Car Seat - Simsbury,CT

I like the Britax seats, but they are so expensive. For my 3 year old, we have the Graco Nautilus, which has a harness that can be used until 65 pounds, and then can be used as a belt-positioning booster after that, and eventually as a backless booster. The Nautilus is the only affordable seat that I could find with a higher weight limit for the harness, and I don't feel that my son is ready for a booster yet. This way, he can use the harness until he is ready, and then use it as a booster! Good luck and congrats on the baby on the way!

Dear God, first of all, a Graco Turbobooster is HORRIBLE advice. Boosters are for big kids...older than 4, bigger than 40 pounds, and mature enough to sit up and mind the belt. Under no circumstances should a two year old EVER, FOR ANY REASON, be in a booster.

That being said, how much does your two year old weigh? If he's under 40 pounds, ideally, he's in a rear facing convertible. If he's forty pounds or close to it, a forward facing combination seat.

The Britax Marathon is not at all a good choice. It's a convertible only, and it only rear faces to 35 pounds. It also has shorter top slots than other forward facing seats.

If you're going to rear face, the Graco My Ride, the Sunshine Kids' Radians, and the Safety First Complete Air all rear face to 40 or more pounds.

If you're going to forward face, keep him in a harness that goes higher than 40 pounds. The Cosco Apex, the Graco Nautilus and the Britax Frontier all will keep your child harnessed for several more years AND as an added bonus convert to a very good belt positioning booster. The Graco Nautilus is probably your best bet...affordable and a very nice seat. (Again, it would be substantially safer to keep him rear facing.)

~CPST

I would suggest a Britax, they are a bit pricey, but I have 3 off them and love them...

I think between the Britax and the Sunshine Kids you can't go wrong. Whichever you use keep in mind the weight and height requirements for how long you can use the harness (which is the safest thing for your child).
I believe both go at least up to 65lbs with the harness, which is great! A couple car seat safety blogs that are reputable if you'd like to check them out and do some research yourself. If you poke around you'll see their recommendations for car seats of different age groups.

Car-Seat.org
http://carseatblog.com/?p=4381

SafetySquad.com
http://blog.safetysquad.com/safety_squad/

The Car Seat Lady
http://www.thecarseatlady.com/

The Graco Turbo booster that uses the car's seat belts has wide "wings" for the head. This Graco look just like the Britax for half the price. The back comes off later so when your toddler gets taller than the back rest (around age 7 or 8) you can still have him sit higher so her can have the seat belt position correctly across his lap and shoulder. Walmart and Target carry them in boy or girl patterns.

I just bought my 3 year old a Britax and she loves it. She is still in a 5 point harness and it also goes to 100lbs.When she is ready for the belt from the car this one will work. no more buying another seat. I did a lot of research and loved this one. We also have the toddler car seat when she was smaller. Good luck

I have a cosco brand and I am not happy with it at all. When my little one falls asleep in her seat there i no where for her to put her head. We are looking for another one that is designed a little better. So I can't recommend one to buy but I can recommend one to not buy. :)

We have the Britax Marathon and love it. Highly recommend.

Hi P.,
I can't recommend the Sunshine Kids brand enough. It is an expensive seat, we just bought one for $169 on diapers.com and I waited for a good sale/watched ebay, etc...
It is one of the safest seats out there and I bought the Radian 65 which goes up to 65lbs. They make one that goes up to 85 lbs., but I can't imagine a kid that is within the height limits and weighs that much.
The nice thing about this seat is that it has the 5 point harness and works as a booster seat, so you can keep your child in a 5 point harness until they are 6 years old (probably). This is the safest choice! It blows me away when I see young kids - just at that 40 lb. mark who are put in booster seats with just the typical car seat across them. ALL research indicates that this is NOT safe! It may be legal, but it's not safe. Children are thrown out of their seats on impact and horrible tragedies occur that could have been avoided if the kids were in the 5 point seat.
I did a ton of research and despite the steep price tag we opted to go this route. Another perk is that the seat folds up for travel, as well as is very skinny, so it's the only seat out there that allows for 3 seats across a back seat. This was another selling point for us. We only have 2 kids now, but if we have a 3rd - we don't want to have to buy a new car!

Good luck!

We love our Britax frontier. Some on-line reviews give it low marks for difficulty of installation but if you actually read the instructions it's really easy!