Nearly seven year old in My Ride

I took Piper down to BRU today to play with seats (and played technician for a mom with a Marathon just out of the box in the parking lot, and helped another mom choose her next seat. Or at least know where to start. She'll likely call when she needs help installing, too).

Anyway, I wanted to see how my petite 40 pound nearly 7 year old (with a torso just over 17") fit in the My Ride. I wanted to see if she liked the recline in both directions. I also put her in the Roundabout 50 and the Frontier (she also sat in the Boulevard and a Turbobooster, but I didn't take pictures of those).

Here's her torso height in it. She's too tall already. I didn't have a tape measure with me, but she was definitely pushing the pen up.



Good leg support, but very little shoulder room. Piper is VERY narrow across the shoulders.



Rear facing in the MR65. She was fine with the recline in both directions. And this definitely gave her a lot of leg room.



She's over the shell already by a couple of inches, so she would have outgrown this rear facing by height probably just over a year ago (so at 5.5 years) and around 35 pounds. Not too bad. About the same shell height then as the EFTA.



I was excited to see Graco saying right there that kids should rear face as long as possible!!



In the RA50. Very much above the top slot, but not by as much as I would have thought. How is this seat not a rebadged FPSVD?



It's blurry, but here she is in the Frontier with the straps pushed aside and belted in. I did not like the fit on her at all, it was too wide. She HATED the feel of it, said it felt like snake (mesh behind her), and she basically was on the verge of tears in it. So glad we have the Nautilus for her! She has room in the torso with the harness, and I didn't adjust it up all the way for booster. She hated it too much to play, and we were out of time.



So there we go. I know some people were asking for older kids in the MR65. Piper would have outgrown it about a year ago would be my guess. Maybe a little less. But it would have gotten her to a mature booster age. She said it was more squished than the Boulevard, but it had more leg depth.

Wendy

Oooo.... Thank you for taking and sharing these pics.

Did I read that right? She would have outgrown rear facing by height at 5.5 years?! Ooo.... I want one now!!!

Her dd is petite, though. Most kids will outgrow it before then (height wise) I would think. I know not many make it to 5.5 in the MA!

Great pics!
I put Taylor, my 5.5 Y/O in the MyRide last weekend, and she was AT LEAST 3" above the top slots (she just outgrew the MA by height about 2 - 3 months ago), and was not comfortable in it with the narrow shoulder area. I took a couple pics on my cell, but they're not that great of quality.

She would have probably lasted until at around age 3 RF in it though, whereas she was FF in the Marathon at 18 - 19 months due to weight.

5/5? that is awesome! i am definitely getting this! my son will have almost 2 years left RF'ing. i could just cry!

She's petite, but she's got a decent torso for her length. But yeah, she would have made it to 5.5 rear facing in the EFTA and the MR. Here's her last year (13 months ago, so 5y10m just about) in the EFTA.



Just less than 1" of shell above her head, and she was hitting 35 pounds about then as well.

The shoulder thing has me concerned for the MR. Piper is petite. Narrow narrow shoulders. And this doesn't offer a lot of growing room. I think it would last your average kid to 5 or 6 with a harness, and at least 3 if not longer rear facing, but I can see the average 4.5 year old starting to fuss about the shoulder and hip room.

If Britax hadn't had at the time that you could use the headrest for rear facing height (rather than just the shell) she would have outgrown rear facing in her Wizard LONG before she did. As it was I made the parental decision to continue with that, so it was a long lasting seat rear facing for her. But sitting her in the Boulevard next to the MR, I think the MR has probably an inch or so more rear facing shell height than the Boulevard.

I really love Britax. I wish they would stop using the same two shells for everything and start making a really long lasting convertible. Something that fit from newborn to mature booster age easy. Lots of leg room, lots of head room. They're just slipping. The mom I helped in the store was likely going to walk out with a Britax, and probably love it, but really resent the pricetag attached. For that money I just don't think you're getting the seat you used to. I convinced her to keep her LO rear facing for a long time, though. She was thinking just the next seven months (he's five months old now) but I told her why and showed her why the Marathon is so awesome (because it was the first well known seat to go above and beyond the others back in 2002), but it hasn't changed with the times.

Anyway, I was both happy and annoyed with the MR. For the pricetag it's a fantastic seat. I installed it on the test bench with the belt and was really pleased with how easy it was. Hated the bench's seatbelt, but that's not Graco's fault. But the cover was popping off, they didn't quite make it big enough in the shoulder room, and a shell another couple of inches taller would have worked wonders. Really made it stand out. And it's too reclined forward facing. For people with backseats like mine (very sloped) it would produce astronaut babies lying on their backs forward facing. Or rather, astronaut kids. And I don't see the rear facing angle being at all adjustable more upright.

Wendy

I wonder if my 6yo would fit rear facing? (Not that I would turn him now just curious.) He is 39lbs 43" and has about a 15" torso. I'm going to have to go back to BRU with him to satisfy my curiousity.

