car seat ?'s for a 2.5 yr old and a 7 yr old

[stacytr]

I don't think I have the energy to research this again as there are so many different options from the last time I did this, so I am hoping some mamas (and dads too) can steer me in the right direction. DH and I realized that DD's carseat (an Evenflo triumph -- DS"s old seat) is about 6 yrs old. I know what the recs are for replacement, but when I went to the Evenflo site and looked it up -- it basically said they should be replaced after 6 yrs because they would have been through multiple families, stickers/manuals might be lost, etc. There was nothing about needing to replace because of age/wear to plastic etc. We live in S CA so no cold extremes and my car is parked in the garage so (except when we are out) mostly not too smokin hot either. $$ is an issue and so I am wondering about replacement. If we do replace, I'd love to keep her RF for as long as possible as she is 2.5 (3 in Oct.) and still a little peanut -- under 25 pounds and I'm not sure of height, but short too. Also I realized that DS who is 7, tall and skinny (about 47" and 45 pounds) has outgrown the 5 pt harness on his Graco CarGo (yes we're very slow! ) We have a Graco backless booster and the CarGo can be a belt positioning booster, but I'm not sure DS can plug in the buckle w/ DD right next to him. So here I am thinking about replacements (and positioning in the car)! Price is an issue for me as is fit in our car (I'm driving a Jetta). When we tried a Marathon way back when, I couldn't see out my window it was so tall (middle position in the back) -- plus at this point the Britax is just out of our budget, and I know DD can be very safe in other seats. So what would you steer me to look at? Additionally complicating matters is the fact that we are looking to replace for both our cars so really need to watch my pennies! I could potentially move DD to DS's CarGo and get a new harnessed seat for DS, but then she'd be FF. Would you just move DS to a regular belt positioning booster or would you get him a different harnessed seat? If you had to choose btwn the 2 is it more important to have DD RF or DS harnessed??

ETA: So I have some specific questions -- What are some good convertible carseats that are shorter in height than the Marathon? (too tall for me to see over!) -- and hopefully well under $200. Did I read correctly that the Graco My ride is similar in overall height to the Marathon? If DD is in DH's car at least 3 days a week would you go for a cheaper car seat for that car, swap them around, or just go for 2 nice ones?
Would you keep a slightly squirrelly 7 yr old who weighs about 44 pounds harnessed or move him to a booster? If he's tall (most of height is in his legs) would the nautilus work for him?

Thank you!!

[mom2binsd]

From all my reading I'll say that keeping the little one RF is more important at this point than harnessing the 7 year old, he should be mature enough to learn how to sit properly in a HBB. There is much more research to back up RF vs FF, but even if you have to FF at least you have made it to 2.5 (but as she's such a peanut you can probably RF quite a while longer which I'd do - and did with my skinny DD).

Now, whether the little one is RF or FF I'd say it's time to get another seat to replace the 6 year old Evenflo. There are a number of seats out there that will last her a long time, some that sit a little lower too to allow you to see better out of the Jetta. Check out the Evenflo Triumph Advance, First Years True Fit, the Graco MyRide, or a Marathon on sale.

The CarGo from what I gather does NOT make a good HBB and he really needs to be in a HBB not using the backless one yet.I'm not a booster expert yet, but I hear good things about the Recaro VIVO (was on sale a lot of places), the Graco Turbo Booster, the Britax Monterey...the most important thing is to make sure the belts fit him correctly/lap belt not too high on the belly but on the hips and shoulder belt not at the neck. And to teach him to stay correctly positioned at all times.

[lorinick]

I would say putting your 7 year old in a HB booster with or without the 5pt. I'm thinking the TF, EFTA are very wide to do that with. What is your price point? Maybe the Britax RA with 40lb weight limit which is being replaced with the RA50. I'm thinking you'll be able to get a good deal on that seat. But the new RA is the same shell as the MA.

[niccig]

For your 2.5 yo, I would look at the Safety First Avenue - you can get it at Sears/Kmart for around $85. My DS is a peanut too. He's 4.5 yo, 35lb and about 40" tall and we have the Avenue's predecessor, the Uptown. He's going to fit until 5 yo in this seat. Your DD should fit that long easily. And it's a narrow seat.

For your 7 year old, I would use a booster. I agree with getting a dedicated booster like the Vivo or the turbo. I don't know much about boosters, others can give you better advice. I thought the Vivo was on sale for around $80 too?

You could move your 2.5 yo to the Cargo. It's FF though, and she's such a little thing. If you could manage two new seats, so your 2.5 yo could RF, that would be ideal.

