Two Questions in One - Britax and Storage for Toddler's Room

Updated on April 29, 2010
J.P. asks from Meridian, ID
6 answers

Rather than try to manage two questions, I thought I would ask them both in one.

1. I have the Britax Boulevard CS for my 2 yo. He is forward facing, and I thought that this seat might last until he was big enough to go into a booster (the limit is 65 pounds). When I went to the hospital for a car seat check (to add the infant one back in), I was again told where the shoulder straps need to be (at or above the shoulder level), but this time I was told why - spinal compression during an accident. I double checked my son when I got him back into the seat and the strap seems to be just below the shoulder. The knobs won't let me raise the straps any higher either. I looked on Britax.com, which wasn't very helpful, other than to show me that I still had the infant pillow in. LOL. This morning I removed that, and it helped, slightly. My worry is that my son is quickly going to outgrow this little bit of space in the next few months, and I will have to invest in, yet another, carseat. Does anyone have any experience with this carseat? When did you have to go to the next style? I know that a 2 year old is NOT ready for a booster, and won't put him in one, but I really don't want to have to go through a new, expensive carseat every year either. His safety is all I will consider, but I would like to know, if you did have to move your child up, what got you through till they were ready for the booster?

2. My son has a bunch of books and other toys that are currently stored on our sofa table. We are moving him to a big boy room, and would like him to have some storage for this type of stuff in there. Also, to help us keep the 2 year old toys away from an infant if necessary. I am having trouble finding appropriate storage without spending $$$. I have some cubbies from Lowe's in my craftroom, but the boards are not made with safety in mind and the edges of each board are not rounded, and rather sharp. His changing table is similar to this, and he already has gotten a cut from that when he fell. A friend told me that she got some great cubbies from Target, but it is basically the same thing. She hasn't had a problem with it, as she just thought I was talking about the corners (not the edges), but all kids are different. Does anyone have a suggestion for this type of storage in general, or a cubby system that has kid friendly corners/edges?

Thanks moms!

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So What Happened?

Thank you everyone for your responses. For the Britax, unfortunately my son wasn't with me at the time, so I wasn't able to get their opinion on him. Taking out that infant insert is working for now, and I am hoping that his growth for the next while is in his legs, but I will head back there if/when it concerns me again, and will look into the Frontier, for that next step. I am glad to hear that they have that next step with the 5 point harness.

For the storage, a crib recall and broken oven this weekend, have put that all on hold for the moment, but I appreciate your responses and will look into your suggestions when things loosen up again financially.

Thanks!!

More Answers

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L.C.

answers from Raleigh on

We have Britax Wizard which is identical model to Blvd, just older. Our oldest is 5 with very long torso and the size of the avg 7 year old. Just now we moved the head rest to the very top and his straps are still above his shoulders. The head rest goes about 2 inches above the "body" of the car seat when nob is to the max.
As for storage, what about those storage systems that everyone sells on Craigslist that have coloful plastic containers?we had one of them while back, they have rounded adges and sell for $20-25 on CL

1 mom found this helpful
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S.R.

answers from San Francisco on

I don't have a different suggestion for the storage, we are using the same thing at our house but haven't had any problems.

As for the carseat. We had a boulevard and a round about. Both our kids are tall for their age, our daughter si 1 1/2 and 34", our son is 3 1/2 and is 43". The boulevard was clunkier than the marathon and the knobs were wearing on our seats so I sold the boulevard and kept the marathon for our daughter. Our son could have stayed in the boulevard a bit longer at age 2 1/2 but the buckle between the legs was to tight. We weren't ready for a booster for him either and needed him in a 5 point harness for a while longer but needed something that would accomodate his size better. We bought him the britax frontier. It has the 5pt harness and can be worn up to I think 85 lbs and it also converts to a booster for up to 100 lbs. At 43" he has a long way to go with the 5 pt harness for height and we still can move the buckle between the legs out another 2 inches (its moveable) as he continues to grow. It's heavy but it's been great and I like knowing that this will be his last seat based on the size of it. Our daughter, while tall, is petite (he's 44 lbs and she's 23 lbs), she should be able to get most of the 45 lb max out of the marathon. By then she should be able to have the frontier.

Check out your local babiesrus stores for clearance and/or save your 20% coupons they hand out. Regular price for the frontier is usually $279, I just saw one on clearance for $239. Plus you can get 20% off w/ the coupon. Their clearance is just to get rid of floor models. They don't resell returned car seats and they have all of the pieces and manuals.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.O.

answers from Chicago on

About the booster seat, maybe you can just use the seatbelt? Do you have LATCH in your car? If so, you can LATCH it in to secure the seat, and then use the seatbelt. I think you can use the seatbelt across his lap...but I would contact Britax directly. http://www.britaxusa.com/car-seats 1888-###-###-####

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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

For the carseat. Be sure to have the seat out of the car when you try to adjust it. I have the marathon. The head part will not raise if its strapped into the car.

M.

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T.J.

answers from Seattle on

Did the hospital say whether or not he fit the seat properly? Take him to a fire station, they can check it too. When my infant was ready to use the convertible seat, we moved our three year old to the britax frontier, it s a five point booster up to 80 lbs! I'm not sure of the minimum weight on the frontier since it technically is a booster but you can check on britax's website.

We got some really cute padded storage ottomans at target, they double as seating. No worries about bumping or falling into these! I also really like the three shelf storage things with all the multicolored bins that allow you to separate and easily see toys. We got ours at target too, but I've seen them all over.

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D.H.

answers from Indianapolis on

I can't help with the car seat, never had them when my kids were small,
but I might be able to with the storage.

The foot stool seems to be coming back. Some are square padded boxes with a lid. I would start by looking at those.

If that isn't big enough, you might try Toys R Us and look for toy boxes of different shapes, like baseball shape or something. no edges on something round!
Good Luck!

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