Help...booster or another hwh seat?

Hi!

I am agonizing over this decision...please help!

DD is 5.5, 46" and just 41 lbs. She rides in a Britax Frontier in our main vehicle (98 Toyota Sienna van) and in another Frontier in my husband's vehicle (96 Nissan Pathfinder) when he takes her to daycare on the days I work (2-3 days a week, about a 5 minute drive).

DS is 3.25, not sure of his height but he's tall for 3, and weighs 36 lbs. He rides FF in a Radian in our van and we have a Radian in my mom's car so she can drive him back and forth from preschool to daycare on Tuesdays when I'm working.

Here's my problem: I need another carseat on Mondays to install in my daycare provider's car for DS to ride to skating lessons. She has a 2004ish Caravan. I HAAAATE installing the radian so I'd rather not take it out of our van, especially when I have to install quickly and the radian is so finicky with different vehicles. Of course, the Frontier is no picnic to install either! I'd rather have another seat to just pop into her car.

We were going to buy the Nautilus when it went on sale at Zellers and I have a raincheck for that so we can get it any time (they were out of stock at the 3 zellers stores that are close to me during the sale last week). Then we would just use the Nautilus for the extra carseat.

However, that feels like a lot of money to spend on a HWH carseat that will be used once a week for 10 weeks this fall and maybe January-March as well. I guess we could stick it in dh's car so that both kids have carseats in there, but we don't really need to...if we are taking both kids anywhere, we always take the van.

So I was thinking...what if we bought a Parkway SG for dd to start booster training on Mondays with dh? It is a short trip, she is in Kindy so she might need to know how to ride in a booster soon, right? Then we could take her Frontier out of the Pathfinder and use it in the daycare provider's car for DS on Mondays. I could reinstall the Frontier for dd on Monday night so it would be only once a week that she is riding in a booster.

What I'm really worried about is her size. She has just hit 41 lbs and she seems so light and tiny, even though she's tall and within the legal limits for a booster. What do you all think?

Are there any 40-lb limit seats he fits?

I would be comfortable booster training your daughter at this point, provided the childcare provider uses it properly and your daughter understands the "rules." We taught my daughter (6 next month) that she had to "sit still like a statue and not wiggle or dance."

Yeah, it would be my husband doing the booster training to and from daycare on Mondays, so I totally trust him. My daughter is super responsible, too.

As for the 40lb seat question for ds, did you mean so that I could rearface him again? I turned him at about 2.5 when he was over the 30lb rearfacing limit for our Radian (at the time - I know newer Radians have the higher limits now). So he's been in the Frontier/ff radian since then. I don't think I would buy another rearfacing carseat this late in the game.

I think pp was wondering if there is a less expensive seat that your ds still fits in... such as an Evenflo Generations ($140), or even an Evenflo Traditions (about $100). Then you could put that into the dc provider's vehicle, keeping your dd in her Frontier.

41 pounds is so close to the bare minimum weight limit for booster use in Canada. Does she tend to fluctuate (as in, do you think she could drop weight if she say got sick, or had a bad eating phase, etc), or does she tend to stay a consistant 41 pounds?

Ah, that makes sense. I'll have to look at the Evenflo seats and see if he fits torso wise. He's just below the second from the top Radian slots so he might be okay.

And I totally get what you're saying about my daughter being a lightweight. Her weight has been fairly stable for the last 2 months, so hopefully that's where it will stay. That being said, we're heading into flu season and she does tend to lose weight when she's sick. That's why I've been really reluctant to even consider a booster at this point. She just looks too small to wear a seatbelt.

Thanks guys!

canadiangie said:

I think pp was wondering if there is a less expensive seat that your ds still fits in... such as an Evenflo Generations ($140), or even an Evenflo Traditions (about $100). Then you could put that into the dc provider's vehicle, keeping your dd in her Frontier.

41 pounds is so close to the bare minimum weight limit for booster use in Canada. Does she tend to fluctuate (as in, do you think she could drop weight if she say got sick, or had a bad eating phase, etc), or does she tend to stay a consistant 41 pounds?

Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I meant.