Question Convertible seat for big 4 month old in PT Cruiser

Hello all,

This forum was recommended to me via another parenting board in my search for our next stage car seat, and wow, I can hardly believe how much information is available here! Alas, I'm still confused.

I am looking for a convertible car seat for my 4.5 month old daughter, who is rapidly outgrowing her Graco Snugride 22 bucket seat. She is already about 18 lb and 26.5". The features I am looking for are:
- high weight limit for rear facing, since she's 18 lb already and I'd like to be able to keep her rear facing as long as possible, at least until 2 years
- fit into our PT cruiser and possibly my husband's Dodge Caliber (both '07s I believe)
- available and approved for use in Canada
- fabric easy to keep clean (at her age, she still spits up a ton and I'm sure maintenance doesn't get any easier when they're older and eating/drinking!)
- ability to recline in RF position, since she's so young still
- ideally, will fit her car seat needs for a long time, we'd prefer not to have to buy yet another car seat anytime soon
- safe, obviously (I'm told any seat available for purchase her has been deemed safe by Transport Canada though?)
- ease of installation and putting child into/out of seat.

I'm not asking for too much, am I ? I've looked at the Radian, but it doesn't recline does it? And Graco Myride, since I've been pretty happy with their bucket seat, but I've heard it's enormous. And Evenflo Triumph, but with a RF weight limit of only 35lb, it seems like one of the lower limits, isn't it? And Britax - I'm a bit overwhelmed by their options, and they seem to be at the more expensive end of things. We don't have a specific budget, but don't want to spend that much unless it's worth it - are they?

Thanks so much for any guidance anyone can provide!

Hi and welcome

You've come to the right place for assistance! Can you tell us what vehicle you're putting the seat into and what position (outboard or centre)? And does your baby seem to be all torso or all legs?

Any child restraint sold in Canada is approved for use in Canada and meets CMVSS regulations. So, you're all set there.

Its wonderful to hear you say you want to extended rear face your DD. 2 is now the recommended minimum. Popular consensus around these parts is to the upper limits of your seat so for many people, thats well beyond 2 years

As for recline, seats may have a recline option but the majority of the time in rear facing mode they are required to be in full recline mode. We adjust the angle when we install a seat. We can do this by pushing in certain places while tightening or using tools like pool noodles. Where are you located? We may be able to assist you with finding a tech close by to assist.

Radian seats take up a lot of room front to back. Your DD is too young to use an angle adjuster so if you choose this seat, it will certainly take up a lot of space. It is one of the highest rear face options out there though and fits babies well. It also has low profile sides which is great if you have a truck or have issues lifting baby over the shell to get them in without bumping their heads!

My Ride is a great seat for a great price. It rear faces to 40lbs. Its super comfy and if you're concerned about recline, it does a great job of reclining. It can be a bear for forward facing because it does have a deep recline and some older kids don't like that. It has LOADS of rear face leg room too.

The Britax convertibles are shorter shells then the My Rides. They don't last as long rear facing as other seats out there and don't offer as much leg room as a My Ride. They have a ton of convenience features though which makes them attractive to some.

The TrueFit is another highly recommended seat. It has a no rethread harness which is nice rather than rethreading them to change them around. But, it does have a lesser RF weight limit. However, if baby's growth slows (which it will!) you'll have more time height wise then My Ride because the shell is taller.

The EvenFlo seats are in the same boat - great seats but lesser RF weight limits.

I'm not sure if your little one has a long enough torso for a Complete Air. Its another 40lb rear facing seat and has a tall, no rethread harness. Like I said, its a matter of fit.

So, there is an idea for you to start with. More suggestions can be made once we know the vehicle. I'd definitely take a little peruse through the baby section at a Babies R Us and check some seats out. Put DD in them and see if there is anything you absolutely can't live with about that seat. And, you might fall in love with something you didn't think you would.

The best seat is always the one that you can install properly and buckle baby properly into each and every time you travel.

Hope that helps and feel free to ask more questions!

The Myride seems big, but the natural recline of it means you can put it more upright than you'd think. It fits nicely in the middle of my small car.

My daughter is big too and that is the seat we went with. She's coming close to outgrowing it but it still got us over 18 months so far, so I'm happy with the investment.

I think the MR is a good choice as well, when moving seats around to my husband's truck the MR actually fit alot better than the Evenflo Titan even though it seems as if the MR is way bigger.

I also agree look at the True Fit personally I'd go with one of those two.

Thank you so much for your responses (sorry for my delayed response, my weak excuse is that DD has taken to not sleeping this past week!)

To provide some clarifications:

seat would primarily be going into my ’07 Chrysler PT Cruiser; I’m not sure at this point if we’ll need to also transfer it to my husband’s ’07 Dodge Caliber (or whether we’d buy a second seat, or whether we might become a one car family by the time I go back to work)
Seat would go in the centre position until we possibly have a second child, at which point it would go outboard (probably not until DD is around 2 years old, so there very well may be a period of overlap when DD is still rear facing and we need to have her in an outboard position, although by that time perhaps we will upgrade to a larger vehicle ... this is something I had not even considered until now, so thank you for prompting me to think about this)
We’re in London, Ontario, and we used a local Buckle Up Baby car seat clinic run through the health unit to check our bucket seat install, so we would intend to make another appointment to check this next seat
So far, DD is just big overall, chunky really

We went to Babies R Us this weekend, and liked the look of Safety 1st’s Complete Air, it looks like the shoulder slots would go low enough for DD. The wings around the child’s head that this seat features, are they a gimmick or do they provide an appreciable safety benefit?

I don’t see the True Fit available on Babies R Us Canada’s website, I wonder if it’s not available in a Canadian model? We’ll also take a closer look at the MyRide based on these suggestions.

Your replies were very helpful, thanks so much for all the information and reminders/considerations!