Carseat for tall child

I'm wondering if anyone can help me with a question. My daughter will be 3 in January, and is 32 lbs. She is 38.5 inches tall. All carseats/boosters that I have seen have the following regulations: use carseat mode UP TO 40 inches and 40 pounds, and DO NOT USE the booster mode (with the seatbelt instead of the 5-point harness) UNTIL the child has reached 40 pounds. I'm worried that my daughter is going to exceed the height requirements for the carseat mode before she reaches the weight requirements for the booster mode. I have contacted two carseat manufacturers and they say that she cannot use either mode if she doesn't meet both the weight and height requirements. Do you have any suggestions? Do you know of a carseat made for taller children? We'd like to keep her in the 5-point harness until she reaches 40 lbs, as it seems safer. I would really appreciate any input you have on this.

Hi Shannon,
What carseat is your daughter in now? Brand and Model

There are several seats that are taller than most. But first, your daughter outgrows the seat FFing when her shoulders are above the top slot, or when her ears are at the top of the shell. Not when she automatically hits 40". A 40" kid may have a 12" torso or an 16" torso, and those two kids will fit into carseats very differently. Also, 1.5" of torso growth is usually about 3-4 inches of overall growth. So even if she is pushing the height limit, it may take another six months or a year to get to that point. The eight pounds may take as long.

Seats that are taller that go beyond 40 pounds:
Britax Marathon/Decathalon/Boulevard: $250-$300, FF to 65 pounds, 17" top slot heights
Sunshine Kids Radian: $180, FF to 65 pounds, 18" top slots
Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe: $180, FF to 55 pounds, 17" top slots (based on the Marathon, made by Britax)
Britax Regent: $270, FF to 80 pounds, 22" top slots
Cosco Apex 65: $100, FF to 65 pounds, booster to 100 pounds, 17" or 19" top slots.

HTH

Wendy

Just wanted to add to Wendy's reply, that the MA/DC/BV Britax's sometimes are on sale at online stores. I have seen them sometimes for like $219.00?

Also your Daughter could still be rear-facing at 32 pounds (if she isn't already). The Britax's go to 33 pounds(Rear-facing limit), so depending on which seat she is using she might be able to be rear-facing right now. Some seats even go to 35 lbs. But as soon as she hits the 33 pounds she must be turned back around. In my signature below you can see my 2.5 year old rear-facing.

My dd was 38 inches and 32 pounds at 2.5 and outgrew her Cosco Alpha Omega at that point (shoulders over top slots). I understand how you feel!

First, Wendy is right, she hasn't outgrown her seat by height until her shoulders are over the top slots or until her tips of her ears are over the seat shell. Lots of seats have very low top slots and kids outgrow them at 30-something pounds because they are too tall.

Good choices to get her to 40 pounds in a harness would be the Graco Ultra or PLatinum CArGo, EVenflo Chase or Generations and Recaro Young Sport. These seats all have very tall top slots. The Evenflo Generations and Recaro also make good long-term booster seats to 80 pounds.

If you'd like to harness her beyond 40 pounds look at the Britax Marathon/Boulevard (to 65 pounds, although generally outgrown around 50-55 pounds, by height), the Britax Regent (to 80 pounds), the Sunshine Kids Radian and the Safety 1st/Cosco Apex (to 65 pounds).

I'd strongly encourage you to harness beyond 40 pounds, my dd was 33-35 pounds at 2 years and 9 months and reached 40 pounds at 3 years and 9 months. She's always been a tall girl, in the 90th+ percentiles for both height and weight on the growth charts.