height vs weight

so, which one do you think will cause dd to outgrow rf first? we just ran through her measurements and weight and she is 37inches, a little over 15.25 inch torso, and 29 lbs. she is just about 2.5 years old and just now seems to be turning a curve where her weight gain has picked up instead of slowed down. (she was born at 9lbs7oz and was extremely slow to gain for the first year and a half). her height at 2 years was 35 inches, approximately 14.75 torso and 26 lbs, so in just under 6 months, she's grown 2 inches, over .5 in torso, and 3 lbs.

she has always had a long torso. it has finally slowed a bit, still seems a bit above average (she wears 4t shirts already for the length).

are there any limits on how she fits in regards to the harness height rearfacing in the bv and dc are concerned or is it merely where her head is? i think her head /neck is short compared to the rest of her and may actually help buy us some time in the height dept rear facing!

i'm glad to see her weight finally catching up, but now we're watching all of the numbers instead fo just height! we have her rf in a bv and a dc, both with 33lb rf limits. she is happy rear facing and we're in no rush to turn her, but we definitely want to make sure we don't exceed the limits of the seats either. i'm hoping to buy enough time rf to be able to hand these seats down to her baby brother next year and for some new higher harness height ff seats to be released!

one other question~if she outgrows the seats rearfacing by height, what are the odds the seats will also be outgrown forward facing as soon as we try turning her? (just trying to plan ahead on what we may have to buy seat wise and when....)

i'll try to snap some pics later today. dh just went on a coffee run with her since she wanted to get in the car when we pulled out the dc to adjust the harness on it. she's turning into a fanatic and yelled at dh the other day and said she wasn't in tight enough! :thumbsup:

My dd outgrew those seats by weight...she has a pretty short torso and long legs, was just over the second slots from the top when she got too heavy... http://cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx, probably had 2-3 inches still over her head.
Then when we turned her FF she had to go to the top slot, but fit another good 18 months before her shoulders crept over it and she was officially too tall http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/FFAlbum/Sarah.aspx (this pic was maybe 6 months before that happened).

The BV won't last quite as long as the DC, the headwings make the top 'slot' effectively about half an inch shorter, I think, though it should still last quite awhile once you go FF, I'd think.

I think the 65 lb Britax convertibles are a toss up. Some outgrow them by weight and some by height. Shorter seats are almost always outgrown by height while taller seats like the Radian and True Fit are more often outgrown by weight. Not, helpful at all, right

Your child needs a solid inch of shell above their head and they need to be below the weight guideline, those are the only guidelines. Overall height does not matter. The only time overall height is a necessary guideline is when it is listed as a minimum to forward face. With the Boulevard the top of the shell is the top of the shell, not the top of the wings.

Once you turn her in a Britax convertible (this isn't true for all convertible seats) she should have a decent amount of time left. Often children outgrow the scenera ffing before rfing because of it's tall shell.

Picture for you. My dd, just before we (I) turned her at 25 months, 36.5 inches tall, 15.5 inch torso, 32+ pounds. She went directly to the top slots ff, and just outgrew the dc now (well, hasn't been in it in a couple of weeks, but she was just shy of being even with the top slots, and I make the seat as upright as I can. Last time I measured, over 16.5 inches in torso).


I am guessing she had about 1.5-2 inches above her head. If I had a 35 pound limit seat, she may have outgrown both rf limits at the same time.
Here she is ff when I turned her, to give you an idea of where the straps hit her (not as upright as i forced it later) She is now, at 3.25 yo, 40.75 inches and 40 pounds.

HTH

a kid has to be pretty long in the torso and/or super skinny to outgrow a rearfacing britax convertible by height... but it can be done.

even my long-torso girl outgrew them by weight, though.

She's skinny, just not as skinny as the girls mentioned above.

all that matters is the head... so I'd just let her continue to ride rf until her head is less than 1" from the top of the shell, unless she hits the weight limit first.

After that, I think letting the kid forward face will be fine, as she'll be over 3 already.

But if she hasn't outgrown the 35lb cap and you want her to rf even longer at that point, there's the true fit, which is super tall.

thanks guys!

jennifer~that's about how my dd fits in her dc right now. in the bv it looks like she has much less room (so much less that dh keeps questioning whether she should still be rearfacing). it looks like she probably has 1.5 inches using the slopey parallel line way to measure (can't think of what to call it exactly! lol! hope that made sense! i know not to measure how much room she has left by just looking straight on.)

i tried to get pics over the weekend, but dd was being a pain and kept insisting on leaning her head forward around the wings on the bv and completely skewed every single pic i took! go figure! i didn't bother trying to get pics in the dc because she started getting cranky... but jennifer's head on shot looks really similar to how dd fits in the dc right now, so i guess borrowing her dd for reference is the best i can do for the moment, hope that's ok jennifer!

i think we have enough time in the dc to atleast be able to hand it down to her brother next year sometime. for now, i guess i'm most concerned about the bv. (but i did just overhear my coworker talking about needing a new seat for her dd who just turned 1 and is outgrowing her infant seat... maybe i can sell her the bv and buy a different seat for dd with higher harness height for rear facing! she actually was thinking of buying it off of me last year when dh was obsessed with buying a recaro, so it could really work....)