The Monterey XT is a great booster for any booster-ready child, especially those with larger builds. It is easy to install and use. The lower anchor connectors, cup holders, and adjustable width are all very nice features that make this seat uniquely customizable. While it is bulky and won’t work well in a three-across situation, the Diono Monterey XT is definitely a great seat for bigger littles.
All forward facing harnessed car seats have a top tether. The top tether is an essential piece of safety equipment and an essential part of protecting children who ride forward facing in their harnessed car seats.
Since the model year 1999, all new cars in the United States and Canada include at least three tether anchors to connect those top tethers. These anchors will be identified in your vehicle’s manual and often with a tether anchor symbol near the tether itself.
Top tethers are essential safety equipment for forward facing car seats. They’re generally easy to find — they’re connected at the back to the top of your child’s convertible, multimode, or combination car seat.
There are two parts to top tether togetherness. The top tether anchor on the car seat and the tether anchor on the vehicle itself.
Car seats, child restraints, whatever you call them, here at CSFTL we’re big fans of this life saving technology. So deep is our love that we’ve written love songs to our LATCH manuals and haikus about snowy mornings loading the kids to drive to grandma’s house.
Believe it or not, our idea of a fun Saturday afternoon is helping as many caregivers as possible properly install car seats. As long as we’re fantasizing, we’d like a nice air conditioned garage to do those seat checks in, please.
Many seats in Europe harness to 18 kg. For bigger littles, though, this can be a problem. Luckily, there are several seats available that harness until 25 kg. A higher limit seat can help you keep your little safely harnessed until they’re ready to move to a booster. Many of these seats are Scandinavian –
Graco already has an impressive lineup of long-lasting convertible car seats. The 4Ever Extend2Fit is a combination of two other popular seats: the Extend2Fit and the 4Ever.
The 4Ever Extend2Fit combines the 4Ever’s four modes of use: rear facing, forward facing, high back, and backless booster with the Extend2Fit’s 50 pound rear facing weight limit and extendable foot tray.
Nuna staked their claim in the car seat market with the Pipa rear facing only car seat and has expanded their easy-to-use offerings to include the RAVA convertible car seat and AACE booster seat. Their latest addition to their lineup took the popular Pipa rear facing only car seat, removed a staggering 2 pounds of weight, and created the ridiculously lightweight Pipa Lite.
The Idan is a very stylish addition to the gb lineup. Unfortunately, it has too many flaws for us to be able to recommend it. Here’s a quick summary: the headrest positions the baby with the chin against the chest, the straps are virtually impossible to tighten, the manual gives unclear instructions about the infant insert, and the straps twist almost every time you use them.
It’s kind of a rare day when a car seat that’s exclusive to Canada comes along. So we were more than excited to meet the new, Canada-exclusive, backless booster from bily, an acronym which stands for baby I love you. This seat is distributed by Elfe Juvenile products and has a lot of potential for three across scenarios, carpooling, and travel!
The design team at Graco is a master at creating booster seats that are easy to use, well-priced, long-lasting, and provide an excellent belt fit. The Affix is a cousin of the much loved TurboBooster, but adds lower anchors to an already popular seat. AND! It’s now available in Canada so we’re updating this review so reflect the key differences between the United States and Canadian versions of the seat.
