Car seats for newborn and 2 year old

[Unregistered]

Hi,
I have a 1.5 year old son who is on the thin side, fairly tall but quite light (23lbs about) who has a britax Marathon in our main car and a roundabout in my husband's car. He is still rear facing. I am expecting and my children will be exactly 2 years apart. I need to figure out what is my best car seat option for my newborn. I had a peg perego infant carrier with my first born but hated it and got rid of it when at 3 months old he was already too tall for it. I am hoping that my first born will be rear facing until he is at least 2 years old (September), I may switch him either before the winter to forward facing (he is getting tall and bothered by the fact his feet touch the seat) and it is more messy with our Canadian winter (boots and all).
So I was thinking of either borrowing my brother in law's graco snugride or of purchasing one for our newborn. Is there a big advantage to the snugride32 (larger weight and height capacity) compared to the regular snugride? Would it be too big for a newborn (I don't know if my second baby will be big or small but my first one was 7.3 lbs)?
If my second child can use the snugride 32 for at least 1 year or more (my first will then be between 3 and 3.5 years old) will that change the type of car seat I need for my older child? Would this be an advantage? Will I need to then buy another car seat (maybe radian?), I guess my oldest will be too young and small for a booster?

Any thoughts are appreciated.... I still have time (until August to decide) but figure I can keep an eye out for good deals if I know exactly what I want.

Thanks a bunch!
Carine

[canmom]

Hi and welcome to c-s.org, take a minute to register and stick around.

People around this board are likely going to tell you to keep your oldest rfing for as long as possible because it is so much safer. I have a 2.5 yr old who is on the larger side at 34lbs and 38 or so inches tall. Our current seats in Canada go to 35lbs rfing and I would recommend rfing until the max. Feet touching the seat are not a problem, there are seats out there that will give kids more leg room when rfing. Rfing seats with height limits can be confusing, technically, you are suppose to follow the limits however it is about 500% safer to rf so we are comfortable telling parents to keep their kids rfing until one of two things happens... either they are at the weight limit or they no longer have 1" of hard shell above their head. As for car seats, I would recommend the Snugride 32, it will get you a lot further than the older ones. If you prefer (and trust the source) you can borrow the older snugride and save the money for a convertible seat or move the baby to the current seats you have when he/she outgrows the infant seat. You could take the money you saved and buy your older child a Radian XT or a TruFit (both have tall shells and 35lbs limits rfing, 65lbs ffing) so your oldest can continue to rf as long as possible. Good luck!

[featherhead]

:yeahthat:

I just want to add that the Radian and the True Fit would both offer more leg room for your rear-facing toddler. Also, the Evenflo Triumph would be a great seat to try as well (same harness height as True Fit and lots of leg room again).

[shauburg]

First, I highly recommend doing whatever you have to do to keep your oldest RF until at least age 2 and then, given the seats you have, as long as possible after that. i.e. I would buy new/different seats (if needed) to keep him RF until age 2. After age 2 you may not want to buy new seats to keep him RF if you are not already buying new seats anyway. But if you are buying new seats at that time for the baby, then see if you can work whatever new seats you buy into keeping your oldest RF to age 3 & beyond.

Second, if your oldest is tall (especially in the torso), keep an eye on his height in the Roundabout. He can only use the Roundabout RF as long as he has 1" of hard shell above his head - See How to tell if your RF seat is outgrown by height (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201) for more details.

If your oldest does/will still fit in the Roundabout RF, I see several options for you:

1) Borrow Snugride for newborn (assuming you know & trust it's history, that it's never been in a collision, mishandled, cleaned improperly, and it's not expired) & keep oldest in RF Marathon & Roundabout. Once youngest is close to outgrowing Snugride, re-evaulate your next seat purchases at that time considering both children's weight & height at that time. Depending on their stats then you may want to buy 35lb RF seat(s) that will keep your oldest RF and move the baby into the Britax seats.
Pros - Cheapest option & buys you more time to make next seat buying decision
Cons - Need to ensure 100% trust in borrowed seat

