Need Advice on a Convertible Car Seat for Toddler

Lets face it times are tough. Who honestly has the money these days to buy THREE car seats for ONE child.

After the few years of working at Babies R Us, it took until I had my first child to really understand the hype about car seats. I'm excited to announce that after all the complaints I think car seat manufactures have listened!!!

It's called: Nautilus™ 3-in-1 Car Seat, by Graco. This seat is designed for the next step AFTER the infant carrier.It does a 5 point harness to 65 pounds, high back booster, and eventually a backless booster to 100 pounds!!! Retails for around 170 bucks. Super cheap considering all the features and longevity of this seat. Well worth this investment. You can buy it at Target and Babies R Us.

I hope this info is helpful to you.

My daughter just turned 3 and I bought the Graco Nautilus. It is a toddler seat with a 5-point harness for up to 65 pounds and then converts to a high-back booster and then once more to a backless booster for up to 100 pounds. So far we have been very happy with it and she loves it.
Good luck!

Well, it sort of depends on how big your 3 y/o is. The Graco ComfortSport I really like and it only runs around $80. But it also only has a weight limit of 40 lbs....which was ok for our girl since she'll be 20 before she reaches 40 lbs :) Graco has nother convertible carseat that is in the early hundreds that I think goes up to 60 lbs.

I just want to say that we just bought our 2nd Nautilus about a week ago for our 18 month old. It is a great seat and one of the safest on the market. Some Wal-Marts carry them in store. They also carry them online and you can have them shipped site-to-store or to your door for .97 cents.

The straps are really easy to adjust. You can loosen and tighten at will. The adjustment strap is in the front. It's wonderful. With the weather here in CO you could be wearing a coat one day and long sleeved shirt the next. The straps make this a breeze to transition between.

Good luck on finding the right seat for your little guy.

I think you're going to have to go w/a forward facing seat w/the understanding that you'll need to buy a booster when he outgrows the straps. Maybe it was because my kids are very thin, but there's not a forward facing out there that will convert to a SAFE booster for my kids. Because all of them come out at the head for head protection when they're five-point, the seat belt doesn't hit their little bodies until well below their ribs - not good. So, just buy a five-point that fits your car(s) and your boy and recognize that you'll have to spend about $40 when he grows out of it for a booster. My husband grinched and moaned about the cost of car seats each and every time we had to do something - I just told him - are you willing to cheap out and then look yourself in the eye if we have an accident? Of course, the answer was "no." Its just not worth it to not put out the $$ as needed for this item.

We use the Alpha Omega convertible seat for our now 2 yr old and plan on using it for our 7 month old within the next month. It was about $150 so not too expensive but not necessarily cheap either. I justified it as spending $50 per seat since it did rear facing, forward facing and will convert to a booster when needed. If you go to Babies-R-Us to look at their seats they will let you try them in your car too and you can see how well they fit your son. I would definitly recommend a "racing" style seat for him if a regular seat seems to be squishing him. Good luck!

If funds are a concern the Health Department sells carseats when they do the safety checks. They are usually a fairly good deal. You might want to check and see what they have available. Just call their office and they can let you know what brand they have and cost.

I bought mine at Kmart for about $70.00. And it has been very nice. Not very easy to move to different cars but once its in, it is very nice. Im sorry I don't remember the brand name. But I found it on the kmart website and then went in to the store and bought it.

B. O
The MOM Team

I was just doing some car seat research myself and a friend pointed me to this forum: www.car-seat.org.

Tons of great info & product reviews. You can post your question there and they'll help you out... it seems to be mostly car seat technicians & certified safety folks.

If you don't have time to go there, I do know that they all seem to like the Graco Nautilus that was mentioned by another poster.

Best of luck!