Gotten too big for car seat, but too young for booster

So DD has been in the 95% for height and 90% for weight for about the last two years. When we bought the convertible car seats we never dreamed DD would exceed the weight limit before her 4th birthday. We can just get her in and buckled up with not much room for movement, so I am now wondering what to do. Do I get her a booster seat even though it is about 6 months too early? My sister had this same issue with my nephew, but it was about 6-8 weeks before his 4th birthday not 6 months. DS is about 3 lbs. away from the weight limit, so he is snug yet nowhere near as tight as DD in the car seat.

Plus buying new car seats with higher weight limits is out of our budget and seems wasteful if they going to be to booster age within 6 months anyway. Anyone else deal with this issue and what did you do?

 

Why not get something like this ? This is what I use for my boys. Jayden weighs 42 lbs and Jesse about 48 lbs. They're 7 but small for their age. I also use this for my grandson who is 4 (but he weighs as much as the 7 yr olds).

 

Those are the types we were thinking the high back sturdier ones instead of the no back type, but when I have mentioned this to a couple people you would think I was going to let my kids sit in the car totally unrestrained. That's what got me worried.

 

Graco Nautilus is on sale on Amazon for $137.00. Kids can use the 5pt harness feature until they are 65lbs and then it can be used as a booster until they are 100lbs.

In many states it is illegal for a 3.5 year old to be in a booster. Honestly, beyond the weight requirements for a booster seat, it is much more important that a child be mature enough to sit still while riding in a booster - no bending down to pick up a toy, or rearranging the seatbelt because they are uncomfortable, no slumping over if they fall asleep, etc.

Here's a small blurb from the AAP:

How should children ride after they outgrow the limits for rear-facing?
Children should ride in a forward-facing seat with a 5-point harness for as long as possible, until they reach the height or weight limit for forward facing

Anyway, good luck!

 

this is what we have. I did shop around and got them for about $160 each. We've had them for over a year now (they'll be 4 in January) and I plan on keeping them in the 5-point harness for as long as I can.

I just looked on Amazon and they have the red & black one for $149.

 

See if you can find some Graco Nautiluses on sale. The weight limit is super high and they convert to high back boosters and then backless boosters when you're ready so they're the last seat you'll ever need. They're also really comfortable seats according to my kids.

And... you may to reconsider moving your kids to boosters (even high back ones) in six months. I'm know it's legal, but it's not totally safe. I went on several field trips at my girls' school last year and watched all of the four and five year old kids flopping everywhere in their boosters - both high back and backless. If they sat up straight then the booster was safe, but what kid wants to do that? Instead they leaned over, turned around, stretched out, flopped around, and basically cancelled out any safety that the booster was providing. It was an eye opener for me... so my kids are staying in the five point harness in the Nautiluses for quite some time!

 

I agree .. in their dads car they still fit into their 5pt harness seats (we usually use his car for long rides) and I feel they are much safer in them.
My 5pt seats just plain old wore out after using them for 4 years so I switched to the high back boosters. But that was just last year when they were 6. They don't seem to wiggle around so much anymore.

 

We were in a similar situation and ended up getting the Graco Nautilus carseats. We bought ours at BRU and ended up paying around $110 for each (they were on sale, I had another coupon and they gave me the twins discount too). They were worth the investment for me.

 

Nautilus or Britax frontier. Even most 4 yo are not ready to be in a booster seat - they slump over when they sleep, they move too much so the seat belt isn't positioned properly... most kids really are ready for them at 5 or 6.

We are in a similar situation, the kids are about to outgrow their convertible seats, so we got some frontiers that dh will install this week end... this way they'll be safe for a long, long time.

 

Kristin, this is what we bought for my husband's car after they outgrew the seats in his car.

Cosco five point booster.

We're about to buy two more for my car because they've pretty much hit the height limit in their other car seats.

 

We have the Nautilus. My kids would actually have still been safe in their toddler seats at age 4 (neither of them had hit the weight limit yet), but they were feeling a little cramped.

