Radian to Booster Age?

[triscuitsmom]

My kids are 3 years, 2 months; 34.75lbs and 38.25" long and 9 months; 24.5lbs and 29.5" long.

We love our Radians. And we want more kids, so since we love the seat already it makes sense for us to keep using them for all of our kids since we already frequently do 3 across when taking other people's kids and we will have our own 3 across in the back soon.

Is it reasonable to think that I will be able to take my kids with those stats (I understand the baby could change his curve still as he's not that old) and have them rearface to the max of the seat (weight or height) and then forward face to a safe booster riding age?

We were talking about what happens next early fall since we hope to have another newborn sometime next fall and our oldest will be four which is my minimum for rearfacing and my husband asked if maybe it wouldn't make more sense to plan on buying him a combination seat... but if we can safely booster him from a Radian then I was thinking we should stick with the narrowness and just plan for a booster after it's outgrown.

TIA! :thumbsup:

[canadiangie]

Hi,

Where are Tobias' shoulders in relation to the top harness slots of his Radian?

We typically say that 1" of harness height is equal to 1 year of growth... so if he has 3" to go until his shoulders are level with the top slots he may have as much as 3 yrs to go in his Radian, for example. (providing the tips of his ears are still below the top of the seat, and he's under the max weight limit).

In terms of being able to do a 3 across now and down the road, it's best to stick with a Radian, and then look, years from now, at a narrow highback booster (hopefully we'll have more choices by then). I can't think of any good HWH combo seat that isn't on the wide side.

[triscuitsmom]

I'm not sure, I'll have to remeasure, but I know he is only on the 3rd slot rearfacing right now (so if I turned him now he'd be on the 4th and still be able to grow into the 5th). The problem (height wise) with him his is disproportionately large head. It adds a lot of height to his torso (which is generally just measured bum to shoulder on the shorter side). I know that he has a couple of inches still above his head rearfacing when measured properly via the technique shown on this board.

[joolsplus3]

I know of a *huge* kid who's too tall for the Radian at 4.5 (Unityco's boy), but most kids seem to fit in it, forward facing, to at least 5, usually 6, sometimes 7 or longer. And most kids that age are fine in a booster :)