Booster--are we ready?

[em_jon98]

***Cross-posted over on the Baby Board.***

Lindsey, amazingly enough at just over three years old and about 36 1/2", is nearing the end of the road in her Evenflo Triumph. Her head is sitting so that the mid-point of her ears are about level with the top of the seat. I'm beginning to think she has a longer torso, as she only has a little over a inch to go for her head to hit the top of the Marathon in my car, and she is mostly wearing size four shirts right now.

So, we need to get a new seat for DH's car, pretty pronto I'm thinking. As we live in one of the states that requires kids to be in seats until age 8 (we like this, I'm not complaining,) I'm thinking that we might want to go with a booster rather than another convertable.

So, how do we decide if we are ready? And, should I look for a booster with a harness for right now, to remove later (I think she is just about 30 pounds, so is probably pushing the lower end of the weight limits for most BPB's?) She sits in her seat without any compliant, buckles the chest clip all by herself and is very pround of her ability to do so ("I can buckle myself in all by myself Mommy!",) and understands that she needs to be in her seat to stay safe (we have had several conversations about why she is too small to be in a regular seat with a seat belt, including a driveway, parked car demo on how she fits into a regular seat with a seat belt, or rather, doesn't, lol ;).) So, my thought is that she might be okay in a BPB, but I'm not really sure what constitues being "mature" enough for a toddler/young child to be in a BPB versus a booster with a harness??? Can I get a tech or two (Julie, Heather?) to chime in here and help me out a bit?

Also, I have done no research whatsoever on boosters as I thought we were a least a year away from this, so any help with brands and models would be good. Although I'm still peeved at Britax over they way they acted as a company on the Marathon release, I'm still convinced they sell some of the safest seats on the market because of the ease of use (anyone can get them in properly without a huge fuss,) but I'm not adverse to any other brand. My DH loves his Triumph, even though I think it is kind of quirky. I know the Graco TurboBoosters get mentioned frequently, and I saw a Compass when I was browsing at Target the other day and thought it looked pretty nice. However, I really have no clue on booster models other than what looks and feels nice to the inital touch, so any help would be gladly accepted :).

ETA: Lindsey doesn't ride in Dad's car very much since I have been home on medical leave for the last year and don't expect to be able to return to work for another six months to one year. So, this is also a seat that will probably see very infrequent use in that time period. Mostly, trips a few blocks or less to the grocery, park, etc., on one day a week. When we go somewhere as a family, which is most of the time she goes anywhere, we take my car, which has a Marathon that will stay until she outgrows it (hopefully we get at least another year or two out of it, but with the height issue, lol ;)....)

Thanks!

[Joni]

Since she's about 36.5 inches I'd go for a combo booster with a 5 pt harness. Evenflo has the Generation/Bolero that are 5 pt to 40 lbs or 44", their harness height is about 1 inch lower than the Marathon and after they outgrow the harness, the seats can be used as a BPB. Evenflo has several combo's that I like but the two I mentioned turn into growing BPB like the Graco and Compass that you mentioned. They sell for about $100 at Target/Walmart etc and are pretty nice seats. My daughter is similarly built. She's 39 inches and 30 lbs and in an Evenflo Chase. She has about 1 inch left in the harness. The two I mentioned weren't out when I had to upgrade, or I would have purchased one of those. When dd was about that height, she was able to be in the middle harness slot for a while. I like the seats a lot and they work well as a bpb later.
Another option is the Graco Cargo seats with a front adjuster. They have the same harness specs but have EPS foam like Britax. They don't work as well as bpb because they don't have the open loop design but are great seats as well. If you have a BRU or TRU near by, try them both out in your car and with your daughter to see which one works best. Since she's so light and still has some room to grow height wise I'd stay with a harness for a while longer.
Usually a child is ready for a booster around 4. Sometimes you have no other choice but if you do have a choice, I'd stay harnessed a while longer.
JONI
CPST

[hjdong]

Just a note, we jsut went through the same thing. Joni's suggestions were very ehlpful. DS really preferred the Evenflo because he sat a lot lower in the Graco. He was also coming out of a Britax and while he's a little bit taller (37.5"), he's only in the middle slot in the Evenflo, so he has a lot of growing room in the Evenflo to still be harnessed.

