My DD is a bigger kid, to be exact, she's not yet 3 1/2 and already is 43lbs and 40.5 inches tall. She is currently in a Britax Marathon carseat but we are considering other options at this point. I don't want to spend a TON of money on a third carseat (we have 2 marathon's my son is in the other) but I am not sure how I feel about just a high back booster to use with the seat belt. Any suggestions or thoughts? I know most harnesses are only good up to 40lbs or so, the one on the marathon we have is up to 50, but says not to use the latch system after 48lb, so I figure we may as well have her out of that seat at that point anyway?
Re: Carseat help
At 3.5 she is absolutely not ready to move to a belt positioning booster yet. For your situation it's likely she'll do best in an evenflo maestro, a graco nautilus, a recaro prosport or a britax frontier, whichever fits your budget best.
All of these have high harness straps (many kids outgrow seats for height long before reaching the weight limit) and high weight limits (evenflo is the lowest weight limit, at 50 lbs, so that might not be your best option). All of these also become belt positioning booster seats later, although there's not a guarantee that they will fit your child properly as a booster seat. The frontier is known for fitting well as a booster seat. It also has the highest top harness slots of any seat on the market and becomes the tallest high back booster out of any seat on the market. The nautilus is spotty as a booster, but if it fits as a booster it will also last a long time. The maestro is outgrown as a booster at the same time that the top harness slots are outgrown, so it's an okay option but you'll have to buy a dedicated booster seat later.
DS1 is 47lbs at 3?yrs. His carseat only went to 50lbs so we just bought him a Britax Frontier. It's 85lbs as a 5pt harness and converts to a booster up to 120lbs. It's a bit pricey but it is the last seat he will need until he's ready to be in just a regular seatbelt.
He absolutely loves his seat and is very comfortable in it. I read the reviews on the Nautilus and they were not very good, especially compared to the Frontier.
The Britax Frontier is currently 30% off on Amazon.
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