help with light weight 3 yr old

help with light weight 3 yr old

I have a 3 almost 4 year old who is barely 32 pounds but he is getting too tall for his Fischer Price Safe embrace car seat harness.
My boys Dr. has suggested keeping him in a harness type car seat for longer instead of moving him to a booster.
What forward facing car seat would be able to accomadate an older child height wise? With regard to the harness and the height of the back of the car seat.
I love the Fischer Price safe embrace and have heard the Britax Wizard (?) is also a good car seat.

Yes, we love our Wizard! Like the Marathon, it's weight limit is 65# & height limit is 49" ... the Wizard has the added head support/protection, though & that's what makes it so much nicer for my kiddo. If you click the picture of Harry Potter below {LOL} you can see my kiddo RF in her Wizard as of early last summer ~ she's recently turned FF at 40" tall & 27#

There's also the Husky that harnesses up to 80 pounds! We have this seat, too. Both my almost-three-year-old & her big half-sister who's turning 7 soon can fit comfortably. My toddler prefers the head support on the Wizard, though, but my stepdaughter says she likes the Husky more than the Turbo Booster that's in her mom's car ~ she can buckle herself & says she feels safer

The Graco Ultra or Platinum Cargo might also be a good choice. It has nice high top harness slots (almost as tall as the Britax Marathon/Wizard), EPS foam in models produced after July 19 have EPS foam like your FPSE, harness adjuster on the front of the seat, and fairly good side wings for sleeping. http://www.gracobaby.com/products/subcategory.asp?N=41+75+62+4294966854&act=A25

I love our two FPSE too! They really are my favorite seats. We have wo Wizards though as well. We went with the Wizards for our now 4y4month old and 2 .5 year old when they came out in July 03. The reason we went with the Wizard for our then 3.5 year old was really because I knew we would have another child, and I would pass it down. At $270 I wanted to use it for the full 6 years lol! My oldest is about 43 inches tall, very long in the legs and about 40 lbs. She has plenty of room to grow in the seat. I think she would easily fit in the Wizard at 6 years old. She outgrew the FPSE by height right around her 4th birthday.

On the other hand, my 27 lb 2.5 year old is somewhere between 38-40 inches tall and all torso. She was RFing in the Wizard until a few weeks ago. Because her torso is so long, her harness height is in almost the exact position as my oldest child's. I figure she will outgrow the Wizard by height probably around 4 years of age. I haven't had her in the FPSE in a while, but I would imagine she is already too tall for it.

If your son is normally proportioned or long legged and you don't feel like spending $200 or more for a seat, I would look at a combo seat that can be used with a harness to 40 lb and then converts to a booster. A popular choice is the Ultra and PLatinum Cargos by graco, although there are lots of other seats as well. Combo seats range in price from about $40-$100. The Graco seat has top harness slots that are about 2-2.5 inches higher than on the FPSE (17" on the Cargo vs about 14.5 or 15" on the FPSE) so this type of seat should last quite a while. My 4 year old rides in a combo seat in DH's car, and because she is now 40 lbs she uses it as a booster, but she still had a little room to grow in the harness height-wise.

HTH

I would avoid Cosco, Eddie Bauer and Safety First seats because they tend to have low top harness slots, meaning kids outgrow them by height long before hitting 40 lbs.

*Does a Homer Simpson "Doh!"*

I forgot about the Graco Platinum Cargo ~ my kiddo hardly ever uses her oldish one since it's in my dad's plow truck But, at 40" tall, there's a bit more than an inch of room till her shoulders are even with the top slot....

Also, if your vehicle has automatic retractable locking belts then when he outgrows the harness on the Cargo, then you could have him learn to pull the strap all the way out & lock in place so that he doesn't wiggle around too much {which can put him at higher risk of injury if he puts the shoulder belt under his arm or behind his head}.

Thank you so much for the info!!!! I have spent hours researching and looking and didn't get as much info as you have all supplied.
I think I might go with the Britax wizard as I have a 10 month old who will inherit the FPSE soon and then probably move on to the wizard later. So I can really get a good use out of a $200 + car seat.
If anyone would have told me I would be happy to spend over 200 dollars on car seat before I had kids, I would have died laughing. (LOL)


Kareen