[Shelly77]

My husband and I are newly certified to be foster (possibly fost-adopt) parents. Our age range is pretty broad, from 3 - 11 years old.

I want to be prepared in terms of being able to transport the child because if we get a child, we'll need to have a car seat.

However, with this broad of an age range, I don't know what kind I can get and I haven't seen one that would work for all the kids (and I wasn't really wanting to buy three or four).

I also didn't think I wanted to wait until we had the first kid in our home because then if we needed to go get a car seat we couldn't take the child with us to get it because they wouldn't be in a car seat on the trip to the store.

Just trying to determine what the best car seat would be and see what we can do to prepare.

Thank you in advance for any input or advice.

[LollipopsAndGumdrops]

You are only needing a car seat for the 3-5/6ish range (depending on the child's size). Small 7-9 yr olds could benefit from a simple booster to lift them up, but they can ride to the store safely to get one. So you need a stage 2 car seat for the preschool age range right now--the kind that faces forward with a 5 pt seat belt that can then have the seat belt removed to turn it into a convertible booster, using the car's seat belt. That will get you the most coverage for your age range and will cover any little one who has to be in a car seat.

[jphollen]

Check with your agency sometimes they loan you car seats when you have a placement.

[DPline]

Also check the laws in your state. In my state children must be in a car seat or booster until age 8 or 4'9" tall.

[shainamsu]

do you have craigslistings in your area? if so, get on craigslist.com and you'll most likely be able to find what you need.

my reccomendation:

-- get 1 conversion seat that's front facing. looks like this:http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8054497

-- get 1 booster seat that looks like this: Walmart.com: Cosco - Ambassador No-Back Booster Car Seat: Car Seats


all in all, you'll spend about $70 and you should be covered from ages 3-11 and 5-100 pounds. the conversion seat (not just the one linked, but most conversion seats in general), should also tilt back for rear-facing infants should that need arise. you never know!

[carlychan]

Be careful buying a used car seat. If they have been in an accident they are no longer usable.

[Biblemom]

Carseats/boosters are also not recommended to be used for more than 5 years.

[Withay]

If you continuously use the carseat (example: you get numerous placements of 3 yo's) or leave the seat in the car all the time, it is recommended that you replace them at 3 years. This is due to the continual increase/decrease in the temperature which can wreak havoc on the plastic strength.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a used carseat for any age/size. They aren't that expensive, especially when you consider a child's safety is at stake.

[DayintheLife]

I have an Eddie Bauer edition, I think its called Alpha Omega. It is good for 5-100 pounds. It comes with inserts to use with the tiny ones, and the harness comes off for the odler ones and can be used as a seat belt positioner. I have used the car seat for newborns, toddlers, and school age kids. It works great for all of them. It was $100, but well worth it.

[hcg]

You can get a Cosco Scenera for around $45. It's convertible, rear-facing from 5-35lb and forward-facing up to 40lb, so that would cover the seat itself. It's recommended that you keep children rear-facing as long as possible - at least 3 years, if you can. (I saw some crash test videos that demonstrated why.)

Then you just need a booster for the older ones.

I would never buy a used car seat. Even if it looks okay, you can't tell if there is internal structural damage. They're not that expensive, if you look away from the fancy namebrand ones, and the Scenera works just great!