when to switch to a booster?

[mominct2004]

Sorry if this has been covered recently. I'm having trouble searching.

My son is 3 years and 8 months old, around 42 inches and over 35 pounds by my estimate. He is in the Marathon currently, but he complains ALL THE TIME about the crotch strap being too tight. When we put him in the carseat, he often hits his head on the doorframe. DH has been wondering if he needs to move up to a booster, but I have been insisting the carseat is safer.

Amazon has the Parkway on sale today, which got me to thinking about whether we should switch. Or do we just tell him to deal with the tight crotch strap and just duck his head lower when getting in the car?

[Joolsplus2]

I wouldn't ever recommend putting a child in a booster till at least age 5. (So you have at least one vote for your side! yes, harnessing is much safer!). Roomier/lower seats includ the Sunshine Kids Radian 65, Britax Regent, and Safeguard Child Seat (expensive... makes the other two look cheap at least!). The Marathon is quite tight in the crotch, surprisingly, so I think anything else will be an improvement :) (The Evenflo Triumph Advance is also very roomy, but it's high on a base with deep sides, so it won't help much with the head-bonk problem (I remember that so well! I used to have a Marathon and a Regent in a smaller car, and the poor Marathon riding child practically had bruises from climbing into that thing, lol)

:)

[mominct2004]

Thanks for your response. I will check out the others. I think DS is going to drive DH insane with his complaining about the crotch strap. Do you know if the Regent will fit in a Honda CRV (2003)? We also have DD in a Decathalon RF. Will an adult still be able to sit in the back seat with the kids?

[Joolsplus2]

You know...cheapest option would be to see if the furthest out crotch strap on the decathlon is more comfortable (it's further out, and you can switch the covers if they happen to be gender-specific)... I'd try that first, see if you can get some extra time out of the seats you have. (oh, and loosen the harness a bit before you buckle ds in...it's usually easiest and less crotch pinching to have the harness loose when buckling up)
Regent will fit, but it'll be a four seater car :( (Radian will fit, will be reasonably comfortable for that third person...)

[mominct2004]

I'm going to try this now while the kids are at daycare! I'll try to swap covers too so hopefully they won't even notice (I can imagine DS complaining about being in the baby seat). I wish there were somewhere I could see a Regent and Radian in person.

[niccig]

Just thinking..
Is DS hitting his head when you lift him into the seat? Could he climb in himself? My DS is 3yo and RF passenger outboard and he climbs into the car, crawls under his RF seat and then on to the vehicle's seat, and then into his carseat. You didn't say whether DS was outboard or center or where DD's seat is, so I don't know if he could get into the seat on his own. If you DS could do it, he wouldn't hit his head.

Granted, it does take longer to get my DS into the car as he does it himself, but there's no hitting of heads, and as we're in a trying to be independent phase, it's actually faster as there's no tantrum.

[chicagojo]

I just bought a Radian (actually, two of them) sight-unseen and was a bit nervous as well but I LOVE it so far. There are 3 potential positions for the crotch strap so it should be easy to find a good fit. My 30 lb 3 yr 10 month DD has TONS of room to grow. I ordered mine from Target online so if they didn't work out I'd be able to return it to the store and not worry about return shipping. Luckily, though, they've worked out great and are super-easy to install (although the manual doesn't really proceed in a logical order - I'd recommend reading the whole thing first or otherwise you will end up untethering the seat a couple of times to complete steps that need to be completed first, but for some reason are described on later pages of the manual). Good luck!