Trying to Decide on Which Carseat to Get for My 9 Month Old

My almost 4 year old son has been in his Marathon since 10 months of age. He won't be growing out of it any time soon either. 65 lb weight limit and 49" height. A 4 yr old is usually about 35-40 lbs and 35" or so. Plenty of room left. I have been extremely pleased with it. It is also incredibly easy to install with latch or the seatbelt. My parents have even installed it in their non-latch cars w/o my help or instrutions. Britax is the best in terms of ease of installation. I just purchased a second Marathon for my 8 month old daughter. They sit high off the seat so your child will get a good view out of the window. They are also appear to be very comfortable. My son sleeps very well in it. Big, so not easy to travel with but it fit forward and backwards just fine in my little Acura TL (in the center seat). I'm in an Honda Pilot now that I have two kids. We'll see how my daughter's fits backwards behind the passanger seat. Haven't put her in yet but I'm sure the passenger will have to ride a little closer to the front than I would prefer. They are great, you won't be sorry. babyage.com had them on sale for $220 + $8 shipping yesterday. Good luck. Lastly, the Radian's caught my eye too. I considered them for my daughter. They are made of steel but I didn't like the fact that they sat lower than the Britax and I read they are more difficult to install. I just figured I'd stick with what I love. The Evenflo Triumph got decent reviews too, if you are concerned with $. Not as great as the Marathon and Radian, however. Good luck!

Britax Marathon is the way to go. We loved the first one we bought so much, we bought another one for my husband's car. It's pricey, but well worth it! Our daughter is 18 months now and still seems to be very comfortable in it. I just washed the cover for the fisrt time over the weekend, and it washes well. The instructions say not to machine wash but I decided to wash it on delicate anyway and it still looks brand new!

The Britax Marathon is a great car seat especially since the internal harness goes to a higher weight limit. The car seat is a little bigger so if you have a small vehicle it may not work as well.

I would highly recommend going to a car seat check up event. You can google Safe Kids and they can direct you to a FREE event. A majority of car seats are installed incorrectly.

We love our Marathon. We're close to transitioning our third kid into it. It has held up really well! Pretty easy to install and has great safety ratings. A bit pricey, but we feel it's been worth it.

It's not so much the brand anymore. There are several different car seats out there now that are FULLY convertable from infant to 100 lbs.!!

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7941...

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3932...

These are just some examples, but as you can see, they go from rear facing to forward facing all the way up to BIG KID size. I went through 4 different car seats with my son and just got a covertible for my daughter. Such a huge difference in cost and convienience.
Of course, I would still shop around, but brand name sometimes just means you pay more. Good luck.

I have a Britax and tell everyone to buy that brand! I've had ours for almost four years and it still looks like new. When I wash the cover, I hang it to dry and it washes great! Britax has great safety ratings, and I think it was the best money I've spent on baby gear.

Whatever you get... Just make sure it fits in your car before you buy it (assuming you drive a car instead of a SUV). Britax seats can be quite long, and in a rear facing position, it can make your front passenger seat unusable (since the front seat would have to be positioned so far forward that no adult can sit in it comfortably).

We love love love our Britax carseats, they are absolutely the way to go. It's worth every penny knowing they are in the safest seat possible. Definitely make sure you get one that will fit in your vehicle, but for me even it's worth taking up more room than others. Also think long term, making sure you get something they can use for a while. ;o) Best of luck!

B.
www.bellaamadis.com