Need help with Car Seat

[Emiliesmom]

My DD is 47 pounds and 46 inches an just turned 4 years old in March. We have an Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch. It goes up to 47 pounds and 47 inches for the 5 point harness. My problem is that when she has her next growth spurt which could be anytime now she will no longer fit the 5 point harness and will have to start using the seat belt only. First of all I don't feel comfortable with doing this yet, but even if I did my car doesn't have a shoulder belt in the back and we can't have one installed(there is nothing for the shoulder belt to be anchored too). Is there a car seat out there for a reasonable price that will keep her in the 5 point harness a little longer? We can't afford a new car right now, but we only have a couple of months at the most before she gets too big. Any help would be great. Thanks

Jen

[tenecwalker]

Are you in the US? The Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch only goes to 40lbs with the 5 point harness and then can be used as a booster (requires lap/shoulder belt) until 80lbs. Also, the height is just a guideline. It will be outgrown by height when the shoulders are above the top harness slots or the ears are out of the shell. There are a couple options for harnessing higher than 40 lbs.

There is the Britax Marathon/Decathalon/Boulevard which are all pretty similar, but have slightly different features. They harness until 65lbs They retail for $269 but can often be found online for less

The Britax Regent harnesses to 80 lbs. I'm not sure on the price, but it is in the $200 range

The Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe (actually made by Britax) harnesses to 55 lbs and can be found online for $129

The Cosco Apex harnesses to 65lbs and then turns in to a booster, but it is required to be in a car with high headrests. It is around $100

Any questions feel free to ask!

[Emiliesmom]

I'm in Canada. I just talked to ICBC (an insurance company) and the woman told me that in Canada there is only one car seat that goes up to 65 pounds with a 5 point harness and it's called Radian by Sunshine kids. It seems that the US gets all the new higher limit 5 point harness car seats before Canada does. All the car seats that I have seen with the higher limit are only available in the US. Thats ok though. This one looks ok. If anyone from Canada knows of any others I would love to hear about them. Thanks

Jen

[tenecwalker]

I was wondering if you were from Canada when you post the weight limit, because I know some of your carseats go to 48 lbs that ours are only 40. I've heard that some people have a hard time getting the Radian properly installed, so I would see if you can try it out in your car beforehand. I know a lot of people here are starting to get them.

[daddyn4wisechix]

Ditto on the Britax Marathon & The Britax Regent (formerly called the Husky, but since renamed because people were upset about the name... I had a Husky dog & viewed the car seat name like it meant it was as strong as a Husky, which is VERY strong, but apparently some people took it as calling their child husky...LOL). Anyway, I actually have both of those car seats because I also have VERY tall (which means heavier) DD's. My DH is 6'4" & our girls take after him.

When my now 6 YO DD was 2 she also grew out of her harness seat, & we knew she was not ready to be in a booster & adult seat belt only, but felt we had no choice since the harnesses in all of the seats we knew of were only rated to 40lbs. So I bought the Britax Bodyguard booster & took DD for a car seat safety inspection right from the store w/ the booster seat. The paramedics who did the car seat safety checks actually told me about the Britax Husky (again, now called the Regent) & the Marathon, and told me they did not want my DD in that booster seat because she was WAY too young. I ended up buying the Husky that night after calling all over the place & finally tracking one down. I also looked @ the Marathon, but knew my DD only had a matter of maybe 6 months or so before she would have outgrown it by her height, even though the harness was rated to 65lbs. & she was far from the weight limit. With the price tag of approx $250 for the Marathon or Husky (Regent), & knowing the Husky went 15 ponds higher in the harness than the Marathon we opted for the Husky.

Our DD JUST outgrew the Husky @ 6 YO & I have a niece who is 7 (much shorter & lighter than my DD :0) who could easily fit into the seat. In fact I can sit in it myself & I am 5'7"... I can't strap myself in it (at least I don't think so). It is definitely a seat that would take you quite a while to outgrow. The downside to the Husky/Regent is the mammoth size to it. It literally took up the entire back seat in my 4 door Mitsubishi Galant, but it could have taken up less space had I not put it in the middle seat position. BUT it is still a HUGE seat & will greatly limit your passenger room around it. I had just enough room to put a diaper bag on either side of the seat, but when we bought it we only had 1 child, but again, that would probably be different if you put it in the left or right side seat position. We could NOT fit another sear seat next to it or a passenger when the seat was in the middle of the back seat.

With that said, I would buy it if there is any way at all to afford it & fit it in your vehicle. I would definitely try to fit it in your vehicle BEFORE you buy it, it you are even able to consider it to make sure it will fit. When I bought it, it was slightly less expensive than the Marathon because the Marathon can be used from NB to 65 lbs, & the Husky/Regent is ONLY a harness seat (some people are mistaken that it can also be used as a booster after the 80lbs, but it CAN'T) for forward facing kiddos. We also have the Marathon (we were greatly blessed when a friend's DD outgrew her seat & she gave it to us... I would never have taken a used car seat from ANYBODY but that friend because she is as neurotic about car seat safety as I am ;0) for our almost 22 MO. She fits in it well & has room to grow. She is 33" tall & 30lbs. If my kids did not grow so tall so fast I would definitely recommend the Marathon, but I know we will be using the Husky for our baby after she outgrows her Marathon. We now have a minivan, so we have plenty of room. One other thing to consider w/the Husky is that the latch system (if your car is equipped) in a vehicle is only supposedly rated to 50lbs, so if you are using the Husky for a child weighing more than 50lbs, you MUST use the car seat belt. I found that a lap seat belt works just great w/the Husky, as does the 3 point seat belts as long as they have the lock mode fro car seats. Our minivan does not have locking seat belts, but it does have a lap belt, so we used that for the Husky before our 6 YO DD outgrew the seat, and it worked great!

As far as the other brands of car seats out there, I am not very familiar with them. I do know when I was looking into them there were a few with higher harness limits, but the height of the back of the seat was so low it didn't make any sense. I found the Husky/Regent to be the only seat in the right proportions for our DD who was much taller (which meant heavier too) than average, MUCH younger than average.... that was even the case w/the Britax Marathon.

I hope you are able to find an affordable seat that will work for you! I know how frustrating & unnerving it can be!!! I learned more than I ever wanted to or thought I could ever possibly learn about car seats for the exact same reason you are having to research them now for your little one. To date we have literally had 15 car seats between our 2 children because of the height/weight issue and/or not fitting in our cars the right way. We have only had 2 car seats for our baby, so the 1st 13 were for DD # 1. We ended up giving them to my sister (& friends) when we could not use them anymore, as she is single mom of 3 kiddos, so they didn't go to waste, but jeesh, what an expensive way to learn! You definitely learn as you go... I sure hope that helps!