What to do with my tall 2 year old?

[Tina Moore]

My son just turned two in December and is very tall (38")and weighs 31 pounds. Right now I have him in a Britax Roundabout and LOVE it. However, within the next few months he is going to be too tall for the seat. He's too young to be moved into a booster seat even though he is tall enough and weighs enough for some of the seats on the market (Compass Folding Booster Seat, Britax Starriser Comfy---I know it's been discontinued but it is still available online, Graco TurboBooster and several others).
How important is the age factor in the recommended usage for a booster. If he meets the height and weight recommendation can I put him in a booster?

Tina

[Joolsplus2]

No, he's REALLY too young for a booster.
What you can look for is a seat with taller harness slots, like the Britax Marathon or Wizard or Husky, or the Graco Ultra or Platinum Cargo, or the Evenflo Chase or Vision. Any of those seats will keep him harnessed till he's about 45 inches tall (maybe shorter, but certainly quite a bit longer)
The minimum ages listed for the Turbo and Starriser Comfy (it's back in production, yay!) is 3, and that is the BARE minimum...kids are safer being harnessed until they are at least four, preferably longer if at all possible, because at that point they are mature enough to understand to stay buckled, and when they fall asleep, they are able to stay more upright...littler kids flop right over in boosters, which can be dangerous,as the belt can be far out of position.
I wish I weren't speaking from experience on this matter, but I put my 2.5 yo in a booster at grandma's once or twice, and my 22 mo dd in a booster in Daddy's car a couple times, and it was a nightmare (and my kids were quite mature for their age, and it was still terrible! The unbuckling, and the flopping over...yikes!)

So, what you want to do is make sure that your ds is either just slightly above the harness slots in the plastic shell of the seat (the cover can slip down and make you think he has less growing room than he does), and make sure the tips of his ears aren't at the top of the seatback, and until either of those happens (or he gains a TON of weight and hits 40 pounds, lol), then keep using your wonderful roundabout (it fits some kids till 42 inches...you may yet have a little bit of time in it), and look at those higher harness slot seats I mentioned to see if there's one you really prefer using, that fits in your car, and fits your ds well.

Oh, I just saw that new compass seat yesterday...right after I bought an Evenflo Big Kid, lol...what a cool concept that is for a booster! I prefer the side impact protection of the Britax Bodyguard, but that's certainly not a seat one could travel with or use as a spare in someone else's car very well, lol.
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[stburkett]

I'm having the same dilemma with my almost 3 year old. Although he's not that tall. I would like to move my 6mo old (soon) into his Roundabout, but we have a very narrow car (subaru forester) with a shallow backseat. Do I move the infant...who has outgrown the 26" limit on the Snugride, but is only 14 lb? Do I buy the toddler a combo booster? They just don't seem all that sturdy, but for width reasons, I may need to. Or do I buy another convertible that has higher weight limits, but still is narrow? They need to ride side by side.

Why oh why hasn't Britax filled my niche for a combo booster?

joanne

[Joolsplus2]

Why oh why hasn't Britax filled my niche for a combo booster?

Oh, I know! What's up with this?

They have one in Europe...but I suspect it may not meet one US standard or another, so we can't have it here.

I'd really look at the Graco Ultra/Platinum Cargo...it's quite narrow and the harness quality is higher than most combo seats. The Marathon might work...lots of people can get them next to Roundabouts in a lot of cars...it's wide, but they tend to "mesh" together well...you can try one at babies r us...just leave your license with them and take the seat to your car, I believe, or at another nice baby store, they might have the same sort of "try it first" policy.
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx