Toddler Booster Seat That Works with Older Cars

There are some belt postioning boosters that are okay for kids 30 pounds nad up. We have two oler Britax boosters and the belt positioning ones do have a clip that holds the seat belt down. CHeck the weight requirements. Most belt positioning boosters do need a lap and shoulder belt however. I checked California law thoroughly to see what it specifically says and it simply states that children under 6 or under 60 pounds need to be in an apropriate child restraint and that children under 12 may not sit in the front seat of the car unless all back seats are occupied by children under 12 or a carseat cannot be safely used in the back seat. I checked this because my 20 month old is not yet 20 pounds and I really want to turn her carseat around. However there are no carseats that state that they are safe forward facing for a child under 20 pounds os I'm out of luck.

I'm a bit confused as to what kind of seat & clamp you're talking about: is it a 5 point harness carseat that holds kids past 40 pounds? A booster seat has no clamps & uses your car's seatbelt that is fed thru a slot at the child's shoulder that buckles in regular way. I would go w/this style booster seat & get a Graco. They're very highly rated, easy to install & use & also light making it easy to transfer between cars & to fly with. The CHP will install & check carseats for free so I would also suggest you make an appointment to get seme help from them.

How old is this car? Anything back into the '70's ought to have locking rear seat belts--but probably not the center rear belt. Try putting the seat on the passenger side instead of in the middle. I'm driving an '86 Volvo right now, & that's what we do.

What model car are you installing in? The best place I know of for technical questions like this is the forums at http://www.car-seat.org/ . There are many experienced and helpful certified child passenger safety technicians that frequent that board and they've got a wealth of expertise that they're willing to share. I haven't seen a Britax Frontier in real life yet so I don't know if it has the built-in lockoffs like their convertibles do (the Frontier is Britax's forward facing harnessed/booster seat - BTW these are called "combination seats" - "booster" refers to the ones that do not have a 5-point harness but instead position the regular car seat belt on the child. Confusing terminology, I know, but you get used to it if you become somewhat car-seat obsessed like I did ;-))

edited to add: if you can't find a forward facing combo seat with lock offs, albee baby has the "Ashley Floral" pattern Marathon for $179, free shipping http://www.albeebaby.com/britax-marathon-convertible-car-... - as you know it won't convert to a booster but at least it would be an easy to install seat that would last either of your girls until they're old enough and mature enough for using a belt-positioning booster (*minimum* of 4 years and 40 lbs. but many if not most kids are not really booster-ready until they're somewhere around 6-7)

You can contact the car mfg and ask them what they recommend.