Question Different seats for different kids?

Okay I just got on here reading so many of your wonderful and informative posts.. and some of you use different seats for different kids. I would feel guilty if something happened and maybe one seat did better than the others... and vice versa.. What made you not get all the same type?

My little girl is around 25lbs about to turn 2 in september and has just now outgrown her bucket seat so I was going to put her in the new Radian xtsl that I got off of diapers.com for a STEAL! they stacked my coupons and everything awesome customer service!

And then Babies R Us is doing a trade in a event and I was thinking of trading in the old safe seat for a Graco Nautilus for my son who is about to be 4 and about 35lbs.. who has been in a graco seat not sure what model but I got it at sam's .

I am also driving a 2004 CRV Honda and looking to upgrade to an odessey within the next 6mo to a year..

Do these seats work well.. and do you think I have made the right decision rather than getting two nautilus or two radians.. ? :thumbsup:

I use the seats that best suit the needs of my individual kids, as well as what works best in my vehicles.
For example..your children are different ages and at different "stages" of carseats. The 2 year old really should remain rearfacing for at least another couple years, so you need a rearfacing seat for her. The child who is about to be 4 *could* be in a rearfacing seat, and would certainly be safer that way, but at almost 4 years old, Forward Facing is certainly a reasonable choice. The XTSL is a great choice for the 2 yo, because it can RF to 45 pounds, and thus will keep her safe and RF for a very long time to come. There would certainly not be anything wrong with getting one for your son either, since at only 35 pounds, you could keep him rearafcing for a while yet also, probably, depending on his height. So that solution is probably the safest. The next safe is a RF seat for the girl and a FF seat for the boy. Any seat which fits your vehicle and your budget and you child is acceptable, and the radian XTSL and Nautilus are certainly very highly regarded seats. As I said, we consider age 2 to be the very minimum for forward facing, and it sounds from your post like you are certainly desiring much more than the bare minimum in safety for your kids, so we wouldn't recommend 2 Forward-facing only seats
Right now I personally have a Forwarf Facing Nautilus and a Turbo Booster for my daughter, because she is about to turn 6 and is 50 pounds. Those seats would be inappropriate choices for my 2.75 year old son, who needs to remain rearfacing, so he is in a Complete Air seat in rearfacing mode.

I think that most of us choose whatever seat will work best for our situation at the time. In particular - most important thing is choosing a seat that fits your child, fits your car, fits your budget, and that will be used correctly 100% of the time. Except in the case of twins (that happen to be the exact same size), most of the time it ends up that different seats are the right choice for different children in the family.

In your case, a convertible seat is best for your (almost) 2 year old, because she is much safer continuing to ride rearfacing. Now, you probably could get a convertible for your son and keep him rearfacing, but most often it makes much more sense, financially, to buy a combination seat for an almost 4 year old that weighs 35#. So the Nautilus is probably a good choice for him. I don't see any problem at all with getting two different seats for your children, and I would most likely get two different seats if I were shopping for children those ages/weights.

Well, my kids have an 8 year age gap so there is no way they could be in the same seats. Max is three and in a Boulevard and Emily is almost 11 and in a Clek Olli.

each of my kids has a different seat. My almost 7yr old is in an Evenflo Big Kid booster. My 5yr old is now in a turbobooster (though still uses the Apex65 for longer car trips). My 3 1/2 yr old is in a Nautilus. My 20month old is in a Evenflo Triumph Advance (Rear-facing). And IF I have another one, I have a Graco Safeseat waiting. I've never had the option of having my kids in the same seats.

I don't worry about having kids in different seats. Even if one child was injured and one wasn't, it's likely that there was another factor at play. For example, in a side impact crash, the child on that side of the vehicle is at higher risk than the child on the other side. Being in the same seats isn't going to change that.

Six months from now I'll have two rear facing children. One will be in a BabyTrend (infant bucket), and the other in a rear facing convertible. When we move baby out of the bucket, the elder will be RFing in a Radian in both vehicles and the younger will be in a TrueFit in one vehicle and an Avenue in the other. The baby won't be able to use the Radian at first because it's too upright in our vehicles for a baby without good head control. Even though both kids are rear facing, they have different needs, and therefore different seats.

Once baby has good head control, either child will be able to use any of the five convertibles I own. Soon after, my elder child will start outgrowing some of those convertibles, and then she will only be in the bigger seats and baby will in the smaller seats by default. Again, different kids, different needs, different seats.

I wouldn't buy a Radian for a child who is already forward facing, unless you need the narrow to get three across. I wouldn't buy a Nautilus for a 2 year old because the Nautilus doesn't rear face. Different kids, different needs, different seats.

You've had some excellent answers. It sounds like you've really done your research

I'd also just like to add that not only do many of us choose different seats for different kids, sometimes the same kids have different seats in different vehicles. What the kids use in my vehicle is not the same as what they use in their parents' vehicles, for example -- or a family might have a van with lots of room and a sedan that requires a tight three across.

Within my vehicle alone, I have everything from a 41lb 3.5yo RFing in a Radian, to his 8.5yo older brother in a $16 Cosco backless. I have no guilt about either situation, because that's what's appropriate for each boy at his current stage.

The motto for techs is that the safest seat is the seat the fits the child, fits the vehicle, and will be used safely every time. Since the child and vehicle are often variables, it's really a matter of what makes the most sense in any given situation.

Your plan sounds like a good one. The nice part of it is that in a few years, you can pass the seats down and your daughter can use the Nautilus, when your son is ready for a dedicated high back booster -- or he could booster in the Nautilus while she FFs in the Radian until she's ready for a booster, too. We generally recommend avoiding convertible seats for children who won't be rearfacing, as then you're paying for features you won't use. I love my Nautilus, it's my favorite FF seat, and my Radian serves me well, too.

Thanks so much for all your advice. I just suffer from a bad case of mommy especially after the video. My son is so tall that he's outgrown hi height on the combo seat we have now.. which is a graco but not sure which.

I just got my radian from diapers.com for a steal! so I can't wait to grab the nautilus from BRU by trading in my safeseat. I love my safeseat and honestly surprised that she still fits in it. My son we didn't know all about car seats back then so he was a chunker and we had to count the days till we could forward face because we didn't even realize there were seats out there you could still rf with him.. can't look back..

But I worked kidsmarket all week and I discouraged more people from buying some of those carseats lol. Because I didn't know they expired either until I had my second. Never used an expired seat but still you think they would have a book saying look for this and this and such.. so most of the seats at the sale were due to expire in 2011.. crazy .

At any rate thanks so much!!