Britax Car Seats - Madison,WI

The best resource I have have found is http://www.kyledavidmiller.org/ and their sister site www.hipmonkey.com

They have info about all the best carseats and you can e-mail them and tell them your situation and your car type and they will suggest the best carseat for you.

We went with the Sunshine Kids Radian 80. It's made with metal instead of plastic...makes me feel better. Plus it's not such a huge carseat like the Britax and it comes with lots of padding for the little ones :o) We have two and have had them for over a year now and I still love them!

Good luck! Picking something as important as a carseat is not an easy task!

~A.

The Roundabout will rear face to 33lbs, forward face to 40lbs. Most kids outgrow this seat between age 3 and 4. Its a good seat, but for that height/weight limit, you could spend $100 on another brand and get the same use out of it. Not worth the extra money for a Roundabout, IMO.

The Marathon will rear face to 35lbs, and forward to 65lbs. Most kids will outgrow it before they ever reach 65lbs, however most kids can easily use this seat to age 6. My oldest is 6.5, 50lbs, and 52'' tall and just outgrew the Marathon not long ago. The Marathon is the seat Iwould go with. In February, Britax has its big sale, you can get a good deal on a Marathon (usually $50 or more off the price) online. albeebaby.com or tinyride.com has good deals.

I would NOT recommend the Regent like hte other poster suggested. My youngest is 3 and the Regent is STILL big on him. A 1yr old would swim in it, and its not safe to fowrad face a child that soon anyway. I know the 'norm' is 1yr and 20lbs, however the AAP recommends children remain rear facing until at least age 2 and 33lbs, or until the rear facing weight limits of the car seat. The Britax Marathon will rear face to 35lbs.... your child should remain rear facing thatl ong. My boys were rear facing to 19 and 22 mos. Injury sustained from a child forward facing too soon (before age 2) even in a minor collision is fatal. Please research extended rear facing before you turn your child forward facing. He should remain rear facing for at least another year. Its not a milestone.... please consider extended rear facing.

ANYWAY.... the Marathon would be your best bet. Its a great seat, comfy and easy to use, install, clean. THe harenss will not twist, your son will be able to easily sleep in it. It will easily hold him in hte harness until he is 5/6yrs old, then you can move him to a simple booster until he is 8yrs, 80lbs, 4'9'' tall (the recs for sitting in the seat wihtout a booster).

ETA I just want to clarify, someone said carseats expire after 5yrs. Its 6yrs from the date of manufacture, unless you get a SUnshine Kids Radian 65 or 80, they do not expire until 8yrs after the date of manufacture. A Marathon will expire 6yrs from date of manufacture, and you child will easily be able to use it until he is 5/6yrs old, so you will get the full life out of it, then can move him to a simple booster at 6yrs old.

We have one of each and I like the marathon better. The stuff I have read lately says that it is best to keep your kids in a 5 point harnes as long as possible and the marathon is great for that. So. I guess as long as it will fit in your cars I would go for that one. They go on sale twice a year online. One of those might be coming up.

Hi Alison,

I have three Britax seats (2 Marathons and a Frontier booster)and I love them all. We went with the Marathon because it was able to accommodate a child until they could go into a booster and it was a little bit bigger of a seat so I thought my son would not be squished as he got bigger. I also didn't want to be buying tons of different seats. I believe you can put a child in a booster at 40lbs it depends on the seat. We again purchased a Britax booster because I liked having him in a 5 point harness still. He is 3 years old and I just didn't feel right having him use just a seat belt with a booster. I hope this helps.

A.

We have two of the Britax Decathlons and love them!

We have two Britax Roundabouts and are very happy with them. We considered the Marathon, but decided against it because of its size. It is taller and wider than the Roundabout and wouldn't fit well in our cars forward facing. I would go to store that will let you test the seat in the car before buying, if you decide you'd prefer the Marathon.

I have a Roundabout and love it. It is a little more compact than the others but still very safe. If I remember correctly we found reviews of some car seats...might have been the Consumer reports website..and the roundabout got a very high rating. Might be a good place to look.

