The Car Seat - to - Booster Seat Struggle
I am hoping to help - especially those of you with toddlers or younger children - or those of you beginning this battle yourself - to save you the time and effort into research, and money wasted buying seat after seat to only have your little ones outgrow their new car seats in the blink of an eye, or to throw money away on boosters they’re just not ready for. On one hand, I have been super afraid of being denied by insurance to get a “special needs forward-facing 5-point HARNESSED Booster Seat” for my daughter, Jane (who, is almost 7 years old, 44” tall, and about 50 pounds - by the way); as she is able to sit up on her own and is “physically” capable. I’ve spent 2-3 years now, purchasing car seat - after car seat - for her to continually outgrow the harness shoulder height. So I gave in and bought a high back booster, in which we had to use the vehicle seat belt; as well as trying it without the “high back.” But because Jane has PCDH19 and resulting cognitive delays, she is not currently capable of sitting in a seat appropriately. She usually slides down so she is laying with her back on the seat part, it was just not safe and she didn’t seem “secure” using just the vehicle seat belt with a booster alone. So we have been through this back and forth, seemingly never-ending search for an appropriate car seat/booster, which has continued to be a major struggle for us.
I happened to begin working this year with a lovely young lady, who is car seat safety trained and certified. On top of that, she has 3 young children of her own under age 10. This is the seat that was recommended to her for safety and one that she has purchased for her kids and recommended! The Britax Frontier Clicktight Harness Booster - she imparted emphatically to me that this seat still fits her almost 10-year-old, and he’s completely comfortable in it.
On top of being amazingly easy to install with the clicktight system, its recommended weight for the harness is 25-90 pounds. Can I say Hallelujah!?! It seemed too good to be true. But - seeing how I was desperate to find something that worked to keep my little one safe, I just had to purchase and try this out!!
This is the first seat I’ve purchased where I have actually been able to adjust the headrest up with the harness. Did you know - somehow, miraculously, there’s no “re-threading” the straps through to raise the height - it goes up with the click and pull of the button! I also feel that there is more than enough room to continue to increase the height while Jane grows! I’m sooo happy with this seat and that we have until she is 90 pounds and much taller!
I wish a thousand times over that I had known about this seat 3 years ago instead of going through 4-5 different seats in a few short years.
Yes - it is a whopping $280 U.S. on Amazon, which seems quite expensive for a car seat. But, we have had many different seats and always love our Britax ones. I in no way work for them or am getting paid to say this - I am just in awe of how amazing this seat has worked so far and definitely plan to buy a second one. We’ve wasted at least $600 on seats she’s outgrown or boosters that she’s not ready for, when we could have just had this one all along for the $280.
