Booster Seat

[ashleyst12]

Hello Peoples,
I need some help. My daughter is 22 mths old and growing like a weed. We currently have her in the Fisher Price Safe Embrace car seat which she is quickly out growing. She weighs about 32 lbs and is about 35" tall (I am 6'7" so you can see where she gets her height from!!!). Question is, she is out growing the car seat fast and will be moving into a booster seat but, since this is our first child, we have no clue on where to start in our search for booster seats. Anyone have any ideas/recommendations????

Thanks in advance,
Rob

[momathome]

Given how young your dd is, you may want to consider a bigger carseat instead of a booster. The Britax Marathon is a taller convertible with a 65lb weight limit and the Britax Huskey is even bigger, harnessing kids up to 80lbs. Babycatalog.com has both of these seats for reasonable prices, although I would recomend checking these out in person first to make sure they will fit in your car - the Huskey in particular is a very large seat. The Right Start Store has both of these seats on display. Good luck!
-Lauren

[Joolsplus2]

Hi! There are some pretty decent harnessed booster/combo seats available, but what it sounds like you may really need and will get the most use out of, is a Britax Husky (named after the large, loyal Alaskan dog...NOT the big kid jeans at Sears! lol).

"Regular" combo seats have harness slots that are about 17 inches, and I think the slots in your current seat are about 15.5 inches (right?), so you won't have a ton of growing room. Also, "regular" seats only harness up to 40 pounds, which it sounds like she may hit well before she's mature enough to use just the vehicle belt to restrain her (kids should be at least age 4, preferably 5, before they use just a belt-positioning booster, so you need a seat that will keep her harnessed another 2.5-3 years or more).

The Husky has top slots at 21 inches, and can be used harnessed to 80 pounds. It is very large, but if you aren't trying to fit 3 seats in the back of a sedan, then it fits most cars just fine (I have my 6 yo in one in a toyota prius!). Now, harnessing to 80 pounds and age 10 is probably overkill, since boosters alone are quite safe for kids over 5, but you will have a good time "cushion", where you won't feel you are forcing her to use a booster before she's ready, and you won't have to worry about her outgrowing the seat.
It's a very high quality seat, and I find it easy to install very tight, very quickly (though I don't like to move it much, it's huge, lol).

Anyway, the other seats are all fine, and if your budget is stretched a bit thin at the moment, I really won't hesitate to recommend and of them. The bottom half of the page has some top picks and what to look for in a combo seat http://www.car-safety.org/carseats.html and here's the Husky http://www.britaxusa.com/products.cfm?action=ShowProduct&pro_id=B42FE61E-C8E5-4589-95635E99E566A234 and here's pictures of all sizes of kids in the Super Elite (old Husky, same seat, different cover) http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/terib/se2.html
Hope that helps!