Question Want to upgrade our car seat

Unregistered · Dec 28, 2012

We have a 2.5 yr old 30lbs sitting in a Cosco convertable car seat. The straps do not tighten/loosen freely which makes it very difficult to put her in the seat and take her out. It seems that the seat is designed to pinch the straps if you install it properly.

I'm now looking for a new car seat and feel completely lost. How long should DD use five point straps? What car seat would you recommend for her age/weight? I'm particularly concerned with safety ratings. We drive a Honda Odyssey and a Jeep Grand Cherokee. One has captain's seats and the other a bench seat. Both have LATCH.

Can someone point me in the direction of what I should be looking for? A salesman sold us a booster yesterday and I want to return it because it has no five point harnesses or anything to hold her in except the seatbelt. I tried looking up Rhode Island laws and it only gives the 8yr/80lb rule but nothing about infants/toddlers/five points/RF vs. FF or anything. Help please!

D&L's-mommy · Dec 28, 2012

I would NOT put a 2 year old in a booster, return that thing. She should still be rearfacing, ideally. there's quite a few convertible seats that she can still rearface in at 30lbs, though her height is a factor too. the safety 1st complete air rf's to 40lbs, diono radians 40-45lbs (depending on which model), graco myride to 40lbs, evenflo symphony to 40lbs. I'm sure there's more. A tech on here can help you figure out which ones fit best in your vehicles. what is your budget? can you measure you daughter's torso height? (have her sit flat on the floor straight against a wall sitting criss cross applesauce, mark the wall where the top of her shoulder is, and measure from the floor to the mark) that measurement and her overall height will help you pick a seat.
If you are absolutely not willing to return her to rearfacing, the evenflo maestro, graco nautilus and argos 70, evenflo secure kid 300 or 400 are good. the britax frontier is good too, but some smaller kids don't fit well

murphydog77 · Dec 28, 2012

Hi. First, do you have your dd sitting rear-facing or forward-facing? A bit of a rant from me here, but that salesman should have that booster he sold at you thrown at him. Little bitties, like your dd, should absolutely not be sitting in a belt positioning booster seat. I know she's growing up so fast, but she still needs a 5-point harness for several more years. Kids shouldn't transition to boosters until at least age 4 at the very minimum, and more like age 5.

Best practice is to put her rear-facing in a convertible seat. This is a carseat that rear-faces then forward-faces. There are lots of convertibles in all price ranges and weight ranges available.

If you're not rear-facing her, then I wouldn't look at a convertible seat at her age. A combination seat (the terms are confusing, aren't they?) has a 5-point harness that can be removed later to become a belt positioning booster. What you'd want to look for here is anything but a Cosco/Safety 1st/Eddie Bauer seat. These seats have very low top harness slots and make poor boosters. Evenflo, Graco, Britax, Safe Embrace all have great combo seats.

Here's a starting point for you: http://carseatblog.com/carseatblogcoms-recommended-car-seats/ . Take a look through the lists then come back and ask more questions on seats you're interested in to help narrow your choices down.