Best Booster Seat for Older, Petite Child?

[Paige]

My DD(7) needs a new booster/car seat. Hers fits fine but it has expired. She's been in it since she was an infant. I am torn on what kind of seat to get her. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something she'll outgrow shortly, but I don't want to skimp on protection either. She is 7, but only 35lbs. I had always wanted to wait until she was 40lbs to get her a booster but it is taking forever! We even waited a while past her seat's expiration thinking she'd have a growth spurt and hit 40lbs, but it's not happening. She's 43in tall. 

 

I haven't bought any kind of car seat in years and am out of the loop. What would you recommend? Ideally, I'd like one that could harness her to 40lbs and then switch to a belt positioning booster. I'd like one with side impact protection, and it would be even better if I could hook it up to the latch system even as a belt positioning booster to prevent it from becoming a projectile if there's a crash and it's unoccupied and unbelted. Her sisters' seats do that and I really appreciate that feature. I have been browsing amazon, but there's so many choices!

 

I am looking at the Britax Frontier 90, and maybe Recaro Performance Sport... any opinions on those. I'm hoping to find them cheaper somewhere.

[AndyJoy]

We have the Frontier 90 for the opposite reason that I have a 48-inch tall, 50 lb. 4-year-old. We really like it! It fits great in our van, I find it easy to install/adjust myself, not babyish at all. Good cupholders, comfy. In the last month he's learned to get himself in and out. It should last us as long as we need it. Our only negative is he may outgrow the chest straps earlier than I'd like because of his apparently massively wide neck but I doubt you'll have that problem! We got it on Amazon after watching the price fluctuate and pouncing. I know there are online programs that let you stalk Amazon sales easily.

[AmandaVT]

We have the Frontier too. DS has been in it since he was 3 and it's a great, long lasting seat. We converted him to booster mode when he was around 5 and the seat will grow with him until he is ready to sit without a booster.

[lloyd77]

The frontier or a graco nautilus would work fine for what you need.  We have a frontier for my petite 9 year old and love it, and have a nautilus for the second car.  I like the frontier better in every way (ease of buckling, ease of adjusting harness, plushiness of seat, etc) but it was about 100 bucks more expensive.  The nautilus is a perfectly fine seat, though, I just like the frontier better :)

[mom2scouts]

My small 7 year old uses a Graco Nautilus and she still uses the harness.

[ItoLina]

We were recently in a similar situation. My son is 6 1/2 and weighs 38lbs. We just put him into the Frontier and I love it. As far as I know (though I am to 100 percent sure) it's the only booster that connects to your actual car and has the strap that comes up between their legs to connect to the regular seat belt. My main concern with putting him into a booster being a bit under weight was that he would slide under the belt, or that the seat would slide out from under him in an accident. From my research those 2 things seemed to be the main safety issues with boosters. The Ftontier took care of both of those concerns.

 

I got mine from Amazon for $100 with free shipping.

 

ETA: I just looked on Amazon and it's not that cheap anymore. I guess I got a great deal when we bought it a few months ago. That said, it is really a great booster seat and I still recommend it if you are able to spend the $$.

[LMV]

Both DD4 and DFD6 (who we hope will have reached 40 pounds before she turns 7 but that seems less likely at the moment) have Britax Frontier 90 HBB.  These are really convertible seats and offer the option to use them with harness (up to 90 pounds I believe).  Currently they are both using the harness but these seats can adapt to be used without the harness and we will probably use them that way in the future.  We've been happy with them so far (enough that we bought a second seat for each child so we wouldn't have to do as much shuffling around between vehicles).

[Mommyof4ks]

My boys are tall, and they were able to stay harnessed in the Nautilus until nearly 8, so that one should work for you for a long time if she is on the smaller side.

[LMV]

I had the older version of the Frontier and hated it with a white hot passion.  It must have been improved....

 

What did you hate about it? They were easy to install and easy to get the girls into.  They were rated well but I'll admit we haven't put them to an actual in vivo crash testing and hope to never be in that situation. 

[MistyMountain]

My dd is tiny but I had her in a booster before she hit 40 lbs when her car seat expired because I felt she was ready age wise and maturity wise. She was mature enough to sit still and the booster fit her fine with how the shoulder strap and belt buckle fit. There is no evidence a 5 point is safer unlike with rear facing vs forward facing. In Scandinavian countries they actually say that boosters are safer because the whole body moves in an accident rather than the head in a 5 point seat. There is car seat forum I went on with lots of parents who are CPST and really into it all things carseats. They also felt that at a certain age even with a small child a booster is fine if they fit properly. I even took a picture of how she fit in the seats and posted there. She fit fine in both the Graco Turbo booster and the Evenflo Deluxe version. The Evenflo was easier to buckle in my vehicle so I went with that. Ds hit 40 lbs faster but he was less reliable with sitting still so he is in carseat longer.