Safe, Inexpensive seat for travel

[mamaturk]

I'm looking for a seat to bring away on vacation with us. We will be traveling with my IL's, one of which is handicapped, So we'll be lugging all of our luggage plus helping out with theirs. Anyway... can anyone recommend a lightweight, safe and inexpensive seat for my DD who is 2yrs old and weighs about 33 lbs (feel like a bad mama, but cannot remember how tall she is, but a big girl). We have the marathon but it is just so darn heavy. Can she use booster-style seats yet? Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!
ETA: We will be flying so it needs to be approved for flight. Thanks!

[Momof3Labs]

She's way, way too young for a booster seat (5-6 years old is a better age). And you can't use a booster on the airplane. How about a Cosco Scenera? Not sure if it will work if she's super-tall, so you'll have to check that out. Just be sure to get the 5pt harness version and not the overhead shield version. If you want more info on this seat, do a search - it's recommended a lot!

[momtoB]

Well she could still fit rear-facing in the Scenera she is almost at the limit which is 35lbs. Then she would only be able to use the seat f/fing until 40lbs or her shoulders are past the top slots on the seat which I believe is 20" but don't take my word for it - it's been a while since I measured! Rear-facing is the safest but that is something only you can decide how important that is to you... Since her primary seat is a Britax and they only r/f to 33lbs I am sure you've already turned her around in her primary seat however my ds has ridden both ways (f/fing in grandma's car - this was for her convenience unfortunately) and r/fing in my car and never complained about switching back and forth.

You might look into getting a good combo seat that harnesses to 40lbs and then converts to a bpb. I am looking at the Evenflo Bolero for my ds. I like the fact that it has nice open slots for the belt to go through when it's in booster mode. If you think she'll outgrow the 40lb weight limit before she's 4yrs old, then you might want to look into the Cosco Apex which harnesses to 65lbs. I'm not sure it's approved for airline use so check on that first. Also you have to think of this as a backless booster when you use it since the headrest portion of the seat is only for comfort and doesn't provide any extra protection. She could only use it until her ears reach to top of the back of the car seat. As long as the car has a seat w/headrest that fully supports the back of this car seat it's not a problem. There are other threads on this board about that if you do a search on the seat you'll find them.

hth!

ETA: also you could take your MA there is a product called the Gogo Kidz Cart that makes Britax seats into a carseat/stroller combo kind of like a sit-and-stroll ($90). http://www.growingupkids.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=785

A less expensive option would be to strap the seat onto the Samsonite Micro-mover cart with bungie cords: http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/Products.aspx?DeptID=0&CatID=025919&Grptyp=PRD&ItemId=0ae8e69

hth!