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@peachykeen: My oldest H was in a convertible carseat from 9 months to 3.5 years. At that point, we passed her seat down to the baby and purchased a harness-to-booster seat. I kind of hate our convertible seat now that we are four years in, so as soon as A (my youngest) turns two, I'm turning her around and buying a harness-to-booster seat for her.

LO1 stayed in his convertible car seat until he turned 5. He still had another 6 -12 months left before outgrowing, but he is on the small side (5-10 percentile). LO2 recently switched to a 5 point harness booster shortly after he turned 4 because I found a great deal (less than $100 for Britax Frontier), and I wanted to pass down my convertible.

We kept my older son in his convertible until he outgrew it at 4 (he had been in it since 6 months). Then we switched to the harnessed booster. My son is 75th % for height but 90th for weight.

We moved my son at 4, when we put my daughter in his convertible and moved my son to a high back harnessed booster, which is basically the same thing as a forward facing convertible. He will be in his booster for several more years.

DD1 was RFing until almost 4 (starting around 7 months old) and now FFing in her convertible at 5. We bought DD2 the same convertible seat (clek) because of its high height limits and 9 year expiration. We’re having a 3rd and she will use the same infant seat the girls used until it expires at the end of this year, at which point, I’m going to get DD1 a high back booster. She’ll be almost 6 and probably close to growing it of the height limit in the 90th height percentile. The convertible seat is one I’m happy I spent more on to get one that lasts so long!

We moved my oldest at 3.5 to a harness to booster, so brother could have the convertible. Once they forward face, any seat with a harness is the same safety wise, so it made more sense to us to have the booster option for later vs buy another convertible. It’s a frontier clicktight and other than being giant i love it - we never move it so that’s not an issue. At 6 we just moved her to using the booster with seatbelt. Now brother is 3 and already ff so soon he’ll get the frontier (he’s about to hit the latch weight limit on the convertible) and she’ll move to a booster only.

@peachykeen: the big factor in moving to booster is how well they sit still, so the seatbelt is in the correct place. So if your dd1 is like that should be fine at 6. A high back booster isn’t necessarily safer but can encourage sitting up straight and give them a head rest if they fall asleep. And they’re still pretty cheap if you go that route vs backless.

We transitioned DD1 to a forward-facing harnessed booster at about 3.5 because we had to pass down her convertible seat. I researched the heck out of the purchase we made, and am very happy with the seats we have. DD1’s is forward facing only and converts well to belt-positioning, and DD2’s is a convertible that doesn’t necessarily convert well to a belt-positioning booster but I was okay with that because DD1 can be in a high-back booster (which is inexpensive to purchase) by the time DD2 needs it. I would just really recommend sort of mapping out your car seat needs over the next few years. Who will need what type of seat when? Do you need a harnessed booster that can convert well to a belt positioning booster (I think it’s the car seat lady or csftl that has good info on that; I didn’t feel we needed that because belt positioning only boosters are inexpensive)? If you will be having three kids, will you need to fit 3 across in your vehicle? Do you want a cushy convertible car seat, or one that will feel more like a big kid seat when they’re still in it at age 5 or 6? Are your kids tall? I made a few car seat purchases I regretted and mapping all of this out before we got the harnessed booster was helpful for me. But maybe that’s something everyone else already does and I was just being a newbie!

We switched from a convertible to a 3-in-1 combination seat/booster at 5.5 years old. LO was RF until she was a little older than 4, then FF until 5.5 then we switched her into a 5-point 3-in-one that will convert to a booster and then backless booster.

Size-wise she is in approx. 20% for height/weight.

I think we might have used the convertible seat until around age 4. We moved to forward facing by then and I learned about combination seats.

@Foodnerd81: not any super legit reason the convertible was really dirty and LO was complaining it felt "too small" and the 3-in-1 was on mega sale at Babies R Us with great ebates cash. So I just pulled the trigger and switched her then since we would have to within the next year anyhow.

We moved Miss A to a combination seat at around 2.5 so her baby brother could go into her convertible seat and she’s still harnessed in the combination seat at 5y4m and has at least another year to go before she hits the harness limits. In our other car Miss A is in an Evenflo Big Kid Amp seatbelt booster and she sits fine for shorter trips (that’s all we do in our second vehicle) but she may have to transition to the seatbelt booster full time once baby #3 outgrows the capsule and we need to get three big seats across the car (hopefully that won’t be until 2019).

My 5 year old is still comfortably in his NextFit for his primary seat (and will be for awhile longer.) He also has a 5-point harness booster that will convert eventually to a backless booster for his secondary. I actually still prefer the NextFit for longer trips because he can take significantly better naps in it. The harness booster is perfectly fine safety wise but less comfortable for long drives. It's a lot more upright and doesn't have as much head support. Since really long drives are normal for us, we got a second NextFit for LO2 instead of just moving LO1 to the harness booster full time.

Our almost-4yo is still in her convertible, though forward facing. I hadn't even thought about about switching her to a booster, though I received a 2nd convertible from a raffle anyway so didn't need to buy one for lo2 when she grew out of the infant seat

DS1 is 3.5. He is 33 pounds and 40" tall (maybe more?). He's really high up there in percentiles for height. He's still rear facing in his NextFit, although he's had to change over from the Latch install to the seatbelt install. He seems happy there and I know its more comfortable for car rides since he's reclined a bit and has more head support, so we haven't considered forward facing or moving him to a harness/booster yet.

DS2 got his own NextFit because the point at which we switched him out of his infant bucket, DS1 would have been a few months shy of 3. We had a long road trip and we wanted him to be comfortable too.

I think for DS1, we're looking at rearfacing him at the very least until the end of this year (so past the age of 4). I doubt he will hit the 40lb rear facing limit within the calendar year and he's still got a ways to hit the 49 inch height limit - granted, he has a long torso so he may outgrow the seat sooner than that actual height. I would not be surprised if (1) we could keep him rearfacing for another year until he's 4.5 and (2) we actually never end up using the NextFit in forward facing mode before having to get a harness to booster bc of his height. Even if we did, I suspect we'd only use it forward facing for a short while.

But he's also never questioned rearfacing, especially since his younger brother also rear faces right across from him and he can see us just fine in the mirror. I think moving him now would actually confuse him more. And I'm not looking to have a toddler kick the back of my seat while I'm driving.