Good luck.

[em_jon98]

I'll check out those Evenflo seats at BRU (hopefully they will have them...Target did not and actually had very few seats at all...a pretty empty car seat aisle, lol ;-0.)

I would like to keep her harnessed as well, but I'm afraid with her height, we are running out of options other than a BPB, or buying another Marathon now and then a BPB in a year or so. While I wouldn't deny her anything if that was the right thing to do, I just cannot afford to shell out $200 for another Marathon knowing that I am only going to get a year or two of use out of it and then have to buy two more seats (one to replace each of the Marathons.) And, since someone brought it up over on the other board, I don't think the Husky is really an option for her, since she is so thin and would probably just be dwarfed by the seat, otherwise I would go that route. Our current financial situation doesn't dicatate that we can really afford that, so I would like to buy her a seat for DH's car now that is going to last. Also, keep in mind that this is a very lightly used seat, and for the most part she is in a Marathon in my car.

Thanks!

[em_jon98]

Okay, we stopped at Target after gymnastics, and they actually had more seats in, including an Evenflo Generations and a Chase, and a Graco Platinum Cargo.

I immediately eliminated the Chase...I'm sure it is fine, but IMHO, the extra $40 for the Generations is money well spent. It was a really nice seat...very plush and the harness works exactly like the Triumph harness, which will make DH happy. It was right next to the Graco Platinum Cargo, and I had her sit in both. She liked the Generations better, and so did I (she was having a ball with the arm rests...it was pretty cute, lol ;).)

I didn't really like the Platinum Cargo either. It seemed to be a "shorter" and narrower seat (it looked like an booster version of the Graco ComfortSport, with the BPB adjuster thingies attached to the top of the seat, and I, honestly, just was not impressed with that seat when we were convertible shopping about three years ago and it was new to the market.) but that may have just been my perspective, and just wasn't as plush. I worry about having a shorter and narrower seat and trying to have it last to age eight. I like the EPS foam, and this is missing in the Evenflo seat, but other than that there wasn't a lot to draw me to the Cargo.

So, I think I have just a few questions:
1) What are the differences between the Generations and the Bolero seat (Target didn't have the Bolero, but I'm assuming BRU will) and is there any reason why I might want one over the other in our specific situation?

2) For Joni and any of the other techs, how much does it matter that the Evenflo seats are missing the EPS foam? I always thought this was pretty important for shock protection, but there are so many good seats on the market without that I'm starting to wonder if it makes that big of a difference. Of course, our Marathon and our Triumph have EPS foam, so I'm a little leary of buying a seat without it but I just don't think the Cargo, even though it does have the foam, is as nice of a seat as the Generation, without the foam? Is it really that big of a deal?

3) What am I missing on the Evenflo? It seems to be the perfect seat for us...harness and the height adjustable BPB, nice padding, same (and familiar) harness adjuster as the Triumph. Is there any other seat I might want to consider? I seem to be drawn, naturally in my case, to Britax, but they don't seem to have the right seat for us right now unless she is ready for a BPB and then the Parkway would be okay, especially with it's nice head support. So, am I missing a potential issue with the Evenflo, or some quirky thing that other people have noticed that I'm not noticing?

Thanks!

[Joni]

I think the only difference between the Generation and the Bolero is one has a nap bar. I think Walmart has one and Target has the other. As far as the EPS foam, it is nice but the Evenflo seats are very safe without it. I too went back and forth between the Evenflo Chase (they didn't have Bolero) at the time and the Graco Cargo seat and the Evenflo seat won, despite not having the EPS foam. I think Graco and Britax are ahead of the game and I predict all manufacturers will have EPS foam soon. I too was turned off by the belt guides in the Graco's. I really like the design of the Bolero/Generation because it works like the Turbo booster and "grows" after being a harnessed seat. I think most kids make it to close to 40 lbs or at least 4 years in the Evenflo seats. I've even heard of a few kids starting kindergarten in the Chase model still harnessed.
JONI CPST