Car Seat for 11 Month Old Who Is 24 Pounds

We just bought the Evenflo Symphony 65 all in one. I really like it, it's been side impact tested and has the better foam choice. It has a lot of cushion and my baby seems so much more comfortable. The straps adjust very easily and because it is an all in one, it will be the last seat we will have to buy.

I bought my daughter a Britax Marathan for $300 off of BRU 5 years ago (when she was about 6m old) . It has a harness weight of 65 lbs. She is almost 6y, and weighs 40 lbs. She will be getting a new seat soon because she is getting too tall for it, and she wants a big kid booster for Kindergarden. While the Britax is expensive I consider it money well spent. We went with lesser weight seats for my husbands car and are already on our 2nd seat due to weight ($150 Graco and then a $60 booster).

My SIL went with the lesser weight seat ($60 - 80) , her daughter turned 4y in Jan. and is already at the seat limit, so she had to by a new booster.

So either way, you end up spending around $200+ for quality seats. The question is just when.

When I ordered my daughters, I went to the store and decided what seat I liked, then I went online and found a pattern in that seat that I liked. It was delivered free shipping to my front door within 3 days. No trying to figure out how to get it home! With the season change, you can sometimes find older patterns for less money. Nothing is wrong with them, they are just older stock. Sort of like buying a 2011 car now that the 2013s are coming out.

So go for the weight. Britax is good. Graco 65 is good. Radian 65 is good. Just find the one that fits for your car and budget.

Britax Marathon.. is the best.. money well spent.. you can use for many years and comfortable. Sometimes they do sale on line. Like go check on http://www.albeebaby.com/.

Why not take him to a seat inspection site (all police/fire depts have someone) and get some FREE advice and recommendations?
Should be 30 minutes of your time well spent.

Look for sales on the Britax. We got ours at 2 different times online. Our Marathon has been great and I love it.

I went through this last year with my daughter who was not 2 yet and weighed 38 pounds. Now she will be 3 right before Halloween and weighs about 46 pounds, but she is really tall.

My son turned 1 in April and weighs 34 pounds. I chose to buy the Sunshine Kids Radian RXT for my dd and then the name changed to Diono. So I bought my son the Diono Radian. The seats are narrow so that you can put 3 across a back seat. They come with a cup holder, latch, and can go forward or rear facing. Also, they can hold the kids in a 5 point harness, then once they have outgrown that, it can be used just as a booster. So, its the only one you need to buy. I like this one because it is steel not plastic and they were they only company that would actually post test and crash results. Not even Britax would do that. I tried to find them. So, even though they are expensive, I would/did go with the Diono Radian XLT. I haven't found them in the store, so I had to buy them online.

I personally say do your research. Oh, and with a 24 pound 11 month old, you could go with the Graco Snugride 32 or an infant seat that goes to 32/35 pounds. I did this with my babies until they graduated to the up to 40 pound carseats. Good luck!

Britax marathon. I think it's less expensive than the boulevard, is a convertible seat, and super safe (I've been in a fatality accident with my daughter in one and she was fine!). There are always good deals at albeebaby.com, and it worth every penny for the safety features. Don't hesitate!

I believe the boulevard and the Recaros are good up to 70 or 80 lbs. You would not need to buy another seat if that helps justify the cost at all :)

The American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) is the one recommending rear-facing until 2 years. Most states have not made that law yet, though i expect its coming We stayed rear-facing until a little over 19 mos, but our LO still doesn't weigh as much as your 11 mo. We switched from the Graco infant seat to the Britax Boulevard 70 CS. Amazon had them on sale and Buy Buy Baby price matched for us and let us use a coupon too! We picked the Boulevard because of the safety features and the fact that it is FAA approved, as we are planning a trip to Italy and LO will have his own seat (just like our trip to Hawaii). With the Boulevard, you will be able to leave your DS rear-facing until he's at least 1 yo, since, as Gamma G pointed out, that's the law in CA. best wishes.

We have my son in an Evenflo Triumph car seat. It is rear-facing until 40 pounds and forward facing until 65 pounds. When we bought it, less than 2 years ago, I think it was either the top or one of the top safety picks on Consumer Reports. And it was less than $150.

