Cant find high back booster to work for child and car.

alishajake

New member
Hello, my husband has an 09 toyota matrix, its very compact. My son is 65 to 66 pounds, 5 almost 6 years old. 47 to 48 inches with a 17 to 17 1/4 torso height. Because of his torso height and his more broad body i am having a hard time finding seats that are going to grow with him. My husbands car presents another issue. I have tried the britax parkway sgl (great seat but the arm rests where u put the belt under were so low i had to make my son close his legs tight together to get room to put the seatbelt under and over the armest and his thighs, i realized that seat was to narrow in the hips as well), so i bought the diono monterey xt ( good fit to my son, had no padding at all though which bummed me out, and so wide i had a hard time getting seat belt buckle tilted to buckel in), a safety 1st 3 in 1 elite air 80 (seat was way to big to even buckel im with seatbelt). And his old seat for the car which he does not fit in (shoulder height) diono radian rxt. The issue im having with them all is the seatbelt does not retract in the belt guide smoothly if at all. The only seat i have found to work is the one in my toyota sienna britax frontier clicktight, i have him in harness mode in my car, but tried out the seatbelt for booster mode in my husbands, i even lifted the headrest up and down and pulled on the seatbelt a bunch of times to see if it retracted smoothly and properly. And it did. I am considering getting this seat but am slightly worried about hip room. I think its 12 inches wide, and didnt thinj about this before almost a year ago when i got the seat. I always looked at weight and height. Not even torso height. Too many variables to consider. I would like to maybe go with something a bit less expensive as well. But if i have to go with that seat then we will. If anyone has any suggestions i could use the help. Im interested in trying the nuna aace booster, and will do that tomorow at the store. And i have tried him in the regular seats at the store, graco nautilis, turbobooster, chicco myfit, the only seat that fits him hip wise thats comfortable is the babytrend yumi protect 2 in 1 at target. But it only goes to 100 pounds. I guess i could always get no back with a higher weight limit when he reaches the limit on that seat. And i think the top guide positiom is 20.5 so he would have about 3 inches of growth torso wise. I have not tried it in our car yet. I would like to keep him in a highback but wondering if a no back might be the best option in my husbands car because of the seatbelt retracting issue. I have been stressing myself out over this, we hardly use my husbands car but i still want my son to be safe regardless when we do ride in that car. And theres just so many carseats and numbers to look at i would really appreciate some advice. Thank you!
 
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murphydog77

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
I totally understand what you're going through. When my kids were booster age, I must have looked at every booster on the market and still didn't like the one we ended up with because of the shoulder belt retraction issue. The only thing to do, really, is try it out. The Clek boosters, Oobr (highback) and Olli (backless) have very high armrests which are great for guiding the seat belt over thighs. They might be too narrow, but still might be worth a look-see.

There isn't any data showing that highback is safer than backless in the booster world. Side curtain airbags provide head protection as well, so the issue really is sleeping. If he's going to sleep in this car, I'd definitely look for a highback booster.
 

2BunniesMommy

Well-known member
At a lower price point and a need for higher armrests for easier buckle access, the Evenflo Amp has worked well for us. It had a different name in the high back version at the time we bought it, but I'm thinking it could actually be Amp, or at least have Amp in the name now. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I will also try to look into it when I'm not so sleepy and come back to this thread and update with any further info and links.

I don't know if it will help at all with your issue with the shoulder belt because that was not one of the issues we were needing to solve, but it is certainly worth a try.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
The Safety 1st Boost Air has lift-up armrests for easy buckling.

The Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 and Maxi-Cosi Rodifix have no armrests.

I agree, you just have to try and try to find a booster that works!
 

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