The Frugal Family: The Holy Grail of Child Car Seats

At nearly four years old, Jack has gone into some sort of developmental hyper speed. Suddenly he is telling complex stories, learning to spell and read, and growing out of everything all at once. I'm surprised on a daily basis by the cognitive connections he makes, so it's no wonder I get distracted from things like his changing shoe size.

I recently noticed that Jack's head was quickly inching toward the top of his Britax Roundabout car seat. I can't tell you how sad it made me to think that what I call "the Lexus of car seats" would soon be retired. Britax car seats are generally the priciest on the market but I was wooed by the ease of installation and the high safety rating. I am not ashamed to admit that I mourned the thought of giving this seat up.

It had been some time since I had last researched car seats, so I set out to scour the web for reviews and recommendations, beginning with Car-Safety.org. I found a lot of parents reluctant to spend more money on a seat their child would quickly outgrow. Safety is paramount, but is it really necessary to sink hundreds of dollars into a new seat every couple of years? In addition, many car seats are so wide that it's hard to fit passengers or other car seats in the back next to it; families with multiple young children are often upgrading to vans in order to transport groups of children. With an eye toward a future possibility of family expansion and an unwillingness to buy a bigger, gas-guzzling car, I decided we needed a narrow seat (if such a thing existed).

To my delight, I stumbled upon the Sunshine Kids Radian. The Radian has the buckle-style LATCH belts for which the Britax line is well-known. Aside from this, the Radian holds the title as the narrowest seat on the market and outperforms the other top-performing carseat in that the 80SL model accommodates a child up to 80 pounds (allowing for longer use of the 5 point harness). The Radian is also designed to sit closer to the seat of the car, which makes it a lot easier for toddlers to climb into and keeps the center of gravity lower in case of an accident. Have I mentioned this seat is foldable for easy transport and approved for air travel? I can't think of a single thing this seat is missing...

Possibly best of all, the Radian is a convertible seat that can be used right from the newborn stage! Rather than spend money on infant, convertible, and booster seats for one child, parents can spend around $240 on a seat that will last throughout childhood. I feel like I've found the Holy Grail of car seats.

Have you found the car seat search as challenging as I have? What seat has worked best for your child?

Crystal Ritchie lives and blogs in San Francisco with her preschooler son Jack and her partner in crime/fiance David. She loves to share stories, tips, and tricks related to the parenting gig. When she is not parenting, writing as the San Francisco City Guide Editor for Savvy Source and on her personal blog, Ewokmama.com, or scoping out awesome deals, she can be found working at a software company in her favorite city.