Other friends of mine have bought the Diono Radian car seat. I think this one is good if you want a narrower footprint and you have taller kids.

Please, please keep your child rear facing as long as possible. Just because the law says that you can forward face at one year and 20lbs does not mean it is the safest. It has a lot to do with head control, force of impact and many other circumstances. Rear facing has been proven to be safer. There are many different seats out there that are inexpensive and will meet your needs. What you need is a convertable seat. All of these below are great seats of course there are many others.
•Evenflo Momentum
•Evenflo Triumph 65
•1st Years Learning Curve (Lamaze) True Fit/Recline/Premier
•Graco MyRide 65
•Maxi Cosi Pria 70
You can try out seats at many baby stores to see what will fit your child and your car best. You might also find your local car seat tech and ask them to see what would be best for you and your budget. I wouldn't listen to sales people at Babies R Us or similar stores as they do not have the proper training.

I have heard rumors that say they have to be rear facing by law but have never found that to be true when I googled that states laws about car seats.

I know that it is safer for all passengers to be rear facing but the facts are that if your child is too big to be rear facing they are in fact in more danger of the seat flipping up because their weight is not balanced well.

So google them.

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California Highway Patrol page

http://www.chp.ca.gov/community/safeseat.html

"Children under the age of 8 must be secured in a car seat or booster seat in the back seat.

Children under the age of 8 who are 4' 9" or taller may be secured by a safety belt in the back seat."
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http://www.carseatlaws.com/california-car-seat-law

"Rear Facing Car Seat
For a newborn or infant up to 20-35 pounds
Until at least one (1) year of age and twenty (20) pounds in the back seat.
Car Seat may never be facing forward"

"Forward Facing Car Seat
A child must be over one (1) year of age and weight at least twenty (20) pounds
Facing forward only."

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So as you can see. California has laws that kids under 8 years of age should be in some sort of car seat, whether it's rear facing or a booster. There are exceptions though.

They do not "have" to be rear facing after 20 lbs. They do not "have" to be forward facing at a certain age.

If you are about to spend the money to buy a new car seat get the best one that fits your budget, child, and vehicle. I have seen parents get these huge long car seats that would not even fit in a truck. Then they struggle to get them in their smaller cars or vans. I had one given to me when my grandson was a new born. It was a convertible one and very nice. The problem was that it was to tall that I literally had to move the passenger seat all the way up to the dash to get in to sit correctly in the seat.

This car seat was not safe for him. If we had in fact had an accident he would have flipped towards the back since the weight of the car seat was towards the top. It was meant to be a rear facing seat with a shoulder strap holding it next to the seat back.

Your child is big enough and old enough, when he turns 1, to be forward facing. If you choose to keep him rear facing I suggest you do so in a way where his feet are able to fit properly on his seat and the seat is flat to the seat on the bottom.

we also had a 24 lb 11 mo. Graco - some fancy one that is three seats in one? It's forward facing.

While 2 is a bare minimum, but it's best to keep them rear-facing until as close to the 4th birthday as you can. Their heads/necks can snap forward and break, but rear-facing, the spine stays in alignment and gets pushed into the seatback, in the most common type of crash (frontal). Also, rear-facing places the child's head closer to the center of the vehicle, which was actually what kept a friend's 3-year-old alive after being smashed from behind. And note the skeleton bones are a lot stronger by age 4, to withstand forward-facing better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKIeExpDLDA

Above is a 30 second crash test showing forward facing vs. rear-facing.

You can buy a Cosco APT at Target for $50 or less and rear-face to 40 lbs. or until outgrown by height. Many seats on the market will get you to age 3. The Diono will likely get you to 4 or 5 rear-facing. The Britax you mention got us to 3.5, though of course all kids are different. It's a very easy to use seat.

Good luck with your carseat! A rear-facing seat does "flip-up." It rebounds into the seat. That's normal and expected, and it could save a child's life. That's the physics of a crash. You don't want the child absorbing the crash, but the car and the seat. A rear-facing seat will do this quite well.