Need a booster, DD is to tall for Marathon!

[luvmyfirefly]

I'm a bit peeved that my four year old who is only about 44 inches tall (and about 45 pounds) seem to already be to tall for her Britax Marathon. What's up with that? I paid the price for it thinking that one seat would take us up to the time she could just sit in the seat. But her shoulders are now ever so slightly above the highest harness setting. Does that mean she IS too tall for this seat that advertizes that it's good to 54 inches or whatever.

I really don't want to sink a ton of money into a booster because it sure didn't work with the Britax! Is the Graco TurboBooster a good safety choice? And is it fairly narrow? We both have small cars and it would be great to be able to comfortably seat 4 adults without them being jammed up next to a very hard carseat.

Thanks!

Jennie

[joolsplus3]

Yeah, my dd outgrew the Marathon well before the 49 inch listed limit, too... Is the seat as upright as it can possibly be? My dd had way more growing room in it in dad's upright Escape seats than in the somewhat reclined honda seats!

The Turbo would be a poor choice for such a tall/long torsoed kiddo: it's a fairly short booster, it won't last very long. Britax or Recaro have much taller backrests. (a high backed seat is incredibly important for preventing head injury in side impact crashes).

[canadianmom2three]

Never having owned a marathon, I'm not sure about the height 'advertisment', but I do know that once your child's shoulders are above the top slots of the marathon, it is outgrown. It could be the case that your DD is tall in the torso, and that is why she has outgrown it so early. There are lots of posters here who have older kids still in the marathon, so perhaps they will chime in. It is unfortunate that the marathon didn't get you to booster age. We had the same problem with the Alpha Omega (admittedly not such an $$ seat) when our DS outgrew it by height early, and even though it was advertised as converting to a booster, I thought it made a very poor one.
I guess there are two ways you could go:
1) purchase a booster - the high back turbo is OK, there are some better (parkway, compas, monarch), but the turbo is ok. The problem is, your child is still young for a booster, and might not be able to ride safely in it.
see link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2LFo8vVi04

2) you could re-invest some more $$ into another hwh seat, or something like the 86y harness, which can be used with a booster, since your DD is so tall and there may not be a lot of hwh seats that will last her as long as you would like. Maybe sell the marathon to recoup some of your investment and fund the new seat.

This is what we had to do, even though DS is our last child and we have no one to pass along the seat to, we bought the Radian (we have no Regent, no 86y, no hwApex - Radian and Marathon are our only hwh choices in Canada) Even if DS can get a year out of the Radian, that will be an extra year before he has to go into a booster.

[skaterbabscpst]

There seems to be a slight misconception of how long the Marathon should have lasted your daughter. Regardless of how old or tall she is when she outgrows the Marathon, any child who has just outgrown a MA will still need a booster for several years. The MA will get you to booster age the vast majority of time, but it will NOT get you to a size appropriate for seatbelt-only use.

A forty pound four year old meets the minimums for a belt-positioning booster. Whether your child is ready for one or not is something only you can decide. As you've probably figured out already, a booster does not restrain a child the way a harnessed seat does. It simply lifts the child up and helps position the adult seatbelt so that the seatbelt will not cause injury. A child who is immature, a "wiggle worm", sleeps in the car, or has special needs (ADHD, autism, muscular dystrophy, Downs Syndrome, Fragile X, among many others) may need a five point harness longer.

The brain synapses that govern impulse control don't develop until five to six years old, but there are a few four year olds who can sit properly all the time in a booster.

There are higher-weight options for you if you choose to go that route, but they're not particularly narrow. There is some evidence that being seated next to a child's car seat may provide some protection for other passengers in a crash. Not a lot, but there is some.

I do like the Graco Turbo Booster, but there are better seats available now, including the Graco Air Booster. However, your daughter is pretty small and the Air Booster appears to fit larger kids (like my 9 and 11 year olds) better.

The Compass booster is about the same height as the Turbo, but between the two the Compass is generally preferred from an ease-of-use standpoint.

For your daughter I might recommend a Britax Parkway, it fits smaller children VERY well, and doesn't take up as much room side-to-side. It also doesn't have armrests like some of the others, so buckling can be a bit easier.

[luvmyfirefly]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking for a 5 point harness option, but the ones I found said that the harness was only good up to 40 pounds.

My daughter is not really a wiggler. She sits pretty still in the car. But she does sometimes fall asleep in the car. Would the Britax Parkway give her enough support?

At her size (which seems to be comparable to a lot of 5 year olds - 44 inches, 45 pounds) is the belt positioning booster not entirely safe?

This is so confusing.

