Question Can't decide on a convertible car seat

[Unregistered]

My daughter is 6 months old, 19lbs and 27 inches. We want to move her to a convertible car seat as she's reaching the limits on her newborn seat and seems rather uncomfortable in it.
After doing some online researching I had narrowed down my top choices to the recaro proride, Britax marathon, and the chicco nextfit. We went to the store and did not really care for the Britax marathon. The fabric seemed cheap and it just didn't look as sturdy as some of the other seats. We liked the nextfit so we bought one and installed it. Our problem is that the harness tightening strap was very difficult to tighten once it was installed RF. both my husband and I had difficulty with it. Our daughter is a bit squirmy and already does not enjoy being buckled into her seat so we returned the seat. We then ordered a recaro proride from amazon (luckily there are free returns since we weren't able to see this one in store). Anyways we actually like the seat once we got it installed. My daughter did not mind being put in it (I think the straps are less bulky and they are easy to access and use, so it didn't take as long to buckle her in). My concern with this seat though is that I've been reading the complaints about the shoulder and leg room issues and while she fits great in the seat now, we still have a long ways to go. She's in the 90th percentile for weight and height. Do you think we will have problems with this seat going forward? It is installed in a jeep grand cherokee. I've seen a lot of good reviews for the diono radian on this site and I now wonder if we should check out that seat. I guess my reason for posting is to ask if we should stick with the recaro (given my daughters size and our car type) or if we should try something else? I would like to keep her rear facing as long as possible, obviously safety is high priority to us, ease of use getting her in and out is important (especially buckling her in), and we'd like to pay less than $300. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[henrietta]

My daughter is 6 months old, 19lbs and 27 inches. We want to move her to a convertible car seat as she's reaching the limits on her newborn seat and seems rather uncomfortable in it.
After doing some online researching I had narrowed down my top choices to the recaro proride, Britax marathon, and the chicco nextfit. We went to the store and did not really care for the Britax marathon. The fabric seemed cheap and it just didn't look as sturdy as some of the other seats. We liked the nextfit so we bought one and installed it. Our problem is that the harness tightening strap was very difficult to tighten once it was installed RF. both my husband and I had difficulty with it. Our daughter is a bit squirmy and already does not enjoy being buckled into her seat so we returned the seat. We then ordered a recaro proride from amazon (luckily there are free returns since we weren't able to see this one in store). Anyways we actually like the seat once we got it installed. My daughter did not mind being put in it (I think the straps are less bulky and they are easy to access and use, so it didn't take as long to buckle her in). My concern with this seat though is that I've been reading the complaints about the shoulder and leg room issues and while she fits great in the seat now, we still have a long ways to go. She's in the 90th percentile for weight and height. Do you think we will have problems with this seat going forward? It is installed in a jeep grand cherokee. I've seen a lot of good reviews for the diono radian on this site and I now wonder if we should check out that seat. I guess my reason for posting is to ask if we should stick with the recaro (given my daughters size and our car type) or if we should try something else? I would like to keep her rear facing as long as possible, obviously safety is high priority to us, ease of use getting her in and out is important (especially buckling her in), and we'd like to pay less than $300. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Hi and welcome!

It's totally up to you whether you keep the Proride or not. If you don't mind purchasing another seat down the road *if* she becomes uncomfortable riding in it, then it's a perfectly safe choice, provided you install and use it correctly. For tall, skinny kids and kids w/longer torsoes and shorter legs, it does last a long time both rear and forward facing, BUT it can definitely be uncomfortable down the road for longer legs. It doesn't allow a lot of leg room rear facing and it doesn't offer much leg support forward facing. It is narrow at the top, so broader shouldered kids may be uncomfortable later. All that said, I think your child will be comfy in it till she's around 3 or even 4 yrs old. My friend's son still rode in an older model one at 4 yrs old. He's shorter torsoed, but broad, and he was happy in it till recently. I think part of his being unhappy was that he weighs almost 40 lbs now and the area under his tush didn't have much padding. Hopefully, the newer ones have more padding.

The Recaro is an easy to use and install seat, which is great if you have a squirmy kid. It won't be as easy to get her in, esp rearfacing, when she's 2 or 3 yrs old, b/c it sits up VERY high on it's base. However, you can hand it down to your next child if you have one, put it in your secondary vehicle, or resell it (if you care for it properly, ie follow the washing instructions, don't wash the straps, etc).

A Diono Radian is another excellent choice. The Britax wouldn't have lasted longer than the Radian for height. I've never heard of anyone having trouble w/Britax fabric. None of my Britax seats have had the covers wear out or thru at all.

(OOPS, I see you are aware already! Sorry, my response is so automatic, I missed it!)
In case you are unaware, you'll want to keep your dd rear facing to a minimum of 2 yrs old, preferably to 3 or even 4 if possible. The larger seats, such as the Radian, can definitely accomplish that. The Recaro technically will, but some kids are fussier than others about leg room. My kids never cared that much. Legs will touch the seat back when rear facing, no matter what seat they are in. Kids are flexible. They'll cross their legs or prop them up. It isn't a safety issue in any way. The same goes for infant seat. As baby's grow and their legs get longer, they will stick out of their infant seat. That's okay. A seat is outgrown rear facing when they have less than one inch of room above their head to the top of the seats shell OR when they have reached the weight limit w/their little clothes and shoes on (whichever comes first). Which infant seat do you have? You may be able to continue using it in a second vehicle for a little while longer.

 

[cookie123]

I am using a Recaro Pro Ride for my 5 year old grandson. We didn't have it for rear facing, but I just want to weigh in that we really have liked it forward facing. He's longer torsoed, so the high harness height is a real plus. He's a bit skinny and never wears a coat in the car seat even in super cold weather, so the narrowness of it hasn't been a problem. (I guess I taught him well!) The reason we got it in the first place was because he couldn't see out the car window in either the Evenflo Secure Kid 400 or the Graco Nautilus because they sit too low and I guess the car windows are too high!

Anyhoo, where I'm going with all of this is that the seat will probably work well for quite a while rear facing. And it has it's good points for forward facing. And my grandson likes the 'head buns!'

 

[MorgieBear'sMama]

I love my ProRide for my 5-15% kiddo. My 75-75% guy doesn't have any room in it though. At 2yr 5mo his shoulders are to wide and has no leg room. His main ride is a Diono r120 which is a much better fit.

 

[CuddlyMonsters]

I am going to add my :twocents: to this...

My son has always been in the 87th percentile for height and weight. He still is and hs is almost 4 (turns 4 next month).

The 2 seats we used to ERF were:

Diono Radian RXT - can RF up to 45lbs, very slim and compact (very heavy though) great if you need to work in a 3 across, takes up quite a bit of head to back space (tall shell), was a little tricky to install.

Peg Perego Convertible - can RF up to 45lbs, fabric is awesome very plush and breathable, takes up a less front to back space than the Radian, quicky and easy to install/uninstall, does not have anti-rebound bar.

I eventually had to turn my son FF because of anxitey issues, but at 3.5 years old he still could fit into the Peg Perego Convertible RF. With the Peg Convertible you can only RF with the bottom 7 slots...

We like both seats for different reasons... HTH.