Please help me find a convertible seat for my tall, skinny 5 month old!

Hi there!
This is my first post on car-seat.org. I've been doing a lot of research on car-seats since my little girl is about to outgrow her current carseat in length(Graco Snugride32). I'm looking for a carseat that will work well for a tall, skinny girl. She is 5 months and almost 30" (99th percentile for length) but only 14.5 lbs. I'd like to be able to use the seat as long as possible, first rear facing and then front facing when I absolutely have to turn her.
It will be installed in a Nissan Sentra, so not tons of room either.
Ideally I'd like to spend around $250. Also, I'm not really a fan of ordering a carseat online so it would be great if it was a carseat I could find in a "bricks & mortar" store.
My current front-runner is the Evenflo Symphony 65, the Graco Snugride 65 is also in the running, but it looks really wide with the 2 built in cupholders on the sides. I've heard good things about the Sunshine Kids Radian 65 but have not been able to find it in any stores.
Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Welcome to C-S.org!

I wouldn't consider either of those two seats because you've got an incredibly lengthy baby. I'd look at the three tallest seats on the market: The Safety First Complete Air, The First Years True Fit and any of the Sunshine Kids' Radians


The Symphony and the My Ride are 'nice' convertibles and I like both of them for their ease of use features quite a bit, but they weren't designed with an off-the-charts-tall child in mind!

I would suggest measuring her torso height - this is the length of her from the bottom of her hip bones to the top of her shoulders. This is normally measured with a child sitting straight, like against a wall. One of the Techs could probably tell you how to measure her if she is not able to sit yet.
30" is LONG, but you may be blessed with a lot of length in her legs rather than in her torso, and that will give you some different carseat options.

Forgot to ask - what year is your Sentra and how tall are the drivers/passengers (how far forward can the seats be pushed) ?

That may make a massive difference in the recommendations - I owned a Sentra

Even though your daughter is 30 inches she may not have outgrown her infant seat just yet. As long as she has at least 1 inch of shell or more above her head & is under the weight limit fully dressed than she still fits. So I would check to make sure on that.

If she is indeed almost out of room though, I would look into the Radian, Complete Air & the First Years Truefit as the other poster suggested.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!
I had also looked at the Safety First Complete Air but I was worried about how far forward we'd have to put the front passenger seat in the car.

Meghan's torso length is a little difficult to measure because she cannot sit unsupported yet, but I tried it with her lying down, I think it's about 12"
Our Nissan Sentra is a 2005 we also have a 2007 Dodge Caliber which my husband mainly drives, but we could switch and put the seat in the Caliber if it would fit better there. Right now with the Snugride32 installed I find that because of the slope of the seats there is more space in the passenger seat of the Sentra than there is in the Caliber even though the Sentra is a smaller car.

My husband is 6'1" and I am 5'9" (yeah, we're a tall family), so with the Graco right now when I am in the passenger seat (it's behind the passenger seat) my seat is pushed way up, my knees are against the front console and my head is very close to the windshield. We have the passenger seat completely straight upright so that we can get the car seat in and I can still get my legs in and out of the car. Her safety comes at the expense of my safety it seems. Although I know it's safest for her to sit rear facing for as long as possible, I can't help but wish for the days when we'll be able to FF her so that my head won't be 2 inches from the windshield! Usually I ride in the backseat because it feels safer for me.

Keep the suggestions coming! This is so wonderfully helpful!
Thanks again!
Erin

Now that she is a little older and should have a bit more head control, the seat can be a little more upright, the full 45 degree recline isnt needed. That in its self should give you more room to move the passenger seat back.

She should be ok upright at 35-40 degrees. You just dont want her head falling forward when sleeping, to the sides is ok.

How many inches of hard seat shell does your daughter have above her head in her current seat?

-Nicole.

The Complete Air can actually be installed very upright It will take up LESS front to back room than your infant seat.

I don't think that she has outgrown the Snugride32 yet, she still has about an 1.5" of hard shell left above her head, but at the rate she is shooting up, I know she will grow out of it soon. They are considered to have grown out of it when there is an inch of space between the top of their head and the hard shell, correct?
So right now it looks like the Complete Air is the top choice to follow our Snugride32.
There's free shipping at BrU right now, plus I have a $15.00 off coupon, which would bring the Complete Air to $254.00 which is right in my target price range! Sweet!

While we don't recommend specific seats, have you looked at some of the other seats that are available? For example--the TrueFit or the Radian? There's a list in the sticky at the top of the forum. What is it about the CA that has you so sold on it?

-Nicole.

Well, I checked out the Sunshine Kids website and there isn't a single store located within 200 miles of my home that sells their seats. I really don't want to order a carseat from a website without getting to at least putting my hands on one and getting to know it in person first. So the Radian is out for that reason.
From what I understand the TrueFit doesn't RF as long as the Complete Air does. Also the videos of the side impact on the first years site sold me. Plus, I love the harvest colour available for the complete air and I feel like it just looks more comfortable and safe.

GingerCupcake said:

Well, I checked out the Sunshine Kids website and there isn't a single store located within 200 miles of my home that sells their seats. I really don't want to order a carseat from a website without getting to at least putting my hands on one and getting to know it in person first. So the Radian is out for that reason.
From what I understand the TrueFit doesn't RF as long as the Complete Air does. Also the videos of the side impact on the first years site sold me. Plus, I love the harvest colour available for the complete air and I feel like it just looks more comfortable and safe.

Click to expand...

The weight limit on the True Fit is not as high, but the shell of the seat is very close to that of the Complete Air. So for your daughter who sounds tall and skinny, the True Fit should keep her rear-facing for quite a while. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong.

If it is possible, I would probably try her in both seats at a B&M store, ideally along with trying the seat in the car. See which one you like and are able to use and intall and feel confident about. It does sound like both would work well for your DD.