Belt postitioning booster overseas

[Joann]

My daughter will be 3 in August 2002, the same month our second child is due. I sold my infant seat awhile back anticipating the new LATCH/tether system regulations having never been happy with the fit of our old infant seat. Now I am stuck with our Britax RA and although very happy with it, need to move my daughter into a booster so I can use the RA for the new baby. I am disgusted with the car seat manufacturers who are waiting until the last minute to update their seats to comply with the new LATCH/Tether regulations.
To further complicate matters we are currently stationed in southern Italy with the US Navy serving NATO and I am having a hard time with buying a booster on the local economy. The language barrier combined with the lack of car seat use amoung the local community makes me leary of buying a car seat here. I had thought I decided on the Jupiter Komfort Kruiser but due to the way it is packaged I can't get it delivered to my military address for less than $120! Not sure how they have packaged the damn thing because we just had 2 tires shipped for less than $20. I also can't seem to get good information on how the adult belt is threaded. I thought it was best to have free movement of the adult belt to allow it to properly protect in a crash? I like the Britax bpb's but I wish they had more padding, side protection and features for the money.
So back to the imports and I guess my real question....
Does anybody have information on some of the European boosters that might be available to me? I think I can get MaxiCosi if I look hard enough, then again people drive with their infants in their laps (actually drive the car with the infant between them and the steering wheel) here! I have seen a couple of brands that I am unfamiliar with in a specialty baby store here. Any suggestions?
Joann

[tobymc]

Hi Joanne.

I'm not sure what to recommend. If you were here, I'd recommend a combo seat, like the Evenflo Express. Or perhaps I'd suggest an infant seat for the new baby, which will tide you over long enough that your daughter will be 3 1/2 and more ready to go right to a belt positioning booster.

The Britax Roadster might be a good choice for you. It has nice padding. It does require that you have head rests for later on, but gives nice head support now.

I'm just not up on non-US seats. And if you are planning to return to the US and use the booster here, you'll want to get a US one. But perhaps you could get an infant seat locally, giving you time to get a US booster next spring.

[Joann]

Thanks for the info. I don't really want to get an infant seat just a month or so before the new models are available and really like our Britax RA better than most infant seats anyway because it tethers in the rear facing position and seems much more secure than the infant seat with base ever did. I had heard that most of the booster combos weren't very good (or is that old consumer reports info?) My almost 3 year old daughter is 40 lbs and tall for her age I had thought that was the max for the 5 point belt so she would be in the adult belt now anyway? The 5 point seems more secure of course but they seem to all have weight limits of 40 lbs. She has also been great about sitting behind the belt like we have told her but I will use the locking feature on our seat belts if she gets too squirmy. Is there any other reason to wait until 3 1/2 yrs for a bpb?
Anyway, found a great German made booster that meets all the EU requirments and works just like consumer reports and others say it should, not allowing belt slack, slouching, belt is across her lap and not her belly etc. Actually was a great booster seat. BUT... Also found that the cost for shipping the Jupiter booster was only high due to shippers not being educated in FPO shipping regs. So we seem to have things covered in time for our newest addition and we are now all very happy with the Komfor Kruiser.
Joann