybe the plastic egg was not sealed??). Do some adults think "surprise" means "surprise flavor" instead of toy/choking hazard? Is that what all the packages say?

I think there are a lack of qualified people, or they just aren't the most accessible? I assume that some people that are trained are busy with their daily job and that they aren't necessarily setting up one-on-one appointments. I don't know how that works, though. I live in the boonies so it's no surprise my zip code pulls up zero matches. There are matches 30 min. away, but neither are at a fire dept. When dd was born I spoke to a nurse about doing a car seat check at the fire dept. by the hospital and she informed me that that fire dept. did not do them. Talk about a missed opportunity. Right next to the hospital!! All police and firemen should be CPSTs or they should stop being referred to as some sort of "go to" place for help. One idea in this thread was signage in the car seat aisle at the store. I like that, but I don't know if that would violate some store rules. Another idea I like is nurses or some hospital staff member talking to/handing out something to parents at the hospital regarding a safety check location. I know hospitals usually can't do the installs, but they could pass the info on. I could never get a good install with ds in my car when he was young, so I only drove him around in dh's car. Well, the A/C was messed up in dh's car at some point so this was a bit of a nightmare. I'm so embarrassed now, but back then we had something shoved under ds' seat to get a snug fit. I forced myself to learn more about car seats and have tried to educate dh, but a lot of it goes in one ear and out the other. Like he wanted me to swap the car seats (move dd behind passenger seat, move ds behind him) and I said it wasn't that easy because I had to remove the headrest first. The car's headrest interfered with ds' high back booster and taking it off required a tiny screw driver. I did it, but I had to locate the screw driver. This is just a tiny example of how installs can get complicated. I'm still no expert and I might be doing other things wrong.

Let's see. I have never noticed a sign in a pediatrician's office about car checks where I've lived. And between my two kids I've gone to at least 3 pediatric offices and a health dept. in different cities. When I took dd to the children's hospital I did see a sign (like a height chart) indicating height for continuing to use a booster seat. I even took a picture of the sign. I don't think there was any info. on the sign about CPSTs, though. I don't read parenting magazines. I don't know of any local magazines. I do not stumble across bulletin boards in my daily life. Seriously, I don't. I think the public library might have a small one with a few library-related things, if that. There is no "local" facebook group for my zip code. My local facebook groups are mommy groups/breastfeeding/buy,sell, trade and are 45 min. away. I don't see advertisements for car checks there except ONE mommy group that is 3 hours away from me (I go to that town sometimes) and those aren't necessarily official events. It's like two CPSTs that are actively involved and have offered to check seats at a given time or by appointment. This is just my personal experience. I never even heard the term "CPST" for the longest time.

I think this depends where you live. We have a set of friends that went to a police station to ask about installing their car seat and they were told that they couldn't help. I don't think it was simply that the police station couldn't do the install, but that they couldn't assist at all. I am under the impression there was no CPST there. I know this is not the same as an event, but if you don't know of any events and you aren't familiar with the online CPST locator, you're kind of lost.

I only heard about the "pinch test" online in car seat groups. I really don't remember that in any manuals. And the armpit level thing I also learned online. That's also where I learned that after market products are a no no, despite the huge aisle of items in the baby section at the store! Guess they can get away with it because they can be used elsewhere? We were given some as baby gifts so I put the strap covers on our stroller and use the neck pillow for myself in the house LOL

That's wonderful! :party:

I honestly don't remember the manual saying anything about harness clip height or bulky coats. I learned a lot of these things elsewhere. Harness clip height might be there, but I really don't remember seeing anything about clothing. Also, parents are expected to read the vehicle manual AND carseat manual which is quite annoying. I read both and couldn't find anywhere where it stated whether or not the seat belt adjuster that came with our vehicle was an approved substitute for the one that you use with a backless booster. Why would I want to use the vehicle one instead of the booster one? Because somehow along the time of owning the Graco Nautilus (which we used for years) we lost the adjuster clip. We had never needed it because we were using it with the back. I tried to use it with the vehicle one while I waited for my replacement in the mail. During a check point the policeman gave me props for my kids in their seats... but he didn't seem to notice that the seatbelt didn't stay well on ds' shoulder (this was a very short-term thing and I'm not proud of it, but it happened). Some parents might think they can rely on someone like a policeman or fighter fighter to know a lot about car safety, but many times they actually don't. I got laughed at when I called a fire dept. about disposing a car seat. Like, lady you're barking up the wrong tree. What the heck does a fire dept. have to do with car seats? Some things just aren't addressed in either manual. And let's not forget that lots of other relatives are in charge of transportation and just aren't as savvy with locating the information or don't think it's important because, "back in my day we didn't even use ____." There is a problem with getting the information to consumers and saying, "check your manuals" is not always convenient, even online. As for the top tether... I was NOT using it for a long time. Why? Because I thought it was part of LATCH and I was not using LATCH.

Oops I don't know if they make them in "big kid" sizes or not. I was just linking Sketchers shoes with faux laces in case you hadn't looked at that style. I'm still confused on how shoe sizes work. Ds wears a 13 now, but he's 7. So maybe that's little kid size. http://media.kohlsimg.com/is/image/kohls/1926382?wid=800&hei=800&op_sharpen=1

Having children is no guarantee they will be actively involved in your life, even if they are alive. They may not even live nearby or visit much. You just said so yourself that some people with kids don't have anyone to keep an eye on their meds, or am I reading that incorrectly? My grandma is 100 years old. One child (my father) lives in the same state. Her other children do not. On a day-to-day basis she does not see family. She no longer drives and has to pay mileage to have the caregiver take her anywhere. My father is the caregiver for my mother and cannot easily drive to my grandmother even though she's only one town away. They see each other, but it's not as often as it used to be. Then take my sisters and I. I'm the only one that lives in the same state as my parents. One lives across the country and the other lives in another country. Yes, we all see each other but visits are spread out. My grandma has been a widow since my dad was a young man. So yes, I can imagine the scenario you present.

But earlier you said: The bolded sounded harsh, maybe patronizing, to me. It read to me as unfulfilled. This could merely be my perception. I cannot speak for others.