Car seat recommendations!

BradysGal · October 2013

My DS is 10 mos and ready to get out of his infant car seat. What are your favs for car seats?
My DS is a pretty big guy if that makes a differance for comfort,

nanabanana06 · October 2013

You want one that rear faces the longest. New recs state that they should rear face until 2-4 years of age, the longer the better. For this reason I reccommend the Diono Radian RXT or r120, Clek Foonf, Graco Headwise/MySize/Size4Me, and the Chicco Nextfit. The Graco and the Chicco only RF till 40lbs though. The Radian RF's til 45lbs and the Clek til 50lbs. I personally have 3 Radian RXT's and a Clek Foonf in my Chrysler Concorde and SO's Dodge Dart.

Also, don't fall for the Britax marketing trap. They used to be wonderful seats, but they just don't cut it anymore. Their shells are too short for most kids to RF til the minimum requirements of 2. The bigger the shell, the better for RF seats. GL!

kjsmith9 · October 2013

What Nana said! What kind of vehicle do you drive? And is your 4 year old in a booster seat?

We love our Diono Radian R120, and if your 4 year old is still in a booster and you're in a car/SUV, they are skinny enough to fit multiple seats across (so the booster and the radian could sit side-by-side.

They are a little pricey, but I love that I won't have to buy a booster seat (she can stay in this one until she's ready for a regular seat belt. Plus, they are on sale a lot - I just googled quick and they're marked down from $359 to to $224 (+free shipping) on justkidsstore.com. We will definitely be using radians for all of our babies

mamato3girls · October 2013

What the ops said for suggestions. Kjsmith9 the radian will not be the last seat you will need, you will still have to purchase a booster seat down the road. While the positioning of the radian booster isn't bad it is outgrown Heightwise the same time the harness is outgrown meaning if you harness to the full extent of the seat you will have outgrown the booster already. Plus kids should be boostered until 10-12 years old. The radian is still a great seat (we have 2 of them) just be prepared when the time comes to purchase a belt positioning booster.

kjsmith9 · October 2013

mamato3girls said:

What the ops said for suggestions. Kjsmith9 the radian will not be the last seat you will need, you will still have to purchase a booster seat down the road. While the positioning of the radian booster isn't bad it is outgrown Heightwise the same time the harness is outgrown meaning if you harness to the full extent of the seat you will have outgrown the booster already. Plus kids should be boostered until 10-12 years old. The radian is still a great seat (we have 2 of them) just be prepared when the time comes to purchase a belt positioning booster.

I don't think that's necessarily true. The manual says it can be used forward facing until the child's ears are above the back of the restraint, or if the child is more than 57" tall. Even if she stays 75th percentile for height (which is what she currently is), she would be >10 years old before she reached 57" tall. Obviously that doesn't mean her ears won't be above the seat, but she *could* be in it that long. There is a specific part of the manual that talks about how to use it as a belt positioning booster with the harness removed...

Obviously I would buy a new booster if needed, but I don't think that *everyone* would have to... There's a chance this one could get us through. Kids should be boostered until the seat belt fits appropriately, which doesn't necessarily correlate with an age - it's all about body type.

mamato3girls · October 2013

kjsmith9 said:

mamato3girls said:

What the ops said for suggestions. Kjsmith9 the radian will not be the last seat you will need, you will still have to purchase a booster seat down the road. While the positioning of the radian booster isn't bad it is outgrown Heightwise the same time the harness is outgrown meaning if you harness to the full extent of the seat you will have outgrown the booster already. Plus kids should be boostered until 10-12 years old. The radian is still a great seat (we have 2 of them) just be prepared when the time comes to purchase a belt positioning booster.

I don't think that's necessarily true. The manual says it can be used forward facing until the child's ears are above the back of the restraint, or if the child is more than 57" tall. Even if she stays 75th percentile for height (which is what she currently is), she would be >10 years old before she reached 57" tall. Obviously that doesn't mean her ears won't be above the seat, but she *could* be in it that long. There is a specific part of the manual that talks about how to use it as a belt positioning booster with the harness removed...

Obviously I would buy a new booster if needed, but I don't think that *everyone* would have to... There's a chance this one could get us through. Kids should be boostered until the seat belt fits appropriately, which doesn't necessarily correlate with an age - it's all about body type.

In theory a child could but that would be an awfully short torsoed child. I have a 44" 5 year old who only has about an inch of growth left in the radian and she is very short torsoed and long legged. It s also very much about age and skeletal maturity in addition to seatbelt fit for readiness to be without a booster. Ideally you would like to see a child begin to enter puberty before moving out of a booster because that is when their pelvis begins to strengthen. The radian doesn't have a poor belt fit in booster mode, it is just a very short lived one. Like I said the booster is outgrown pretty much the same time as the harness. So if you chose to harness to the full extent of the seat you will have already passed the limits for the booster. Now if your child still fits harnessed at 5.5-6 years old and you chose to switch to booster mode then you would get some use out of the booster feature. Just because a seat has all the features doesn't mean they do them all well, like I said I have 2 radians and love them for what they do (keep a kid rearfaced until close to 4 years old for most kids) they are very good at that and knowing that the booster mode is pretty much useless doesn't deter me from using the radian and likely buying one for my 4th who I'm expecting I just know going in that it will definitely not be the only seat I will ever need.

alake · October 2013

My six year old (fairly short and light weight) is currently rear facing at her request in a Foonf. She would still fit in a RXT. She is 40 pounds and 42 inches tall. They last forever!! I have both and love them both equally.

ObLaDi · October 2013

We have Radian R120s in both of our cars and are very happy with them.

NicoleWI · October 2013

I don't know, I love our Britax seats and have also tried Radian & First Years True Fit. Britax have been by far the best for us in terms of ease of install, staying installed, comfort, and overall quality of straps, etc. I hate our Radian XTSL and would not buy it again. But, these are all from 2--4 years ago so maybe some new ones are out.

DS rear-faced in the Britax Boulevard until this August when he was over 2.5. He's below average weight and just above average height.

Meagan0528 · October 2013

We have the Graco My Ride 65 and DS LOVES it. It was easy to install, it is easy to get him in and out of, and he is very comfortable in it. Plus, he is a big kid and should be able to RF in it until well past 2. It IS pretty big, but I drive a Honda Pilot with roomy backseats so for me that was not really an issue. I don't really even know the average size of a convertible car seat.

If you are looking for some easy places to get lots of info, check out carseatblog.com and Car Seats for the Littles on Facebook. Also, I found this chart very helpful when I was trying to do some research. https://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa_eou/info.jsp?type=convertible

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