Harnessed Booster vs Convertible Seat

[sbradbury]

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DS is 5yo and 33lbs. He is currently in a Britax Marathon but we are needing to get 3 seats in our vehicle so this will be replaced. I am considering switching him to a harnessed booster but wanted to know if there were any safety concerns with this vs a traditional convertible seat? If that is a good option, recommendations for narrow harnessed boosters? Thanks!

[sbradbury]

It might be helpful to know that our car is a Nissan Altima and the other seats in the back are a Evenflo Tribute for our 22lb 2.5yo daughter and a Chicco KeyFit for the baby on the way.

[babyherder]

As long as your child is forward facing a convertible seat and a harnessed booster are both equally safe choices. Is your 2.5y/o forward facing or rear facing?

[Brianna]

Are you able to go to a Babies R Us or other store that will let you test-install before you buy? I would look at the Maestro for him first.

Is your 2.5 yo still rear facing?

[Jan06twinmom]

I agree that both a convertible or harness booster would be good options for your DS.

I would look at the Evenflo Maestro. However, you might also want to look at the Radian. The Radian is very narrow and works for 3 across situations well. I think you'll get a lot of use out of the Radian over the years as you need to pass along seats.

Melanie

[sbradbury]

2.5yo is still rear-facing and will be for awhile. We only have Target and Walmart locally but are considering a road trip that would provide many more options. Thanks for the suggestions!

[Brigala]

The only advantage to getting a convertible for your 5 year old at this point (unless you wanted to rear-face him, which I guess at his size could be an option but not many people in the US rear-face kids that age) would be to pass it down to your younger child later as a rear-facing seat.

A forward facing harness is a forward facing harness, though, and when used in that position there is zero difference between a convertible used forward facing and a seat that only faces forward.

Normally I'd say you'd get more use out of a forward-facing only seat because they tend to last longer, but your 5 year old is so small there are several options for convertible seats that will be fine until you are ready to put him in a belt positioning booster (opinions vary on this but my opinion is that it's best to keep him in a harness until he hits the 40 lb mark; at his age and size that probably won't be until he's around seven, and he should be more than old enough for a booster by then). I don't think you're going to really need the higher-capacity options you can get from a forward-facing seat, and generally speaking a dedicated booster is usually a better fit for most families, cars, and children compared to a combo harness/booster seat used in booster mode. So really what I'm saying is: Get the seat you like that is tall enough to get your DS to the 40 lb mark, and don't worry too much about whether it is a convertible or a forward-facing only seat.

[pippi2077]

You could put the 5y in a narrow convertible like the radian or complete air and hand it down when the 2y or baby need it.