Upgrade baby or toddler

[ashleybama24]

My 7 month old, DS2, is a butterball and about to outgrow his infant carseat. Do I go ahead and upgrade him to DS1's Britax Boulevard 70 and get DS1 a Diono Radian RXT? Or do I just get another Britax Boulevard 70?

DS1 is 28 months and 30 lbs and DS2 is 7 months and 20 lbs. I'm not sure how tall either of them are...I just remember they are both in the 80% for their height.

[AnnieW625]

I have never used a Radian, but honestly I love the simplicity of the Blvd70 so I wold probably get another one of those.

[ashleybama24]

It's very similar to the Britax Frontier and I too love my Britax for it's simplicity! Do I move DS1 to a Frontier?

When do you typically outgrow these convertible seats. I know they go up to 70 lbs but I can't honestly imagine even a 5 year old sitting in one.

[smiles33]

Is your DS1 RF'ing or not? If not, then I might just buy a regular harnessed FFing seat for him versus another BLVD70 when you don't need the RFing option. FWIW, I love our Britax Frontier 85 as a harnessed seat (haven't used it in booster mode yet).

[MommyAllison]

When do you typically outgrow these convertible seats. I know they go up to 70 lbs but I can't honestly imagine even a 5 year old sitting in one.

DD1 is 6 years old, and still in her classic Marathon. It will expire in a few weeks, but she still fits easily into it since she's a petite little 40lb-er. Depends on the kid, of course, but it's possible for a 5 year old to fit.

[Joolsplus2]

I agree, if your older one is forward facing, go with the Frontier. If you want to rearface longer, then the Radian is the best choice.
Most of the 'larger' convertible seats really do fit kids till 5 or 6 (it has mostly to do with harness height, they have about 17 inch top slots, based on fitting the 6 yo crash test dummy...the 70 pounds, well, that's just to get your attention on the shelf, average kids aren't 70 pounds till age 9 or 10, but with sitting right next to the Cosco's and Evenflos with the 5-100 (Yeah, right, my 100lb 12 yo would fit in an Alpha Omega as a booster :ROTFLMAO:) weight limits listed on them, they have to get your attention somehow.
:)

[Nechums]

I had to make the same decision early on. We chose to get another BLVD because DS1 is still RF. I would have just gotten a Frontier otherwise.

Irony of the whole story is that DS2 stopped growing at the same pace and we could have easily gotten 3 more months in the infant car seat. Oh well.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[ashleybama24]

DS2 is crawling (started at 5 months) and has definitely slowed down gaining weight so quickly. I just struggle to get that infant car seat in and out of the car. I know I could leave it there and probably will but I wanted to give myself time to find a good sale before he gains 2 more lbs!

DS1 is FF so I don't need the RF option. We will be traveling with these carseat though occasionally so I liked that the Radian folded really flat for storage in hotel rooms.

I am also going to get my parents 2 carseats...should I just get them 2 radians or 2 boulevards? Ideally I would like to have to just get them seats once and not have to do this again in a few years!

[legaleagle]

I am also going to get my parents 2 carseats...should I just get them 2 radians or 2 boulevards? Ideally I would like to have to just get them seats once and not have to do this again in a few years!

How often will they be driving your kids? Will they be taking the seats out and reinstalling them by themselves? Do they have any issues using seats correctly (arthritis, just can't figure them out, etc?) $500 in car seats seems like kind of a lot for occasional use. Do you only have one car yourself?

Of course, my mom has 2 of my fanciest seats (marathon 70 and frontier 85) but she drives all 3 (soon to be 4 of her grandkids - 3 of which will be rf'ing for quite a while) frequently, so I wanted her to have the easiest-adjusting and easiest to tighten rf'ing seat. Plus I have 8 car seats already (due to the screaming deal a while back on the frontier 85s, I got 2 instead of 1), one of which isn't even installed. So depending on circumstances, buying more britax would be reasonable, but somewhat overkill - I'd definitely consider at least one roundabout instead of a fancier one. I would likely not buy radians (much as I like them for myself) because they have much more of a learning curve for correct use.

[ashleybama24]

I like that the Boulevard has extra head support/protection over the Marathon.

They take the kids pretty often. They typically will leave the carseat installed unless they need the backseat for something. While they are both intelligent people they cannot figure out how to use these carseats. Even the Boulevard they can't figure out how to release the straps to get the kids out. The reason I was just going to get 2 more Britax's is because they are so simple to install that I don't have to worry they have done it wrong.

[ashleybama24]

How often will they be driving your kids? Will they be taking the seats out and reinstalling them by themselves? Do they have any issues using seats correctly (arthritis, just can't figure them out, etc?) $500 in car seats seems like kind of a lot for occasional use. Do you only have one car yourself?


We have 2 cars but since I'm a SAHM, we rarely ever need to take the carseats out of my car for my husband to use. But we do need back up seats. We had an emergency last week and my dad let my 2 year old ride in the front seat 1 block to the park after he picked him up from school! I about died when I found out. He didn't see what the harm was since DS1 wore his seat belt, he drove less than 10 miles an hour and they only went 1 block. Seriously?

They also think the whole car seat expiring thing is a marketing ploy to get us to buy more baby stuff...this is coming from my dad who has an engineering degree! I just remind them they had their chance to raise me and now it is my turn and I get to do it how best see fit.

[legaleagle]

Ugh, I feel your pain on the clueless grandparents! I would have totally freaked out about every part of that, esp the front seat! In that case, I'd go britax too.

[ashleybama24]

Ok so Britax for the g-rents....and either a Frontier or Radian for DS1. Poor DS2 will get his big brothers seat. That is the problem when you are a second child...you never get anything new!

Glad I posted this...just checked DS2 and he only has 1 1/2 inches to the top of the infant carrier so he definitely needs a new seat soon!