Question moving to booster ? or not?

Unregistered · Mar 13, 2009

We were looking at boosters recently to move our daughter up from her current seat (Alpha Omega convertable). After reading several posts on this subject - we are thinking that she is not ready for a booster although she is "legally" within the limits. (40 lbs / 40.5 tall). Can someone give examples of extended harness seats ? vs.. HWH ? or is that the same thing? I am also in Canada so the seat must be sold here to comply with transport laws.

thanks!

MissAllyLou · Mar 13, 2009

How old is your daughter? The absolute minimum for a booster is 4 years and 40 pounds, but we like to see kids harnessed for much longer

. Her age will help us help you.

momtoBrennan · Mar 13, 2009

How much does she weigh, exactly?

There are the Graco CarGo and Evenflo Generations that go to 47/48lbs w/the harness in Canada. Both have 17"ish top slots. If she's much past 40lbs those would not be great options but just throwing it out there.

I believe the Radian is available in Canada, as well as the Graco Nautilus that both go to 65lbs in Canada. Both have 18" top harness slots.

There's also the Cosco Apex, which requires a tall vehicle seat back or flat adjustable head rests. This seat is very wide so it doesn't convert to the best booster seat because of that (difficult/awkward to buckle the child in). The top slots on the Apex are shorter than the Nautilus and Radian by about an inch, at 17". 5pt seats are also outgrown by height, when the tops of shoulders go past the top harness slots.

bobandjess99 · Mar 13, 2009

yes, please, age helps us...a 40 lb 6 year old is a completely different animal that a 40 lb 3.5 year old.
For a child under 5.5-6, we would really like to see them harnessed, for reasons concerning emotional maturity ( the ability to stay still and seated correctly positioned fo rthe entire trip, and not falling asleep much in the car which causes slumping, etc) and for reasons of physical maturity ( bones harden, hips jut out to keep a lap belt properly positioned, body proportions change, overal musculature and skeleton strengthens to be able to with stand crash forces, etc)

canadiangie · Mar 14, 2009

Unregistered said:
We were looking at boosters recently to move our daughter up from her current seat (Alpha Omega convertable). After reading several posts on this subject - we are thinking that she is not ready for a booster although she is "legally" within the limits. (40 lbs / 40.5 tall). Can someone give examples of extended harness seats ? vs.. HWH ? or is that the same thing? I am also in Canada so the seat must be sold here to comply with transport laws.

thanks!

Hi,

There's a very good chance she outgrew the 5 point harness of her seat quite a while ago. The top harness position of her current seat is for booster mode only; and once the child's shoulders are level with the 2nd from top harness position the 5 point harness is outgrown (regardless of her weight). I know it's confusing, so please look here for more info: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=39120

Can you post back with her age and what vehicle you drive?

Unregistered · Mar 15, 2009

Hi, thanks for all the posts so far... sorry forgot to put more info.

She is 4 years old (will be 5 in Oct) and I drive a Honda CRV.

As an aside.. we are mostly in town drivers... making 1 or maybe 2 big trips (12 hrs+) a year. However she does fall asleep in the carseat quite easily so would like something that provides some head support. I really liked the Britax Parkway but apparently it's not made anymore... plus there were very few available in Canada anyway.

canadiangie · Mar 15, 2009

Hi,

At her age, the Graco Nautilus or Britax Frontier would work quite well.

Both would allow you to keep her in a 5 point harness for a while yet, and then both convert to nice belt positioning booster seats.

At 4.5y/o and just barely 40lbs she's still much safer in a 5 point harness.

Unregistered · Mar 16, 2009

I looked up the Graco and can get that through Sears looks like. The Frontier I can probably get online from the Toronto area. Can't find a retailer here (Thunder Bay, ON).

I've been comparing both... and found this thread - http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=42866

Sounds like the Frontier is very hard to install tight enough? (a little farther down on the thread there is a post & pics about the seat belt and sounds like she can't use this seat at all in a Pilot?) We have a 98 CRV so it does not have the LATCH system - we need to use the seat belt so wondering if this is going to be a problem if we chose the Frontier ?

delgirrrl · Mar 16, 2009

Unregistered said:
I looked up the Graco and can get that through Sears looks like. The Frontier I can probably get online from the Toronto area. Can't find a retailer here (Thunder Bay, ON).

I've been comparing both... and found this thread - http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=42866

Sounds like the Frontier is very hard to install tight enough? (a little farther down on the thread there is a post & pics about the seat belt and sounds like she can't use this seat at all in a Pilot?) We have a 98 CRV so it does not have the LATCH system - we need to use the seat belt so wondering if this is going to be a problem if we chose the Frontier ?

I was nervous about the frontier after reading a lot of the early posts around installation - but honestly, it was an absolute breeze!! The problem with the frontier is that if you have seatbelts on stalks (as opposed to the buckle being right in at the seat fold), the "short belt path" simply won't work. The construction of the seat makes it impossible. VERY POOR pre-market testing there on the part of Britax! After the problem became apparent, they approved the "long belt path" and it seems that pretty much everyone who tried that had success. I was amazed at how rock-solid the installation of it was with the long belt path, in every car I've put it in (OK, that's only four cars, but each very different!). I think it's an absolutely fabulous seat

mommycat · Mar 17, 2009

There is a potential problem with long belt path - if your seatbelts are not long enough to reach! It would be nice if you had someone confirm that they had installed in a vehicle like yours. My belts in my 07 Civic were long enough and it was a simple, rock solid install. Easy Breezy (once I managed to loop the belt in and out - it was my first time figuring out LBP).

Unregistered · Mar 17, 2009

ok thanks... is the longer belt path standard now?

Another question on the Graco Nautilus... do those arm rests rotate? It doesn't say in their description .. so if not... is this a pain when it's converted to a booster for the kids to get in/out?

delgirrrl · Mar 17, 2009

Unregistered said:
ok thanks... is the longer belt path standard now?

The UPDATED manual offers either option, and suggests neither path is better than the other, and says to pick the one which is more suitable for your vehicle.

CDNTech · Mar 17, 2009

The armrests on the Nautilus are fixed, they do not rotate. Some children find the Nautilus to be too narrow for their liking, others don't have an issue at all.

I have a comparison thread with both these seats and my 6.75 year old modeling. You can see it by clicking here. If you scroll towards the bottom of that thread, I also show them in booster mode and my oldest shares his thoughts on them... keep in mind this is just one child's viewpoint, not all kids feel the same way.

Step by step long belt path instructions with pictures can be found by clicking here (if you want to see what that looks like).

Unregistered · Mar 18, 2009

Thanks so much for all your input everyone. What an awesome forum!

Now it's a matter of deciding which seat to get based on all the info!

Question moving to booster ? or not?

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