Need help selecting a convertible car seat

[erv917]

Hi all,

I am in the market for a convertible car seat for my nearly 9 month old daughter. We currently have a Graco Safe Seat 1, which still fits her just fine and I expect will continue to for several months to come. However, since it's simply too heavy to carry it around anymore, I think it's time to start using that as a "fixed" seat in one of our cars and move on to a convertible in the other.

We actually have a Britax Roundabout (new and in the box), but I'm concerned that that may not be the best choice and am considering exchanging it. My daughter's on the bigger side (75th percentile for height and weight), and it seems like the Roundabout might not provide us with all that much time beyond what the Safe Seat will give. Does anyone know if one of the bigger Britaxes (i.e Marathon) would work in my car (an 04 Subaru Forester) rear facing? The safe seat just barely fits, so I am concerned that many seats would be too big RF. Anyone have any recommendations of seats that might work well for us? Ideally, it would be a seat that's available at Babies R Us, since that's where we'll be returning the Roundabout and getting a store credit.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Liz

P.S. Also, how important/worthwhile is it to get a seat with side impact protection?

[niccig]

I would exchange the Roundabout.

As a replacement, I would look at another Britax, a MA, DC or BV. Older babies can be more upright when RF, they don't need the full 45 degree angle of an infant seat. So you can put the seat in more upright and give more room to the passenger.

You have some time, so I would wait for a couple of months. There is a new seat coming out called the Compass True Fit. It has an optional removable headrest for RF until 22lbs, then once you child is 22lbs you need to put the headrest on to keep them RF. It depends how close your DD already is to 22lbs to see if this optional headrest will be of any use.

Just an FYI, you want to RF for longer than 1 yo and 20lbs. It's much safer to RF to the limits of the seat. My DS is nearly 3yo, 30lbs and still RF. There's information on this in the carseat 101 thread at the top of the page.

Or if you can't wait. Keep the safeseat in the subaru (it fits fine now) and put a MA/DC/BV in your other car if it has more room. Then when the safeseat is outgrown, you can work out what seat to get then.

I wouldn't get a Recaro Como or Signo for the subaru forrester. We have one in a Prius and because of the Como's taller base (taller than a MA) it can be cramped getting DS out of the car. He's old enough to climb in by himself, but if I had to lift him into the Como, I would hit his head every time on the top of the door. It's annoying enough as it is, but my DS will FF in about 6 months, so I put up with it until then.

HTH.
Nicci