best booster for occasional use?

[LMO]

My 3 1/2 year old son (40 lbs, 42 in) rides only in his Husky, which stays in mom's car all of the time. I'd like to get a booster for the following uses:

~ keep in dad's car for occasional trips out with him
~ to take with us when we travel by air (maybe once or twice a year)
~ to have on hand for occasional car pools, outings with friends, etc.

It's been a while since I've been in the car seat market... what looks good?

Thanks,
Laura

[Joolsplus2]

The Britax Parkway or Graco Turbo are seats that fit younger kids very well. The Turbo can be broken down to be backless (and packable in a regular duffel bag for air travel), but the Parkway fits in a carseat bag for travel, is light, stands alone (handy when you pop it out of the car onto the garage floor), and has no armrests to confuse carseat novices (I love the Turbo, but hate how even parents put the seatbelt wrong on the armrests...obviously that can be educated, but I'm all about simplicity, lol).

The Compass B500 is nice, too, but it's quite wide and rather short, so might not fit as well or last you as long as you'd like...it's also poor for sleep support for younger kids.

But those are all great and very safe if he sits properly in them.

The Cosco Apex will be out in a month or so, if you want to consider a higher harness weight seat (it goes to 65 pounds harnessed, but is smaller than the husky, and can be used as a booster to 100 pounds later).

:)

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[LMO]

Thanks, Julie. This is very helpful.

Around what age can we go with a BACKLESS booster? Just curious as I saw the backless Graco Turbo (just the seat) for sale in Target today...

[Joolsplus2]

Basically when they meet the height/age/weight requirements, they can go backless. But highbacks provide some extra side impact protection and sleep support that some kids never outgrow the need for.

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[LMO]

Oh, yes... sleep support. I didn't even think of that.

Thanks again for all your help!
Laura