We own two Britax carseats and love them, but my 5 year old will need to move out of his due to our newest addition to the family. I do not want to move him to a booster seat yet as I have read how unsafe it if for children to not be in a 5 point harness. So, Britax has a new carseat called the Frontier. You may want to look at that one also as it will convert to a 5 point harness booster with the latch system and is good to 100 lbs. It looks like it keeps your child the safest the longest.
Good luck,

I have a marathon and I love it. I can move it easily from van to car and I'm 7 months pregnant! I noticed that the roundabouts don't have shoulder straps...and that would bug me. Good luck! They are great car seats...I ordered mine from amazon.com and it was $50.00 cheaper.

I was torn between the two models as well. I went with the Marathon and I love it! Just make sure it'll fit in your vehicle rear-facing before you buy it. I think you can test them out at Babies R Us. It fits great in my Pacifica so I think it would do fine in SUVs and minivans, but I've heard that some sedans and coupes can't accomodate a Marathon in the rear-facing position.

I've had both. I would go with the Marathon. I had my daughter in the Marathon til age6. That seat ROCKS! I am looking at another Marathon for my 4mo.old right now.

I have three kids ages 5,3, and 5 months and they all are in a Marathon carseat!! I love them and my daughter will be in it till she is too tall (b/c she is so skinning I see her getting too tall before outweighing it) I like the saftey of her in a five point harness as long as possible!!! She is 5 and only weighs about 40lbs so she can be in it till 65lbs so lots of room to grow!! They are great when they fall asleep they are comfy and cozy!! I would never buy another brand of carseat as long as I have kids, they are awesome!!

I believe in using a 5-pt harness as long as possible and until they are old enough to use a regular seat belt so my views and choices are based on that. A 40 lb. child is going to be around age 4 and an 80 lb. child will be between 9-13 yrs. old. So, here's my recommendation.

Because your child is under a year you can't do a Regent (goes up to 80 lbs. and needs to be 1) but I see he's 11 months old so if you can hold out I'd do the Regent because you'll only need one expense for a seat that'll last you until he's 8-9 yrs. old! To answer your directly question I'd do the Marathon.

I was going to recommend the Roundabout and then buying a Regent later but he's so close to a year.

I purchased the Marathon (up to 65 lbs.) over Roundabout (up to 40 lbs.) because of the weight limit. My oldest was 25 months old when the youngest was born and we purchased the oldest the Regent (1 yr. and 22-80 lbs.)

This week my kids were weighed at the doctors and my almost 4.5 yr. old is exactly 40 lbs. and my almost 2.5 yr. old is 35.5 lbs. FYI-you do know that there are other seats by Britax that offer the same 5-35 lbs. seat with rear facing at 1 yr. and 20-65 lbs. with 49" or less. They are the Decathlon, Boulevard and Boulevard CS.

Alison,
I am a certified child safety seat tech and I believe if you are financially able to get a seat that has the harness capability on the higher weight limits then I would do that, there are ones I think that go to 100 lbs. There are also seats that are forward facing and go to a booster too. With him turning a year soon he would be able to use one of those until he turns 8 and can move to a regular seat belt. We have the Evenflo Triumph that goes to 50 lb. so then we will get a booster for him when he reaches that. Good luck. I remember how hard it was for me to decide which seat was the best without breaking my pocketbook. I would get two of the same seat though.

Hi Alison,
I recently got the marathon because of the weight limit that is higher than the roundabout. I got mine at albeebaby.com only paid $179 for it!! They also had free shipping for orders over $100. I would check there. I was so excited to get $100 off all the other prices I was finding! Good luck!
-L.

I see you already have alot of advice, and i may be repeating some of it, but i have two children, both in Roundabouts. I have loved these car seats. They are easy and compact. I bought them because I thought i would just move my kid to a booster seat at 40 pounds. now i am wishing i had bought the marathons. my 40 pound kid seems too little to put in a booster seat, and the more research i am doing, to more i am finding that keeping your kid in a 5 point harness for as long as possible is the safest route.

so now we are buying a marathon to move the 40 pound kid into. wish i would have just stared with it in the first place!

Hi Alison
I am unfamiliar with either of these carseats but wanted to mention to keep in mind that a carseat is only good for 5 years and then needs to be replaced because of the extreme tempeture changes and the updated safty features so you may not want to spend so much money knowing they will still need to be in a seat for at least 2 years or longer my son is almost 10 and still needs to be in a booster seat.