Are you sure she is only 44.5 inches tall? Ds is 42 inches, and he still has barely an inch above his head, and his legs are not as long as Piper's either!

Thanks for posting all the info. Interesting to see the differences.

Gypsy said:

Are you sure she is only 44.5 inches tall? Ds is 42 inches, and he still has barely an inch above his head, and his legs are not as long as Piper's either!

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No. She's had a growth spurt, and it was nearly all torso. I haven't measured her since before we left NC. My guess is probably closer to 46", though, with a torso between 17" and 17.5".

Wendy

And my DS is only 37.5" with about a 14" torso yet he only had 1.25" above his head RF in the MR with it very upright. Big head? Originally I thought he had more than that, but I found out that the energy foam was sticking up 3/4" above the shell so I had to subtract that.

It wasn't hard to get more upright RF in a real car:thumbsup:

Thanks for the pics. Interesting about the shoulder width, that's really good to know! It's hard to tell in the pictures, but how did it compare with the shoulder room in the RA50?

I really hope we see Evenflo follow Graco's lead here and make the EFTA rf'ing to 40lbs. That would be AWESOME. Too late for my ds...but awesome nonetheless!

And Piper's so cute...the hair made me chuckle!

wendytthomas said:

The shoulder thing has me concerned for the MR. Piper is petite. Narrow narrow shoulders. And this doesn't offer a lot of growing room. I think it would last your average kid to 5 or 6 with a harness, and at least 3 if not longer rear facing, but I can see the average 4.5 year old starting to fuss about the shoulder and hip room.

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This part struck me in your original post too. My daughter is fairly small herself, though not incredibily petite. She is not really narrow in the shoulders at this point. But she is only 17 months. So it's hard to say what she'll look like when she's older.

And I've always resented the price tag attached to Britax. Always. I NEVER thought I would buy an Britax. But once I got the Boulevard, I've completely changed my mind. Of course, I bought it at more than $100 off the regular retail price. So that helped too. But, you're absolutely correct, they need to do something to compete when there are now other good (or better) seats out there.

Wendy - I totally agree with you on Britax. They have fantastic seats in other countries, but are way behind here now. I wonder if they are just giving up on the US/Canada market. In 2005 it was about the only seat that had a tall enough shell that I knew would get my tall ds1 rfing past a year (he outgrew the old triumph by height rfing before a year!), but now there are TONS of options. And sadly, I haven't bought another Britax since due to their shorter shells and my tall kiddos.

Fwiw, ds1 4 1/2 yo is too tall for the MR by shoulder harness height. His head is a good inch over the top. I'd guess he would have outgrown it ffing around 4 (like the MA) and rfing around 2 1/2 - 3 (when he weighed around 32-36lbs). He is a tiny bit below the top of the radian shell rfing when he sits in it in my car (not buckled), but at 41lbs way over the weight limit (he's also around 43"). But that just gives you and idea of how much more shell there is in the radian. And that's with the MR upright and the radian reclined! I really wish the MR had a taller shell, then it'd be worth it to buy one for ds2.

zeo2ski said:

Thanks for the pics. Interesting about the shoulder width, that's really good to know! It's hard to tell in the pictures, but how did it compare with the shoulder room in the RA50?

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Both were squished, though Piper didn't complain. I thought she looked horribly uncomfortable with just a hair less in the RA50, and I couldn't see her getting any bigger across the shoulders and being happy in either seat. She was over the top slots, so it was moot, but a broader child could get squished in both. Though with the RA50's lower sides it wouldn't feel as bad as the MR, I'd suspect.

Wendy

wendytthomas said:

Both were squished, though Piper didn't complain. I thought she looked horribly uncomfortable with just a hair less in the RA50, and I couldn't see her getting any bigger across the shoulders and being happy in either seat. Wendy

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What would you recommend for babies that are big and heavy at birth and parents want to skip buying an infant seat.

my extended family has mainly big babies (more than 9lbs, 23") with wide shoulders.

I was looking at the photo of your daughter in the frontier and my 4yr old seems to be wider at the shoulders in his frontier. my 3yr old was squished in the GN at BRU's test bench.

rochelle said:

What would you recommend for babies that are big and heavy at birth and parents want to skip buying an infant seat.

my extended family has mainly big babies (more than 9lbs, 23") with wide shoulders.

I was looking at the photo of your daughter in the frontier and my 4yr old seems to be wider at the shoulders in his frontier. my 3yr old was squished in the GN at BRU's test bench.

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Easy, True Fit. After the baby reaches the bottom slots on their own the infant padding isn't needed and it offers a LOT of internal room. Second recommendation would be the EFTA.

I definitely don't recommend the Nautilus for broad shouldered kids. I'm very happy both the Nautilus and Frontier are on the market. Because about 50% of kids fit better in one than the other.

Wendy