Britax Marathon or Roundabout?

[Anonymous]

So…it’s time to move my little plump baby out of her infant car seat. Like most of you mommas and daddys on here I’ve been doing tons of research. After cross-referencing a lot of websites (Consumer Reports, carseatsite, nhtsa, etc) I’ve got it narrowed down to the Britax Marathon or Roundabout.

I’m planning on doing extended rear-facing and they both go up to 33lbs for that. The Marathon will do forward-facing up to 65lbs and the Roundabout to 40lbs. The Marathon is $60 more.

I know they say you can start using booster seat 40lbs/4years, but is there a safety plus to using the Marathon up to 65lbs instead of getting the Roundabout until 40lbs then buying a booster? Like if we buy the Marathon we’ll be able to skip buying a booster?!? (Are most able to get out of a booster by 65lbs?) Or is there other benefits to spending the little extra to get the Marathon that I don’t know about?

Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous]

We have a marathon for 2 reasons. 1- that he can stay in it until 65lbs and 2- I want to keep him in a harness as long as possible.

In my state kids have to be in a car/booster seat until the age of 8… so I know Cooper will eventually go to a booster, but at least with the marathon I don’t have to worry about his weight gain so much. My nephew will be 3 in dec and he is already almost 40 lbs so if he had a different car seat he could still be in a harness, but my mom is having to get him a booster b/c of his weight. We got dh a 3-1 carseat that is harness until 65lbs and then high back booster and regular booster.. it is a Graco Nautilus and we got it b/c of the harness until 65lbs and we can move him to a booster at the same time. I can say the marathon is very comfy… Cooper never well almost never has any issues being in his seat. HTH.

[Anonymous]

Not to hijack but…a booster until 8?!

I remember my mother driving me to preschool while I stood up on the front seat–not that I advocate that, but times sure have changed.

[hellbennt]

jonah is still in a 5-pt harness and will remain there as long as we can, LOL!

yep, times have changed.

The way I look at it is that I don’t have the money for a volvo (or a tank, LOL!) so I’ll buy the ‘Volvo’ of carseats- the Britax

oh & Ari is still rear-facing!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to update you guys to let you know we went with the Marathon. Love it so far. No complaints at all. DD seems to like it too.

Although…I have to say some family members have already started rolling their eyes when I explained how it’s rear-facing more than the standard 20lbs and forward-facing to 65lbs. Apparently they don’t get it. Oh yeah, I had my SIL say to me, “oh look, you’ll be able to turn her forward soon cause her legs are almost touching the back of the seat.” She’s going to flip out when she sees her still seating rear-racing at 30+ pounds . I don’t even know where she got the legs touching the rear seat thing. I mean that’s not even Ohio law or AAP recommendation. And she has two LO’s of her own!

Oh well…my baby’s gonna be as safe as I can make her!

Thanks for the previous posts!

[hellbennt]

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7652

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