Next Car Seat - Kew Gardens,NY

My DD has a Marathon now. I plan to buy her a Britax Frontier as her next seat. What is he in now?

FWIW, I RF DD in the Marathon til she was 4.5. She's still only about 36lbs, but has long legs. She just crossed them.

Britax Frontier. And don't go the cheaper route and get the Graco Nautilus. I have one, my sister has the other and the Britax rules as usual.

Britax are very safe carseats! I had two for our cars with our first and will be continuing them for our baby. She could still fit in it over a year ago, but we graduated to a booster seat. She just turned seven, too. They are wonderful!

We have the Sunshine Kids (now Diono) Radian. My 4.5 year old is 44 pounds and 44 inches as of her last checkup in September and she can still wear the 5pt harness. It does convert to a booster when we need to change her over to that. My almost 10 year old uses a Sunshine Kids Monterey booster and will until he reaches 4'9". My 12 year old outgrew the need for a booster a little bit ago but also used a Monterey booster from Sunshine Kids.
You should keep a child in a 5pt harness until they are *at least* 40 lbs and 4 years old. This is a minimum, it's better and safer if you can leave them in the 5 pt longer than that.

I also recommend a Britax. We have Frontier 85s and they are excellent seats. Before that, we had Graco Nautilus seats (they were replaced by the Britax seats after a car accident). The Nautilus was ok, but the Frontier is deeper and more comfortable. They are super heavy but we don't move them from car to car.

Britax. He is not that big and should do fine in the Five point harness. My granddaughter is 16 months and 34 inches tall. So you son should be good in Britax Frontier for a while!

W put the kids in boosters when they got this big. Usually at 3. Then they used the same car seat for the rest of their time. In Oklahoma they can go without a car seat at 6. So a booster worked for us.

Depends on what car seat you have now. My DD rode her convertible until she was almost 6 and 45" and 45 lbs. We had an Evenflow Triumph that was rated up to 65 lbs... unless you have an older model convertible that only goes up to 40 lbs, I bet you still have some life left in your current seat.

If your child still fits in his seat there is no reason whatsoever to buy a new one. Personally I would wait until he is old enough for a high back booster, that way you don't spend an arm and a leg on a harnessed booster and can be sure that it's the last seat to buy. We have a Recaro Vivo for one of our cars and love it.

On the other hand if you have $300 to spare, get a Britax Frontier... you'll have the harness until 85 lbs and a belt positioning booster until 120 lbs. But it is a monster of a seat, it is NOT travel friendly at all, does NOT switch well between cars and it is heavy and big. We also have one of these because one of our convertibles only went up to 40 lbs... but I was happy our other convertible lasted as long as it did and we didn't have to get another one of these.

Good luck.

I'd rear-face a 3 YO with those stats if he/she fits the seat.

But if it's a FF only seat, I'd look at Britax Frontier 90 or Graco Nautilus or Recaro Prosport, The Frontier can harness up to age 8 for most kids. It's the tallest on the market; very decent. And then it turns into a booster.

I would not stop using the booster until at least age 10 ...whenever they fit the belt and 5 step. Could be more or less.The actual laws won't keep kids ideally safe.

I love love love the sunshine kids radian, now diono radian. I've used them with 4 kids. My 4 year old is still in it and will be for a long time. The other 3 got out of them around 5.5 but only because the older model did not convert to a booster. The max height is quite high, they go up to 80 lbs I think, and they are not bulky.

Get the Britax Frontier. She meets the minimum requirements and it has a max of something like 90 lbs. They can sit harnessed for a long time, then it converts to a high back and/or a backless booster. It is a great seat and very comfortable. It is a pain in the neck to install, but once it's in, it's great.

My son is 6, weighing over 50 lbs and about 48" tall and he still fits very comfortably in this seat. He has plenty of room to grow in the seat and he is still using the five point harness.

If you want a similar, but less expensive, seat, look into the Graco Nautilus. It's the same type of seat but, according to my son, not quite as comfortable (we have one in my husband's car).

My daughter also just turned 3 and is 36.5" tall (but only 29 lbs). I would never consider putting her into a booster rather than a harness. My son uses one when he rides with friends and the kids can move around so much in them. A little one is definitely not ready. The Frontier is worth the investment, as it will last you until you're done with car seats for good.

If you are FF (I assume he is growing out of a RF seat), I'd look at the Britax Frontier or the Evenflo Securekid. I bought the Securekid 400 for DS. It is half the price of the Frontier, and hands down the easiest install I have ever done. Starts as a 5 point harnessed seat FF, then converts to a high back booster after that.

I recommend the Britax Frontier as well. My son is six and still in it.

Do you mean car seat or booster seat?

Here's a good reference site for info.:
http://www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS/

I love our britax frontier for our 3 yr dd. I like britax overall. Diapers.com frequently does 20% off britax