Help! Britax Advocate CS/Blvd CS/Signo/Radian XT

[jac_yale]

I'm a first time mother and am in desperate search for a convertible car seat (~5-80lbs/ 59 inches). Are these my best options? What is the 'true' difference between them? I truly want to buy only 1 car seat for this child if possible. I keep getting different information from various sites about these products. Has anyone used these seats and have any recommendations for me? Given that my husband and I are tall, I would imagine our child will be tall and slim as well, so he would reach the height limit before the weight max. I need help and would appreciate any and all feedback! Thanks, Jessica

[mom2binsd]

Post this in the carseat forum for the best possible responses, not all the car seat junkies hang out here.

[alexsmommy]

Yep - repost in Carseats. You'll get lots of excellent responses. Warning - it may initially lead to more questions than answers - I know with DS1 I realized there were a lot more questions I needed to ask to make the right decision. They will help you tremendously. Especially Julie

[o_mom]

First of all, I think you need to focus on what will meet your needs best, and that may not be one seat.

The progression of carseats that you will need goes like this:

Rear-facing: From birth to 2+ years old.
Forward-facing in a 5 pt harness: 2-5+ yrs
Highback booster: Until they don't fit, 8+ years old
Backless booster: Until they pass the 5 step test to fit the adult seatbelt, usually 10-12 years old.

I just want you to realize that you have 10-12 years of carseats ahead of you, so nothing you get now will be the last seat you need.

For the seats you listed, all are convertible seats. Some babies do not fit a convertible seat well at birth, so you may want to research infant seats so that if you should need one you have one picked out and can just send someone to buy it. The other problem can be that a newborn needs a 45 degree recline and the larger convertibles can be too tall to get that recline in some cars.

Advocate CS and Boulevard CS are essentially the same seat. The Advocate has extra padding on the outside of the seat to protect people sitting next to the seat. The 'CS' portion of both are just an adjuster that clicks when the harness is tight. It hasn't been as great IRL as the marketing. Sometimes it clicks when it isn't tight or doesn't click even though it is tight. I would probably skip it in favor of the regular Boulevard or even a Marathon. Britax seats can be somewhat large on newborns as the bottom slots are not low enough to be below their shoulders at first.

The Signo is a decent seat, but very, very large. It is bulky, not just in height and width, but also the depth that you have to reach down in and lift a newborn in and out while trying not to wake them.

The Radian XT is another well built seat, and it should fit a newborn well. It can be a complete pain to install in some cars, though.

Another convertible seat to look at is the First Years True Fit - it has a removable headrest that makes it easier to get that newborn recline. By the time you need to put the headrest back on, they are old enough to be more upright.

HTH! Feel free to ask more questions!

[Happy 2B mommy]

O-mom makes a great point, you might only want to buy 1 'forever' seat, but the reality is that you will likely end up with more.

I really loved the Britax BLVD, as far as fit, side-impact protection, comfort and ease-of-use. However, as tall/big as my DD is, this would NOT have been her only seat (it was totaled in a car accident last year) She was probably going to outgrow it by height. I considered buying a Tru-Fit (I think it has a higher height limit), but DD was already Forward Facing at 21 months because she was over the weight limit and I had no need for her seat to be a convertible. So, she is now in a Graco Nautilus (which harnesses to 65 pounds, has a good height limit, then converts to a high-back booster - but is NOT a convertible, it's FFing only). It is much more likely that the Nautilus will be her "forever seat" than the BLVD.

I have no idea what your future plans are, but if you think it is likely you will have more children, keep in mind that a seat that will fit a newborn to 2 year old can be used again for future children, as long as it hasn't expired.

[codex57]

What car do you have? That helps a lot.

Frankly, I don't see the point of the Advocate. Negatives outweigh the positives IMO. The Boulevard CS is in that direction too, just not to the degree of the Advocate.

You can't have just one seat. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Personally, I loved the advantage of an infant seat. Soooo helpful when they're young and sleeping all the time. Waking a baby is NOT fun.

That said, if you really want to skip the infant seat, consider the True Fit or Radian XT. Both may have install issues while RF, especially the Radian. Other good seats that might not fit newborns as well are the Boulevard, Marathon, Recaro Signo, and Triumph Advance. There's no perfect convertible seat. A lot depends on personal preference along with what car you're putting it in.

[jac_yale]

Thank you for the advice! I have now posted my question in the car seat forum! I truly appreciate your feedback with all my questions! JAC

[Joolsplus2]

It got moved here so I deleted your other one. O-mom gave you some good info to think about. And I just want to say, would you trust stride rite if they tried to sell you 'the only pair of shoes you'll ever need?' probably not. Same goes with carseats. A newborn is different from a 2 yo is different from a 5 yo is different from a 10 yo, they all have very different needs in carseats, so one seat just can't do it all. The good news is that a really good infant seat will last you 10-18 months, a convertible will last 4-5 years, and a booster takes care of the last 5 years or so before kids fit properly in an adult seatbelt, so you only have to buy 3 or 4 seats if you plan properly (which you are here doing, yay! )

[NewMrsU]

Can you use the Britax Boulevard from birth to age 2? I know this will depend on the age of the infant at birth and how quickly they grow of course, but in theory.

[lorinick]

Can you use the Britax Boulevard from birth to age 2? I know this will depend on the age of the infant at birth and how quickly they grow of course, but in theory.

depends on the weight of the baby how well the seat will fit them. Usually fits better around 10-12lbs. But a great carries is oh so conv.