Booster seat with harness recommendations

I have a overgrown two year old. LOL He is 39 1/2 inches tall and 35 lbs! When he falls asleep (quite often) in his current car seat his head falls forward, I have tried everything and bought more to stop this. My older children used to have booster seats that reclined with the car seat itself, so they could almost lay down. I am not comfortable putting him in a big boy seatbelt, so I am looking for a car seat/booster that reclines with the seat but still has the 5 point harness. Any suggestions?

Welcome to C.S.org!

It would be hepful to know what child restraint he owns, if he's rear or forward facing in it, and what car you drive.

You are correct in not wanting a booster for him. He is not old enough and will not be for several more years. Choosing a booster at this juncture would be a very dangerous thing to do.

With regards to your older kids, I hate to be the bearer of the bad news, but you cannot have them 'lie down' while the car is in motion

It's ok to have a slight natural recline to the seatback for comfort purposes, but it's not ok to recline it that far back. In an accident, they would be gravely injured, possibly even ejected under the seatbelt.

What are the sizes of your bigger kids and what are they riding in?

My older children are 11 and 13 as tall as me and both over 100lbs. I'm not wanting a seat to lay down just one that reclines some to allow his head to not flip forward. What about this one Safety 1st Go Hybrid booster seat?

He sits forward and I drive a Honda Odyssey

Would you like to rear face him? It's safer, and it'd solve the head slump problems. There are seats that rear face to 45 pounds, and work in an Odyssey, so that would solve all issues you have.

I wouldn't go for the Go. It has 18" top slots and a 60 pound harness limit. It requires a top tether to be harnessed, and it has no shell of its own. So all of the side impact protection it has comes from the harness (which is a decent amount). Then it turns into a backless booster only.

If you want a combination seat for him, that's forward facing and harness to booster, I'd look at the Britax Frontier 85 first. It has 20" top slots and an 85 pond harness limit. That'll get him safely to a mature booster age of five to six years old. It's pretty upright, though. It turns into a high back booster to 120 pounds and 23" belt guide height.

The Graco Nautilus has a small recline forward facing, and it has 18.5" top slots and a 65 pound harness limit. This seat turns into a high back booster to 100 pounds or 21" belt guide height, and then a backless booster to 100 pounds.

Another option is the Graco My Ride. It rear faces to 40 pounds and then forward faces to 65 pounds with 16" top slots. It's very reclined rear and forward facing.

Wendy

I also suggest rear facing. A child is 5x less likely to be injured seriously or killed in an accident rear facing. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends rear facing to the limit of the seat. Good seats for rear facing are the Graco My Ride, the Radian - in your case I'd go with the 80SL - rear faces to 45 lbs. Or the Safety First Complete Air.

My grandson is still rear facing at almost 2.5. He doesn't complain - doesn't really know any difference. Many here have turned back their older kids with no problems or complaints from them.

Here's a link to the rear facing photo album. Click on each individual photo to enlarge it.

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum.aspx

Also, here's a link to the Rear Facing Page - it's full of great info regarding the increased safety benefits of rearfacing.

http://carseatblog.com/?p=5168

wendytthomas said:

The Graco Nautilus has a small recline forward facing, and it has 18.5" top slots and a 65 pound harness limit. This seat turns into a high back booster to 100 pounds or 21" belt guide height, and then a backless booster to 100 pounds.

Click to expand...

But, the Nautilus is known for causing head slump in many kids. OP, if you look at the Nautilus, I'd suggest getting the Elite, on which you can adjust the headwings in. Having the adjustable headwings has greatly helped the head slump on my 5yo... he used to slump all the time in a regular Nautilus.

However, at 2.5, I'd look seriously into getting a Radian 80SL or XTSL. You could RF him, which would allow him to recline and sleep without head slump in addition to making him markedly safer. Once he hits 45lbs, you can turn the seat around and it will FF him to 80lbs. I have a 3yo who is also 39.5", but 40lbs, and he fits wonderfully in his 80SL, RFing. He's comfortable and loves it; in fact, he's asked me if I would take the (FFing) EFTA out of his mom's car and put his "backwards seat" in it, lol. (His mom is not amused by this.)

I would ideally suggest rear facing as well. But, if you are not going to do that, I would look at:

* Britax Frontier85 - tallest top slots and weight limit so he can be safel harnessed until he is old enough and mature enough to sit properly in a booster (which the FR85 turns into a nice high back booster, and it doesn't expire until 9 yrs from DOM, so it would last a long time). While it is upright, the headwings can make a nice sleeping surface

* Graco Nautilus - it would last a long time, though not as long in the harness as the FR85. It does have some recline FF but tends to cause headslump issues for some kids, even older ones, so I would keep that in mind.

* First Years True Fit - as a convertible to be used only FF, I would choose this one over the MyRide because it has taller top slots and therefore would last longer. It doesn't have as much recline when FF as the MyRide, but does still give some natural recline.

For RF, I would look at the Radian models which RF to 45lbs and the Complete Air, which RF to 40lbs. Both would offer more growing room by height over the MyRide.