United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My son, Michael, is scheduled for the mod quad in May and he is currently in this car seat:
http://www.djgusa.com/coscocat/carseats/524tourica.html
What do you think? Will he fit into it after the surgery or are the sides too high/narrow? I bought it because it is narrow because I have 3 kids in the backseat and I needed a narrowish seat for Michael (the other 2 are 2.5 years old and 5.5 years old) I'll buy another seat and try to figure out what to do if BTDT folks don't think that he'll fit. I just really don't want to get stuck in Houston without a seat that he'll fit into comfortably. Oh, he is about 21-22 pounds now - so I guess he'll be in the 23 pound range by May (?).

Thoughts? Thanks so much!

BTW, I currently posted under one33weekerandtwo38weekers, but that got wayyyy too long to type and wasn't friendly (I didn't realize that it would show )

Thanks again

Sally, mommy to Michael - 11 months old and ROBPI

There is a travel car seat on www.onestepahead.com but I'm not sure of the weight requirements. Cost is 29.99 it does not have any sides, it folds up and weighs 4lbs.
Cindy

Sally,
The seat you are currently might work after the mod quad. My concern has been that the sides of these seats are not as shallow as the sides on a high back booster seat. The sides on a seat like your provide protection in a crash. I have not had to deal with my child in a splint as of yet so I don't have any hands on with the splint and the seats. Some parnets have told me that they just try thier kids in they seats while holding the arm in the position that the splint will out it in. I would suggest trying this and see how it looks... keeping in mind that the splint will be adding some bulk to the affected side. Have you read the recent post on Car Seats on the Plane... I had cut and pasted a bunch of info into that message. The situation with three kids in the back seat make things difficult I am sure! If you e-mail me I will give you my phone number and we can talk about your situation! And just so you know I am a certified child passenger saftey Tech. Meaning that I have been trained to help educate and teach parnets about the use of car seats and seat belts for children.
Kristie

Hi, Sally. It's hard to say if Michael will fit in the seat. I wouldn't think that the sides are too narrow. However, the strap might not be long enough. Before Nicole's Mod Quad (at 23 months), we went to Toys R Us and had her sit in different seats to test them for size. I held her L arm just about straight up as it would be with the SOL splint, then I made sure that the strap would be long enough to go over the splint. I found that the seats that went up to 40 lbs didn't work b/c the strap wasn't long enough. The high back boosters that went up to 80 lbs worked well (they are for up to 40 lbs with the 5-pt harness, then work with the seatbelt for 41-80lbs). A shorter strap might still work, but you'd have to really maneuver him into the seat and that's not easy to do. The splint is very think plastic-type material with thin foam lining the inside of it; it doesn't add too much bulkiness (about 1-2 size differences for clothing). Does your 5.5 y.o. use a high back booster that you could pass onto Michael for now and replace with a small booster seat?

Anyway, to test him out, you could perhaps put him in a bulky jacket and see how that works. When you test the strap length for his arm, be sure to try it with his arm positioned a few different ways in case they end up doing more than just the Mod Quad (try it with the arm straight up in the air, straight out to the side, and also straight out to the side to the elbow / straight up in the air elbow to hand). That's what I suggest.

It was interesting to see that the seat you have now can be used rear-facing up to 35 lbs. That's great b/c most seats only go rear-facing up to 20-25 lbs and then that seat isn't safe if a baby exceeds that weight before turning 1 y.o.

Oh well, I hope this helps. Just think, maybe you'll get to TX and they'll say that Michael doesn't need surgery yet and none of this would matter. Just thinking positive and hopeful thoughts for you all! Take care. -Tina