You didn't say what your budget would be?

You might find that you have to move the children around to do up the booster. You could put them both outboard. If you need a seat spare, does your middle seat have a shoulder/lap belt? You could put the RF child outboard (RF is safest way to ride, so OK to be outboard) and then put your 7 yo in a booster in the center if you have a shoulder/lap belt. You could put the RF seat on the side that won't interfere with the seat belt for the booster.

[stacytr]

I must not have been clear in one of my posts -- I don't need to have three seats as I only have 2 children! What I do need is to have them fit -- preferably next to each other -- DS on the outside and DD in the middle, but I am open to having them both on the outside w/ just a space in the middle if that's the only thing that will work. And I need to be able to see out my back window as I am really short and the Jetta back seat is higher than a lot of other cars (IME). As far as my budget -- we haven't crunched the numbers, but I think we'd like to keep it under $300 (but might be able to go a bit higher depending on what we find) -- easy if we are just buying for her, much more difficult if we are keeping him harnessed and needing to buy a new seat. I'll have to do more reading on the CarGo as a belt positioning booster -- if I recall from my reading before, it can work fine in some cars, but is more difficult in others. Can anyone post a link for me on why I should have DS in a full backed rather than a backless booster? Thank you so much for all your replies!

[niccig]

I must not have been clear in one of my posts -- I don't need to have three seats as I only have 2 children! What I do need is to have them fit -- preferably next to each other -- DS on the outside and DD in the middle, but I am open to having them both on the outside w/ just a space in the middle if that's the only thing that will work. And I need to be able to see out my back window as I am really short and the Jetta back seat is higher than a lot of other cars (IME). As far as my budget -- we haven't crunched the numbers, but I think we'd like to keep it under $300 (but might be able to go a bit higher depending on what we find) -- easy if we are just buying for her, much more difficult if we are keeping him harnessed and needing to buy a new seat. I'll have to do more reading on the CarGo as a belt positioning booster -- if I recall from my reading before, it can work fine in some cars, but is more difficult in others. Can anyone post a link for me on why I should have DS in a full backed rather than a backless booster? Thank you so much for all your replies!

I think the reason why people are suggesting TWO new seats is that the Cargo isn't a good booster, so it isn't the safest option for your 7yo. And your 2.5 yo is really tiny to be Forward Facing in the Cargo - and that might not be the safest option either.

If your budget is $300, you can easily buy two new seats that would fit both children better for less than $300. The avenue is under $100 and a dedicated booster is often around $100-150. I think the Vivo was on sale for around $80.

If you only want to buy ONE new seat, that means one of your children will have to keep using the Cargo. I can't say which would be safest in the Cargo. I'll leave that up to one of the car seat techs to think about the pros/cons of a Cargo booster or a 25lb child Forward Facing.

If you can, I would swap the position of your DD and your DS. The least protected passenger should be in the middle and that is your forward facing DS. Your DD is rear-facing and she's much safer rear-facing, so she can go on the outboard position. Now, if you do put your DD FF and your DS in a booster, I would still swap them as the booster child is less protected than a forward face harnessed child. And that might make doing the seatbelt buckle up easier if your DD's seat isn't on the side that also has the seatbelt buckle for your DS.

ETA. Some of us have more seats than children. A friend doesn't and she got stuck when her DH went to work and didn't' take the infant seat out of the car. She couldn't drive her older son to school. If you're in car accident and can't use the seats. If there's some mix-up with daycare pick-ups and the parent with the car seat didn't leave it at school/day care. So, if you did decide to get 2 new seats, don't worry you will use your Cargo. I've used our extra seat 2-3 times a month. It's the Avenue, so it was cheap and it gets lots of use when I carpool with DS's friends.

[stacytr]

I think the reason why people are suggesting TWO new seats is that the Cargo isn't a good booster, so it isn't the safest option for your 7yo. And your 2.5 yo is really tiny to be Forward Facing in the Cargo - and that might not be the safest option either.

If your budget is $300, you can easily buy two new seats that would fit both children better for less than $300. The avenue is under $100 and a dedicated booster is often around $100-150. I think the Vivo was on sale for around $80.

If you only want to buy ONE new seat, that means one of your children will have to keep using the Cargo. I can't say which would be safest in the Cargo. I'll leave that up to one of the car seat techs to think about the pros/cons of a Cargo booster or a 25lb child Forward Facing.