The Nautilus goes up to 65 lbs with a 5-pt restraint, and at the rate they're going, my kids won't hit 65 lbs until they're 10. :ibiggrin: But I doubt we will be able to resist the pressure from them to switch to booster seats before that -- nearly all their friends have been in regular no-back boosters for months. I just want to keep them in the 5-pt harness for as long as they put up with it.

 

I switched my girls to a high back booster at 4 1/2 years old because even though they were way under the weight for the marathon car seats, Dani's head was over the top of the seat. So what ever seat you get make sure you look not only the heigh, but how your kids sit in the seat.

 

I never thought about the slumping in the seat factor, so that is a good point. I checked out the Graco Nautilus or Britax Frontier and the Graco is on sale at BRUS this weekend, but a few posts have complained about the buckle being hard to use and the back being too curved so it causes the child pain. Has any experienced those types of issues with the Nautilus? We had the Graco carrier car seats and then the Graco convertible ones, but I just wished I would have thought about the 40 lb. maximum when we spent money on those 2.5 years ago. I never dreamed we would be going through three different kinds of car seats. Just trying to figure out the best choice for our $ since I have to adjust our monthly budget a bit to work these in since we want the twins to be safe as well as comfortable.

 

We have Graco Nautilus's too and love them, I have no issues with the buckle (except my ds's, he puked in it this summer and it's never been quite the same...). I can see the back being a bit of an issue if you have very straight seats, I ended up leaning our captain's chairs back just a bit to the first click so the seats didn't sit quite so straight. It was actually too straight for my dd and she would grunt like she was having trouble breathing. You should be able to do the same thing by rolling up a big towel or using a big pool noodle at the bottom of the base of the carseat so it pushes the bottom part forward a bit.

 

I've never heard of the curving back problem and know about fifteen people with the same seat. The buckle was harder for me than our old Evenflos and harder than the Britax in the other car, but I got the hang of it within a few days and now my kids can even do the buckle themselves.

 

While I agree with all of the above about the safety stuff, if you are worried about breaking the law because she is not four, in
Michigan, you are not. All the traffic code says is that they must be in an "appropriately sized child restraint system ", but under 8 years old or 48" they have to be in something.

So, if you decide to move to boosters, from a legal standpoint you are ok. The safety stuff you have to decide for yourself.

 

Love this thread. My almost 4 yr old is at the weight limit for his convertible seat. I have a high Backed booster that I use in my mom and dads car, but I don't want him in one in the van. I don't trust him NOT to take off the seat belt.

 

We went to BRUS to check out the two car/booster seats in person; nautilus and frontier. This one (see link below) with this particular fabric is on sale at least through this weekend and with the twin discount we got them for $113 a piece. We couldn't pass up that bargain price and we didn't like the feel of the frontier's seat padding.

BRUS Graco Nautilus Sale

The only thing I thought was silly is that there were four other fabric option on the Nautilus, but this was the only one on sale and the others ranged from $179 to $199. It makes no sense if the color of the fabric is the only difference with no other added features.

The only glitch we had was the cashier rang them up only applying the twin discount to one car/booster seat and I had to get a manager to fix the error. The cashier didn't know about the discount and then thought it should only be applied to one item. I didn't realize it until she handed me the receipt, so DH took the twins to the car while the manager credited me back the difference. So make sure you ask for the TWIN DISCOUNT on both items if you take advantage of the sale.

 

This is our concern with DD. If there is a way to get into trouble she will find it and I would worry about her safety if she unbuckled herself.

 

The more I think about it the more I am leaning towards getting him a new seat. The twins are in seats rated to 50lbs harnessed, so I am good for a bit there.

 

Wow, you got a great deal! Glad to hear they will be harnessed for quite a while longer!

 

Awesome! That's a geat deal-similar to what we got when we got the boys Nautilus. We wanted the one that was $179 on sale, but they were all out. So the manager offered us the $199 one for the sale price of the cheaper one...plus the twin discount, plus the $10 off every $50, and some other coupon. It was nuts. We paid $122 for the carseats.

We've been very happy with them!