Overwhelmed by choices for tall 5 year old

[Kris]

DD is 5, will be 6 in January. She is 46 inches tall with about a 13 or 14 inch torso to shoulder height. 91% for height at her last doc appointment. She is also super skinny and still wearing 4t shorts comfortably, though I don't have her current weight. She was only 35lbs right before she turned 5.

We need a new seat and I'd like to keep her harnessed as long as possible. Preferably an easy install in a Prius since this seat will be used in her adult step sisters car. I originally looked at HBB so we could use it longer. But I keep seeing the sureride come up too. Would prefer to keep it under 150.

Some I've looked at are Graco tranzitions, nautilus 65 lx, triogrow snuglock (Wal-Mart, currently on sale). They just happen to all be graco, not on purpose. Can anyone offer some thoughts? Thank you in advance!

 

[MelodyoftheForest]

For easy install, I would avoid the Tranzitions, as it tends to be finicky in many vehicles. I haven't played with the snuglock seats myself or know much about their compatibility. The Nautilus might be a good middle ground, as a typical Graco install is pretty simple, and I haven't had trouble with the Nautilus family when I tried them in my cars. Keep width in mind if anyone else is riding in the back seat, though. You're unlikely to want to fit these seats in the center if anyone else rides in the back seat.

 

[ketchupqueen]

The Tranzitions SnugLock is better than the regular Tranzitions, but I wouldn't expect it to be easy in a Prius. I haven't tried the TrioGrow SnugLock but I've heard good things in general but nothing about that vehicle. Concur that the Nautilus is usually a cinch in a Prius.

I don't think you'll really need to keep her harnessed as long as humanly possible. I think an 18-18.5" harness height is definitely enough to get a child with a 14" torso height at nearly 6 to a safe booster age! (My kids all exceeded that torso length before 2 years old.)

 

[Kris]

Thanks for the replies! I'm not actually sure I measured her torso height correctly. I feel like if your kids exceeded it before 2 and she's at 91% maybe I didn't measure correctly. I'll try the Nautilus and make sure we have a return policy.

 

[ketchupqueen]

Well, I should mention that my children have abnormally long torsos. Lol.

You can measure torso by having her sit cross-legged against the wall, back straight. Mark the high point of her shoulder. Then measure from there to the floor.

 

[Destiny]

Chicco my fit sounds it could keep harnessed longer but I have never installed one