Is this safe? (Special Needs issue)

[aunt83me02]

We did a variety of things over the course of the 8.5 years that Noah was on the Zevex pump (he can now use gravity bags). In the 04 Sienna captains chair we often hung the shoulder straps on the armrest of his vehicle seat. It's not the most secure but for long trips that I went on with them I needed to be able to reach the bag and that was the easiest way for me to do it w/out unbuckling myself. I'm not sure there's an "ideal" way to secure the bag. Our way wasn't the safest but it was what worked for us.

Marie
CPS Tech and aunt to Noah (9yo quickly outgrowing his Regent!)

 

[safeinthecar]

Can you thread a heavy duty cord of some kind through the vent holes in the side of the Recaro to hook it onto so it moves with the car seat? I worry that it could still be pulled out if it is behind him and the car seat rebounds into the seatback.

 

[Mama!]

I registered on the cpsp site, thanks!

I will look for an outdoor site and get a real carabiner.

I dont know about looping through the holes of the como..wouldnt that put him at risk of it hitting him in the face if someone hit us?

To whomever asked, its a feeding tube. It puts high cal medical food into his tummy 22 hrs a day b/c he cant eat. :thumbsup:

I will also stop using just the handle and use a backpack strap.

 

[UlrikeDG]

I doubt Recaro would approve of strapping the pack to the seat, and at 33 lb for the child, that extra lb could make a big difference.

I was thinking about it today, and maybe two carabiners would help prevent the pack from swinging around too much in an offset crash? One for each strap attached to both sides of the head rest?

 

[nisi]

Hmmm.... this is a great question! I think no matter what you do, the weak point is going to be the backpack itself. I seriously doubt it's designed to hold up to crash forces, and they may not even be designed to hold more than the few pounds that you normally carry in it. So... my thought was to find ways to make the backpack straps take as little crash force as possible. I'm not sure if this would work for you or not, but attaching it to the back of the captains chair that your DS is on could accomplish that. In a frontal crash, the vehicle seat will take most of the force of the impact, putting very little on the straps. In a rear crash, the straps would take the crash forces, but rear impacts are usually less severe and the forces would be smaller. (It's the same reasoning for keeping a child RF. ) In the event the straps break the the backpack goes flying, hopefully the 3rd row of seats would keep it from going so far that the feeding tube is ripped out.

I have a couple ideas on how to attach it to the back of the seat. I'll explain briefly, but a picture's worth 1K words, so I took a few These might not work for you, but maybe they'll give you some more ideas.

If the backpack straps are long enough, you could hook the straps around the armrests on the captains chair. Lenghen the straps, flip the armrests up, slide each strap over an armrest, then flip the armrests down. There's a possibility that the armrests could flip up in a rollover and the backpack slip off, but I think that's pretty unlikely.

Since you have your DS's seat installed with LATCH (I think?) you could secure the backpack with the seatbelt. Thread it around the back of the seat, through the straps, and buckle.

Use some kind of cargo tie down strap and wrap it around the seatback and through the backpack straps. It would be best to use a heavy duty strap that's designed to hold very large loads, preferably with a fastener that's easy to hook and unhook. (the strap in the picture is not a load bearing strap, but it gives you the idea)

 

[henrietta]

If you are not using the seatbelt, b/c the carseat is installed with LATCH, you could purchase a $25 product called The Doggy Catcher (made to hook to a harness on a dog). It attaches to the seatbelt--you actually put the seatbelt's male end thru this product into the female end--and then there's a strap w/a very heavy duty clip...you could then clip it to the caribiner on the bag with the bag on the floor between the two captain's chairs. That way, you could reach the bag and it will be on the floor, not where it can come up and hit you in the head. They also make a version that hooks to the cargo/tether anchors of a vehicle, which would work while your ds is rearfacing, b/c the tether hook behind his seat isn't being used. The straps are adjustable-they can be made to be about 6-8" long up to maybe 20", so hooked to the ta behind the seat, you could still reach the bag between the two captains chairs. The bonus is that it's simple to install/uninstall and it wouldn't be in the way.

I would just want it where I could access it if I needed to...if the tubing were long enough, I'd consider belting the backpack into the passenger seat next to me when it's empty (that's what I did w/ds's apnea monitor).

Good luck!

henrietta

 

[Splash]

Take his headrest off, and then put the poles for the headrest through the straps, and put it on the back side of his seat. Nothing extra to buy, and unlikely to go anywhere.

 

[Mama!]

I actually like the idea of using the vehicle's seatbelt and wrapping around the back of the seat, putting it through both backpack straps, and fastening the seatbelt.

It seems more secure than anything else I've seen, and I can do it quickly each time we're in and out of the car (which is sometimes very often).

And ftr, if you guys have any curiosity questions about ds and his needs, I'm always open to talk about it.

 

[NZ Child Restraints]

Thank you so much for sharing about your son. I appreicate how you are open to talking about it. I will look into this a bit more and see what other suggestions i can find for you.

 

[Mama!]

I'm always open to talking about his needs. Its how others become educated.

 

[Melanie]

I think I like the seatbelt behind the seat idea the best.

Here's another. If you want to secure it on the floor...you could get a D-ring from Britax and put it around a seat leg or something...then hook the caribeaner (sp?) to the metal on the D-ring

 

[TXAggieTech]

**I dont know where to buy a real carabiner.
I will look into it. Surely there's an outdoor store somewhere near here.

Try:

REI
Gander Mountain
Academy

In that order. For 'real' carabiners look at spending at least $15 a piece. They will be in the climbing section.