I"m in need of some help cuz she is just too big for it now and needs one soon. She is rather on the tall side and chunky side as well. Is there a good one that wont break the bank and is also good for rear facing since they are now recommending tha tthey still face backward. Thanks
Re: My lo is outgrown her graco snugride car seat, what is the next best one?
I would personally never own another AOE if I could help it. My AOE is gone for many reasons I answered in a much previous post. It is not recommended for a lot of reasons on many sites. If you are on a budget, Cosco Scenera is less than an AOE at Walmart. Safety 1st Complete Air is another less expensive option.
If you have a tall child, a Britax will do fine, the SSK Radian will do better (I think there's about 1/2" difference in the top harness slot height). My 3 yo fits in the Radian where she would not in an AOE, her shoulders are above the last harness slot. Honestly, buy what is going to last the longest. And an AOE sucks as a booster.
We really love our First Years True Fit.
A little background: My DD is tall and at 2 had outgrown her Graco ComfortSport, so we tried out all sorts of seats that were available in store. I tried the AOE and her shoulders were above the top harness slot, and she was no way near ready to use it as a booster! Sadly at the time this was the case with a lot of car seats (many of which are still on the market). We got her the Britax Frontier (forward facing only) as she was already 2. However, when it came time to get DS a good convertible, I found that more seats were out there with tall shells and we went with the First Years True Fit.
The True Fit was a reasonable price tag compared to others I was looking at. It has one of the highest shells for a rear facing seat. Both my kids can use the seat. Yes, even my tall 4 y/o (over 40 in) can use it on the highest harness height. It is easy to use (install, change harness height, etc). I highly recommend the seat.
Ditto pp. Stay away from the AOE and Eddie Bauer seats.
Check out www.carseatblog.com. They have a whole list of recommended seats. I love our Britax seats, but I got really good deals on this by watching Target clearance.
We've done the same, once we're done rf, our girls are tall and have surpassed most ff harnessed seats so we've gone with the Frontier for our 5 yo. The True Fit is a good option if space (width) isn't a worry.
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