Question Best Convertibles for twins

Hello!
My twins are only 3 months old right now and still in infant car seats that go up to 20lbs. One of my twins is at the very high end of the weight and height charts - so I will definitely need to get new car seats before they turn 1. I need to get 4 car seats b/c I need 2 in my car and my husband needs 2 in his car - so we are on a budget. My question is what are the best car seats to get in our situation? I drive a Mitsubishi Endeavor and my husband has Mazda 6, so his car is pretty small and he has to have a car seat behind the drivers seat. I know the Cosco Scenera is the cheapest, but since one of my twins is on the larger side, I'm afraid he'll outgrow it too fast. I only want to have to buy 1 more stage of car seats before moving to boosters. Another question - A lot of convertible car seats only go up to 40 lbs. Will that weight limit be high enough for a larger child to get old enough to go straight to a booster. When is it ok to move a kid to a booster? Is it age or weight determined? Thanks!!!

hello and welcome, and congrats on your twins!

How long a child will fit a particular car seat not only depends on the child's weight and height, but also on how much of that height is in the torso vs. legs. If your kids tend to be more leg than torso like mine are, you'll be happy to find that they'll fit a seat longer than other kids of the exact same weight and height because a longer torsoed kid will outgrow the harness sooner.

BTW the 'height' limits for seats are approximate - a rear facing seat is outgrown when the child reaches the weight limit *or* there is 1" or less of hard plastic car seat shell above the child's head - this link gives a good explanation/photo

Also, convertible seats - even the ones with 50+ lb. harnessed weight limits - usually take up about the same amount of space rear-facing as infant seats do, because they don't need to be reclined as fully as infant seats. So if an infant seat fits behind your DH in his Mazda 6, a typical convertible seat should also. The techs here could give you more specifics on what seats would probably work best for your cars. My twins are 8YO so they've been out of convertibles for a few years now and there have been a LOT of great seats that have come out on the market since then, and quite a few are in the $150 and under range (when my twins outgrew their infant buckets, the ONLY convertible seat on the market that harnessed above 40 lbs. was the Britax marathon - now there's also the Sunshine Kids Radian, Evenflo Triumph Advance, First Years TrueFit, and Graco MyRide to name a few)

shemmeke55 said:

Hello!
Another question - A lot of convertible car seats only go up to 40 lbs. Will that weight limit be high enough for a larger child to get old enough to go straight to a booster. When is it ok to move a kid to a booster? Is it age or weight determined? Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

Oh, one thing to keep in mind that I didn't know when I first started shopping for convertible seats: most convertibles, esp. the ones with 40 lb. weight limits, are outgrown by *height* before weight, and some (e.g. Graco ComfortSport) have very low top harness slots that are outgrown faster than others (the Safety First Avenue is probably the only 40 lb. limit convertible that is tall enough to last the average kid to 40 lbs.). An Avenue probably could have lasted my twin B until she was ready for a booster (my kids are mostly leg and B didn't hit 40 lbs. until she was almost 6YO) but in most cases a child will outgrow a 40 lb. seat before reaching 40 lbs. and before having the age/weight/maturity to be ready for a booster (4 years *and* 40 lbs. is typically referred to as the *minimum* age and weight to consider transitioning a child to a booster, but many kids at that age are too squirrely to reliably sit properly in a booster. Kids around that age/size are also at risk of "submarining" under the seat belt in event of a collision, another reason why techs recommend keeping a child in a 5-pt harness past the 4 year/40 lb. minimum)

If your budget is such that you can only swing a couple of $150 seats and a couple $50 Sceneras at the moment, what you could do when the Sceneras are outgrown is to move to "combination" seats (forward facing seats that can be used with 5 pt. harness and then convert to boosters when the harness is outgrown) - currently the Graco Nautilus and the Britax Frontier are the ones most recommended because most other combo seats either have low harness heights that are quickly outgrown, or they do a poor job of positioning the seat belt in booster mode, or both. But if the past couple years are any indication, there should be more good options by the time your kids outgrew the sceneras.

Hope I haven't given you info overload - I know this much info would have been too much for me to process when my twins were 3MO!

Thanksgiving_twins_mom has given you some great advice.

I'd like to stress an additional point. I caution trying to buy your "last" car seat today. As, many seats that claim to be able to RF, hold a FF child to 40/50lbs and then convert to a booster - traditionally do not excel in all these areas. They may make great RF and FF seats but not the best belt positioning booster. Or, they may make an awkward RF seat.

If you go with a seat like the Scenera (average cost $50) it will afford you decent RF and FF time. And, then you could purchase a seat with higher harness slots that converts to a booster, like the (average cost $75) Evenflo Maestro (it can only go FF, that is why it can not be purchased today). That's a total of $125. At some point you will most likely need a low back booster and can pick one up for around $20. So, for under $150 you could outfit your twins for around 8 to 10 years with all their car seat safety needs.

Some seats that might be a little more "plush" to consider (and will most likely get your twins close to 3/4 years... sometimes longer) would be (and on the less expesive side):

Evenflo Triumph Advance
Graco MyRide
Safety First Avenue

Remember to visit stores that honor twin discounts. Also, if you go to a store like Babies R Us.. you can try the seat in your vehicle. Then go online and purchase, often at a discount.