Yesterday I found out why you should ALWAYS read the instructions whenever you first come across a new car seat. Never assume you know how to fit a new seat just because it looks similar to others you have seen.
I was in London for an event, the details of why I shan't bore you with, and had taken the car and the car seat for the purposes of a demo by someone who would show us the correct way to fit a child's car seat without damaging your own back. We left the car with them for an hour while we went for a walk. I left the Kiddy Guardian Pro with the impact shield strapped into place so that it was tidy and out of the way.
On my return, the person in question told me quite severely, "You do realise that your seat was incorrectly fitted, don't you?". Err... OK, so I thought for a minute and figured that perhaps he might be right - he seemed to know a lot about these things. Then he said "You're supposed to pass the seat belt through the loop at the top of the seat". Now that might sound like a very sensible piece of advice if you know anything about high back group 2/3 car seats but I happen to know that his statement is totally wrong for my particular car seat in its group 1 format. I realised that he had made a big assumption that my seat was the same as others he had seen.
I also noticed that he had removed the impact shield and placed it on the floor and had re-strapped my car seat in its group 2,3 configuration. I shall give the guy the benefit of the doubt; he had probably never seen an impact shield car seat before. But in my opinion that makes his assumption even worse; if you have never come across a seat before you should make extra sure that you follow the instructions for that seat and not make them up yourself. The Kiddy Guardian Pro has clear fitting instructions printed on the side of the seat that (to me at least) make it obvious that the placement of the seatbelt is different for group 1 than for groups 2 and 3. The seat also has a handy compartment at the back of the seat which holds the printed instruction manual. There really is no excuse for not reading the instructions.
If we had driven home yesterday with Lara in the impact shield but with the seat belt held in the loop then the seat would not have offered adequate protection in the event of an impact, the belt would not have tightened against the shield correctly. I'm glad I know how to fit my car seat correctly... do you?