[Starlight]

I don't have any suggestions for seats, but wanted to mention that up until very recently, the Marathon stood in a class by itself - other seats had much lower harness slots. I understand that it was an expensive seat to only last however long, but be glad you didn't buy a cheaper seat ($130 range), and have it outgrown when she was 2.5, or even younger... as other members on this board (such as myself) initially did.

[CDNTech]

My oldest also outgrew the Marathon at only 44" tall. He was almost 5 and only 36lbs at the time.

If you can make it more upright of an install in the vehicle that will buy you some time, but you are looking at either a booster or another harnessed seat.

Legally, children in Canada must be harnessed to 40lbs, so we went the harnessed route. We bought a Radian and at 5.5 years old, Aiden still has 1.5 - 2" before he reaches the top slots of this seat. If they had this seat out when I bought the Marathon, we would have gone with it instead for the extra growth. There have been a LOT of advancements in high weight harness seats in the last few years and the choices are becoming much better.

At only 4 years old, I'd probably go with a Radian or a Regent (if you want to get her to seatbelt only age).

Otherwise, some great boosters have been mentioned... Graco Air Booster, Britax Parkway, Compass B510.

If the Marathon can be installed more upright to buy you a few more months, then the new Monterey is coming out that looks fabulous... sometime February, cross fingers. It can be attached to the vehicle using lower anchors (LATCH), so you don't need to worry about buckling up an unoccupied booster all the time. It adjusts pretty tall, has great side impact protection and once the child outgrows the back, it comes off and becomes a backless booster. It sounds fantastic!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/murphydog77/montereyflyer2.jpg

[Mom to a few]

I understand your irritation with the Marathon. My sister has a daughter who is very tall--She outgrew her first convertable seat (though not a Britax) at 2.5 yrs. She ended up having to buy a Britax Regent so that her daughter would be able to stay harnessed to an appropriate booster age. I think it's harder when you have a child who is different (taller, or longer torso, etc) than the norm.

My oldest rides in a booster. We originally had the high-back turbo booster, but got frustrated with it because the back wouldn't stay locked into the correct height. Every time he got out of the seat, it would fall back down to the very lowest height. I don't know if that's a common problem or not, but I was concerned about the quality. I considered just taking the back off, but after researching about all the benefits (especially during side impact crashes) of a high-back, I decided to buy a different booster. We got the Parkway because it adjusts higher than the Turbo booster, it doesn't have arm rests, so there's not much chance of error during buckling (some kids accidentally route the belt over--instead of under--the arm rests, where the belt can cause serious internal injuries because it is up on their belly instead of over the hip bones), and it has really great wings on the sides of their head that are great for sleeping--and I feel that they would be more protective during a crash than the shallow ones. Here's a link for a video that shows crash testing with no back, shallow wings, and deeper wings (similar to Parkway). These are European models shown in the video, but you can still get the idea. Good luck!!

Crash Test (http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/cars/reports/safety_and_security/car_safety/Child%20seats/Child_seats_esential_guide_574_74191_9.jsp)

Britax Parkway Booster (http://www.elitecarseats.com/Britax-Parkway.pro) Our's is "Granite", but they do have a girly one if you scroll down to the bottom of that page!

[trailrunnermom]

I was looking for a 5 point harness option, but the ones I found said that the harness was only good up to 40 pounds. This is so confusing.

Confusing--yes!! I think we've all felt that way! It sounds like you were looking at the "combination seats", which have a harness to 40 lbs., and then can work as a belt positioning booster. These can be a good option for some kids, but since they only harness to 40 lbs, probably not what you need for your DD.

It's a parental choice at this point about whether to invest in another 5-pt. harness seat, or move to a belt positioning booster. At your DD's age, weight and height, she fits the requirements for a booster. A 5-pt. harness seat tends to be better for sleeping, and keeping the child in the proper riding position--but for a tall child, your options are the Radian and the Regent (maybe the Como or Signo?).

The Parkway is a good choice, and the headwings may make it better for napping, too. If you shop around, they can be found for less than $99 (albeebaby.com has some patterns for $79). We have the Compass B510; it's a bigger seat (can't do 3-across with it!), but I like it -- plus I got it new from eBay for $54!! (The seller, planetoverstock1, is currently auctioning several of these.)

If a spare booster is needed (for friends or as a back-up for a 2nd car), Target has the Graco TB on sale this week for $37.

[groovymom2000]

Also, if her shoulders are just above the top slots, you might want to check again. My MA cover is notorious for slipping and making the straps appear to be lower than they actually are. Slip a ruler or something in there and check--it may buy you a bit more time.

[skaterbabscpst]

FWIW, if you choose to use a booster, the PW is pretty good for car sleepers.