Need carseat for 20 month old

[Jennifer626]

Hi!

My DD is 20 months old, about 25 pounds, and short (50% for height). She is RF in my car and DH's car in Graco MyRide seats, and she rides FF in Grandma's car (very occasionally) in a Cosco Scenera.

I'd like to get a carseat for our babysitter's car. It's a sedan (Nissan Maxima or something similar, 2004 ish?). I've only ever done reserach on convertible seats, and I don't know anything at all about forward facing seats. She rides in babysitter's car very rarely, and it's about a 10 minute drive from the daycare to our house.

I'm just tired of taking my seat out and installing it in her car, it would be really easy if we could just leave one in her car. So looking for a basic, no frills, forward facing carseat. I'd like for it to be very easy to adjust, so she gets the straps good and tight around DD.

Should I just get another Scenera? It doesn't need to be RF, and I'd love a seat with a high weight limit, so we could just leave this seat in the babysitter's car until DD is 5.

Suggestions for other seats?

Thanks!

[jjordan]

Welcome to the carseat forum! :)

A few things...

First, the minimum height for forward facing in a scenera is 34". If your daughter is not yet 34" tall, then the scenera MUST be used in a rearfacing position.

Second, rearfacing has been shown to be 5 times safer than forward facing for children between ages 1-2. (It's actually safer ALL the time, but we don't have enough comparative data for other ages to calculate statistics that can tell us how MUCH safer.) It really comes down to the laws of physics - and they don't change once a kid reaches 1 year and 20 pounds.

A scenera (used rearfacing) is a good option for a babysitter's car, but it is unlikely to last your daughter until she is 5. What price range are you looking in? The longer-lasting seats also tend to be a little more expensive. Of course, in the end you can save money by not buying as many seats!

[Jennifer626]

Thank you for your help! I had no idea about the 34" height requirement, I will go home and measure her tonight! Thank you. I have no idea how tall she is.

I completely agree with you about RFing. I'm definetly keeping her RFing in our cars (where she is 99% of the time) until she's 2 at the minimum, but I'm hoping to make it a lot longer than that. DH is completely on board with that also. MIL is... interesting, and seeing as how DD is in her car so rarely, I'm fine with her FFing in that car, (even though I know how much safer she would be RFing) so I'm ok with that(as long as she's tall enough). I'm actually the only person in my large group of friends who has RF past the 1st birthday, so I'm pretty proud of myself for that!

I didn't get any responses last week when I posted, so I looked at Target to see what they had... I was down to a Scenera or the Cosco seat for older kiddos that turns into a booster, I decided to get the Scenera. I just don't think she's big enough yet for the "big kid seat" (can't remember the name), so Scenera it is!

If she's not 34" yet, I will RF it for sure. Thanks again for that info!

[Joolsplus2]

Good call! The next seat up would have been the Evenflo Maestro (the 'big kid' cosco seat actually has SHORTER harness slots than the Scenera, and it makes a truly dangerous booster seat later, while the Maestro is taller and makes a good booster, with better seatbelt fit for kids over 40 pounds/age 5ish). But the Scenera's a good price, an easy install, and will be very comfy for her for a couple of years, at least.