If you can, I would swap the position of your DD and your DS. The least protected passenger should be in the middle and that is your forward facing DS. Your DD is rear-facing and she's much safer rear-facing, so she can go on the outboard position. Now, if you do put your DD FF and your DS in a booster, I would still swap them as the booster child is less protected than a forward face harnessed child. And that might make doing the seatbelt buckle up easier if your DD's seat isn't on the side that also has the seatbelt buckle for your DS.

Actually a few people were asking about if I needed 3 seats to fit across or if I needed a spare seat so that's why I was clarifying. And I totally get that they are suggesting I get 2 new seats -- one for each kiddo -- but we need to buy for 2 cars -- so that's potentially 4 new seats! DH either takes or picks up DS from school every day -- and sometimes he meets me at the park if I need to work early, and we use his car on the weekends (newer/nicer) so we need to upgrade the seats in both our cars -- that's why I was worried about how pricey this might get! Before we were always just doing it for one child -- and then DD used DS's old seats. Now that we are in an expired Evenflo and DS is out of the CarGo as a harnessed seat -- whew -- we just weren't planning for this -- not on our radar at all (I really need to start getting more sleep!)
And thank you for the info on switching DD and DS -- I just always assumed that the younger takes the middle, but what you are saying makes perfect sense.

[niccig]

Actually a few people were asking about if I needed 3 seats to fit across or if I needed a spare seat so that's why I was clarifying. And I totally get that they are suggesting I get 2 new seats -- one for each kiddo -- but we need to buy for 2 cars -- so that's potentially 4 new seats! DH either takes or picks up DS from school every day -- and sometimes he meets me at the park if I need to work early, and we use his car on the weekends (newer/nicer) so we need to upgrade the seats in both our cars -- that's why I was worried about how pricey this might get! Before we were always just doing it for one child -- and then DD used DS's old seats. Now that we are in an expired Evenflo and DS is out of the CarGo as a harnessed seat -- whew -- we just weren't planning for this -- not on our radar at all (I really need to start getting more sleep!)
And thank you for the info on switching DD and DS -- I just always assumed that the younger takes the middle, but what you are saying makes perfect sense.

Sorry. I was confused. And I didn't realise you were needing to replace 4 seats. So you have 2 Evenflos and 2 Cargos in both cars? That gets more complicated. Are both Evenflos expired as of now? Did you check the date of manufacture on the seat? I ask because sometimes the seats expire in December, and that can give you a couple of extra months and let you replace those then.

Do both children ride equally in both cars? One option for your 2yo is teh Cosco Scenera - it's about $45-50 not as padded as the Avenue but it's a good seat. Many people use it as a 2nd seat. Your DD is a peanut, like my DS, she would get lots of use out of it.

Financially, keeping the cargo inuse would be go, but I'm just not sure if it's the best for your DC. Hopefully some of the techs will chime in and help you out with suggestions.

[stacytr]

Sorry. I was confused. And I didn't realise you were needing to replace 4 seats. So you have 2 Evenflos and 2 Cargos in both cars? That gets more complicated. Are both Evenflos expired as of now? Did you check the date of manufacture on the seat? I ask because sometimes the seats expire in December, and that can give you a couple of extra months and let you replace those then.

Do both children ride equally in both cars? One option for your 2yo is teh Cosco Scenera - it's about $45-50 not as padded as the Avenue but it's a good seat. Many people use it as a 2nd seat. Your DD is a peanut, like my DS, she would get lots of use out of it.

Financially, keeping the cargo inuse would be go, but I'm just not sure if it's the best for your DC. Hopefully some of the techs will chime in and help you out with suggestions.

Yep, each car has an Evenflo and a CarGo. I can't find the sticker for DOM on the Evenflo, so I have asked DH to look for it -- but when we bought the evenflo, we bought 2, so I'm assuming if one is expired, they are both expired. During the week, they are probably in my car more, but on the weekend it's always DH's car (and any longer trip is in his car too). Sigh -- this is requiring just a bit too much brainpower for me right now!

[niccig]

I can't find the sticker for DOM on the Evenflo, so I have asked DH to look for it -- but when we bought the evenflo, we bought 2, so I'm assuming if one is expired, they are both expired.

The date of manufacture might be on a sticker or they might be raised writing on the seat that says "do not use after X date" - the raised writing is part of the plastic shell, so you have to really look for it. If it's on a sticker, it'll be small writing. Often it's on the side or the back of the seat, or under the bottom part.

Don't stress about it, you'll work it out. Wait for the techs to chime in with their suggestions.