One of the things I have become pretty passionate about over the last three years is car seat safety. And, in fact, we are about to purchase a new car seat. We have considered moving Beanie into a convertible-to-booster such as the Britax Frontier or the Graco Nautilus & moving Bubby into her Britax Marathon. I'm not really sure she's ready for a new seat and the Marathon fit hers very well. In all likelihood, we will probably be buying a Graco MyRide for Bubby and leaving her in the Marathon. Yes, it's more money now. But, their safety is of the utmost importance.
All that mumbo jumbo to say Do your research before you buy a car seat. Don't buy the one you see at Costco because it's a good deal. Don't buy the one your friend uses because it works well for her kid. The infant bucket seat you buy (should you choose to use that instead of a convertible seat initially) will not last as long as you think it will. The convertible seat that says will last to 65lbs may not last because of your child's height. It is safest to keep your child rear-facing until they exceed the height & weight limits for their seat. It is best to keep them in a 5pt harness as long as possible.
Yesterday I saw a news report about new ratings on booster seats. Check it out.
Car booster seats make gains in insurance testing
Have your child test out the seat before you buy it. Test it out in your car. Have it checked by a certified technician after you install it.
Okay, stepping off my soapbox now ;)
I've been researching too... My preference is to move Gabriel into's Ethan's Marathon and get a Frontier for Ethan. I see no reason not to... If you don't mind me asking, why did you decide against doing that? Message me if you'd rather not reply here - you know where to find me ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think I already sort of answered on facebook ;) but I don't mind sharing at all.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more in-depth reasons (in no particular order).
1. The My Ride has a higher rear-facing weight limit than the Marathon. 40lb vs. 35lb if I remember correctly. With Bubby closing in on 18lbs and 6mths old, I think that extra 5lbs could come in handy later down the road.
2. If we wait to get Beanie a new seat until she outgrows her Marathon we can make sure we get one that fits her properly. Like, right now I'd probably buy the Frontier for her, but maybe in a year or two a different car seat would actually present itself as a better fit for her.
3. Babies r Us has the trade in thing going on right now, so with trading in some old baby gear & some gift cards we have, we can get the My Ride for less than 100 bucks.
4. At her 3yr well-check the pedi mentioned she wasn't ready for a booster, which we totally agreed with! In WA state they can't legally be in a booster at her age/weight anyways. When we looked at the Nautilus in the store it looked more upright. We actually had her try it out in a friend's car the other day and it seemed to fit her well, but my friend mentioned it didn't work out as well in her other friend's car.
1 and 2 are definitely the biggies for us. Britax just came out with a new Marathon, which may have a higher RF limit I'm not sure. That isn't relevant for us though. Also, Graco just redesigned the Nautilus awhile back -- I wonder if the ratings on the link I posted are from the old model or the new one?
Gotcha! So part of your decision is based on Bubby's weight, whereas we have another tall kid ;-) I think he would outgrow most convertibles pretty quickly because of his height. One of our considerations too is that the Frontier is good for nine years. So it should be the last seat we have to buy for either kiddo :-)
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