another car booster seat question...

[mclark]

Hello! I've tried to do homework before asking the same question again, but I still feel confused about the options. My daughter is 3yo and 35lbs and close to outgrowing in height her Britax RA. We are expecting another child in the fall. My thought was to move my daughter into another seat and then have the RA for the baby. My question is what seat should be next for my DD?

The best options seem to be the Britax marathon or husky or the graco platinum cargo. What would you say are the pros and cons for each of these seats? Can you use the 5 pt harness in the cargo past 40lbs, or at that point do you have to switch to the booster mode? Any thoughts about the recent report in Consumer Reports about the marathon?

Thanks so much for the help!

Maura

[egoldber]

The Cargo can only be used to 40 pounds as a harnessed seat. After that you have to use it as a booster.

The Husky is quite a bit bigger than the MA. It also cannot be used in an airplane seat and must be checked if that is an issue. I recently bought a MA to replace my DD's RA (she is 3 1/2, 38" and about 35 pounds). So far I really like it. My line of reasoning was that when our new baby outgrows the RA, she will then use DD#1's MA, and at that time there will undoubtedly be something new/better on the market for DD#1.

In addition to the MA and Husky, you may want to also consider the other similar Britax seats, like the Wizard, the Boulevard and the Decathlon. The Decathlon is like an MA with an RA-type harness adjusted. The Decathlon and Boulevard are currently BRU exclusives.

The CR issues about the MA pertained to use of the LATCH system while RF only, and even then there is quite a bit of disagreement among the CPS techs as to the validity of their concern.

HTH,