Since I have been a parent I have had car seat safety driven into my brain… I KNOW the dangers of Forward Facing. I know that babies, toddlers and even kids should be Rear facing for as long as possible… I know that!!

Here is the problem… no RF car seat in Canada is made to go past 30lbs. For 2 months now, Khéna has been too heavy for his car seat… and I have been ignoring this fact even though I should not have been… he however is too young to be FF…

I called everywhere… No one can give me answers…. the inspection offices, the police station, the CAA (that trains the inspection agents) Evenflo, Canada Road Safety and the Safety Council of Canada etc… it was all the same answer…. he is too big for the carseat to remain RF, too young to FF….

What do I do? What Can I do? Not leave the house with Khéna?

How can I choose the lesser of two evils when it comes to the safety of my child?

eta

*there was one place that I left a message this morning and I got a call back and she told me to call another person that specializes in special cases (I didn’t think that his weight would amount to being a special case…lol) I left a message and should get called back tomorrow…

* 07-31 : OK… so I haven’t got a call yet but I thought today was Aug 1st, so I should get a call tomorrow…

So my options for now are this… the 30 pounds that are written on the canadian carseats are mostly because for a while the laws said a max of 30lbs, which has now been changed back to 35 lbs, though the car seats don’t specify that yet… the Triumph is a seat that has a limit of 30 lbs in the US and Canada, so I need to get him out of that seat.

We are not allowed to bring any US (or other) seats into Canada so that is not an option. and really there are non that would help. However, the other boys are in Cosco Alpha Omega’s and though the limit is written as 30lbs, they are 35lbs in the US, so we at least know that the seat is approved to 35lbs even if it not written on the Canadian sticker….

After 35lbs though there seems to be no RF carseats (canada or US) and I will have to change him to FF which I DO NOT want to do. Hopefully he will stop gaining weight before we get to that point though… Also, since he will surely outgrow the harness on most carseats FF pretty soon (they are mostly 40lbs) I will be getting a Regent which goes up to 65lbs for the FF harness…

* 08-02

I got the call and she said that there is nothing that we can do and that once he has outgrown the sticker weight that he must go FF… I still think he is WAY too young to young. It just wouldn’t feel right. Like I said, hopefully he will stop gaining and hopefully he will lose a bit with his new found mobility.

Jen contacted me and asked me about Soapnuts for laundry so I though I would share with everyone…

In going chemical free, we started using soapnuts about a year or so ago.

Soapnuts are not really nuts, but actually a non-edible fruit in which the shells contain saponin which is released in warm water. They can be used to clean almost anything and you can boil them to make dishsoap, wash the car or pets, used as a body soap or shampoo and of course Laundry. Because we use cold water we just soak the soapnuts in warm water for a few minutes before hand.

They have a very mild scent that doesn’t really come through in the laundry so we add essential oils to make the clothes smell nice (I love Patchouli) and since they are SO mild and not really a nut they are perfectly hypoallergenic and safe for even the most sensitive of skin, they also make the clothes really soft and we haven’t used any softener since… Though they don’t make whites whiter, they do work well for all clothes… even cloth diapers and there is NO residue left so no need for stripping diapers!

ok… so I sound like a commercial but they are amazing and I highly recommend them!!!

So where do you get them and how much do they cost? Well.. I buy they from the supplier where I buy wraps and carriers and the suggested retail price for a Kilo is about 19$ which is good for about 144 loads.

You can look around to see what other options are available…

How to use them?

Just put a few in a pouch or sock, either into a hot water wash or soak in hot water and that’s it… to make dishsoap etc you can just boil them in a pot for a few minutes… but of course instructions are included…

Oh… and they can then be composted!