Toddler Car Seats

You are right that keeping your daughter in a five point harness for as long as possible is much safer. I don't know what you budget is, but there are a few seats that will harness her to 65 or even 80 pounds depending on her torso height and how she grows. To find her torso height, have her sit up straight on the floor against a wall. Use a pencil to mark the wall at the top of her shoulder. The measurement from the floor to your mark is her torso height. You can take your measuring tape with you and measure the height of the highest harness slots in different seats. The harness has to be in slots at or above her shoulder (the Radian seats are an exception to this - they allow shoulder to be over the top slots as long as the tips of the ears do not go above the top of the shell). The higher the top slots, the longer she will fit in the seat.

I don't know what your budget is, but there are several seats that will keep her harnessed to 65 or even 80 pounds and last her several years. I have my 14 month old in a Radian80 by Sunshine Kids and I love it. The top slots are 18" and it can harness to 80 pounds. My 9 year old still fits in the harness, but just barely. This seat has an 8 year life span (most seats expire 6 years from date of manufacture) so my 1 year old will use it until she turns 9. If you have a skinny little light-weight child you could even get a Radian65 that has the same 18" slots and can harness to 65 pounds. These seats are narrow and are the only seats with a steel frame instead of an all plastic shell. They do not have a "base" so they sit low in the vehicle and don't look like "baby seats" to an older child. The Radian80 is $250 (we have the Princess cover and love it!) and the Radian65 is $199.

Britax makes the Regent with 20" top slots that harnesses to 80 pounds, but that seat is huge and requires a top tether. It costs $260.

There is an Apex 65 that harnesses to 65 pounds with 17.5" top slots. Then you can take the harness out and use it as a belt positioning booster to 100 pounds. This seat requires a tall vehicle seat back and can usually be found for $130.

Good luck. Feel free to email me at ____@____.com if I can be of any help. I love car seats!

it is great that you want to keep you're child harnessed longer. there are many options for doing so. like another poster said, you need to measure their torso and that will help you decide but Britax makes the marathon which goes to 65# with top slots of 17.5 inches (so up to a torso of that length), you can find the MA onsale at albeebaby.com right now for $209. Britax also makes the Regent that harnesses to 80# and personally i think that would be the best seat for you to get. Its about $270 and while that is pricy, its totally worth it b/c you could keep your LO harnessed for quite some time in it.

My son is 3; he is 37" tall and about 33 lbs. He is in a seat with 5-point harness that can be switched later to the seatbelt. The manual says he must be 40+ lbs. and 43+" tall to switch to the seatbelt. Depending on your son's height, he could remain in the 5-point harness for a while. Our seat is an Eddie Bauer which we purchased at Sam's. The manual is for Commuter and Ventura, so I'm not sure which one it is. Maybe this helps you...I don't know of any other type of toddler seat.

My daughter is going to be 2 in november and she is pretty small but we found a car seat at walmart that has the 5 point harness and it is supposed to fit them until they are 100 pounds. My daughter weights about 30 pounds maybe. So I figure that she should be able to ride in this seat for a long time. It is made by Evenflo and is called Chase. It cost 59.84 at Walmart. We have had this seat for a couple of months and we love it. Hope this helps you. Babys RUS also has alot to choose from so you might look there too.

my 3 year old is in a booster seat, and he does just fine with it. they have a thing a walmart in the auto section that you can buy and put on the seat belt that will refrain them from undoing the seatbelt. this works for me and it might work for you as well. let me know how it turns out.

We have a Cosco High Back Booster Car Seat that is for 22-40 lbs with the harness & then 40-80 lbs using the seat belt. We haven't made it to 40 lbs yet tho! It has good reviews on Amazon.com. I like to read reviews online from people who have actually used things before I buy it. You could try reading reviews for different car seats on Amazon and other places that have customer reviews.