2) Buy Snugride32 for newborn & keep oldest in RF Marathon & Roundabout. Once youngest is close to outgrowing Snugride32, re-evaulate your next seat purchases at that time considering both children's weight & height at that time.
Pros - The Snugride32 is a nice, easy-to-install seat (& yes, it fits most newborns well). By the time baby outgrows the Snugride32, the oldest will likely be old enough that most techs would be comfortable with him FF. You can then move baby into the Britax seats RF and get the oldest a FF/Booster combo seat (i.e. Nautilis, Frontier) that should be the last seat he ever needs. (No, he should not use it in booster mode until at least age 5 or 6). So may save more $ in the long run.
Cons - Costs more (to start) than the borrowed Snugride

3) Buy baby a convertible like the Radian or True Fit (both fit newborns well). Once baby is big enough to fit in the Roundabout (shoulders at or above bottom slots), move baby to the Roundabout and put the oldest in the Radian or True Fit.
Pros - Saves $ by skipping the infant seat. The Radian & True Fit (with their tall shells & good RF legroom) will both get your lightweight, but tall, oldest child to well over age 2 RF and will then last FF to an age when they can likely move to an inexpensive low-back booster.
Cons - Lose the convenience of an infant carrier.

If your oldest has or will soon grow out of the Roundabout RF, then you may want to consider the Radian or True Fit sooner rather so that he can stay RF to at least age 2.

Of course, all of the above assumes that the seats mentioned install well in your vehicle(s) and that your Britax seats are not expiring soon!

[carine]

Hi,
I finally registered...
Thanks for all the responses...
So the issue is, the Marathon and Roundabout were chosen because they are the only ones that fit in our cars (we had tried most of them out at the store before buying) without making it impossible for someone to sit in the front seat. It will be impossible to fit 2 Rear facing car seats in our cars because my husband is tall and will be unable to fit in the cars. That is why I was hoping to switch my eldest to forward facing when the second baby comes along (he will be exactly 2 at that time plus or minus 2 weeks). Though I would have prefered to keep him Rearfacing longer.

I had tried the radian and for it to fit the front seat had to be completely against the dash board. It would have been my first choice as my son is tall.

Now new problem, I also thought that the norm was 1 inch from the top of the seat before the child outgrows the seat by height but that was not what my manual says when I checked yesterday... In Canada it is a different norm from the US and it is a max of 32 inches for my Marathon (and even less for the Roundabout) I checked with Britax this AM. Yikes, my son is probably 32 inches (he was 31.5 inches last time he was measured a few months ago). However, he is still quite far from the top of the seat.
So basically, if I follow Canadian norms, I should have switched him to forward facing already. U.S norms seem safer to me. Maybe I will ignore the Canadian norm though I am not crazy about doing that either.
Damned if I do, damned if I don't...
Any thoughts?
We have a 2007 Santa Fe and 1998 Corolla. No car seats can be put in the middle in the Santa Fe (as per car manual) the Marathon is behind the passenger seat. The Roundabout is in the middle seat of the corolla (it fits flush between the seats) but would need to be moved to allow a 2nd car seat so it will no longer fit rear facing anyway really.

[QuassEE]

Can you do a quick re-read of your Santa Fe manual? It should say that no carseats can be installed in the middle seat with the use of LATCH... There shouldn't be an exclusion for installing carseats with the seatbelt in that position.

As for the height limitation on the Marathon--I would highly recommend that you search the forum here and read a little bit of the history and discussion on that thus far. In summary--this is one of the only times you'll ever hear technicians say to disregard the numerical height limitation on a seat. Go by the 1" rule. Britax thought they had to put a number there, so they came up with one that was so far out of line with realistic growth patterns that it's actually ...well, almost amusing.

-Nicole.

[sparkyd]

:yeahthat:

My almost 2 year old is at least 35" (possibly 36" by now) and he still has TONS of height room to rear-face in both a Marathon and a True Fit. More room in the True Fit which actually uses the 1" rule in the manual.

I only read your posts quickly so I don't know if it is an option you will be considering, but I just wanted to mention that the True Fit (which rear-faces to 35 lbs) takes up the same amount of room rear-facing as the Marathon. Maybe even a little less.