I purchased the pictured items myself. I was not asked to write, nor was I compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links. All of my kids are quite petite, and my daughter rear-faced until 4, harnessed until 7, and is still in a booster at age 9.5. This is a non-negotiable issue in our house, but I’m sympathetic that she’s in a booster while none of her friends are.
Part of the issue is that she’s more petite than many of her friends. Then again, when she was rear-facing in 3-year preschool, many of the equally tiny kids were in low-back boosters. In any case, she was perfectly happy with her Britax Parkway booster until recently, when she started to complain about using it. (She is definitely not ready to sit without one.) Our recent compromise was to take the back off and let her use it as a low back booster. She still wasn’t thrilled about it, especially since the Britax Frontier we just bought for her 5 year old brother looks so similar.
At a recent car seat safety Twitter chat, someone mentioned the Safety 1st Incognito. It’s a very simple, low profile booster designed for kids 60-120 lbs and 47-60″. It comes in 4 colors: black, dark gray (actually light gray), gray (actually dark tan) and tan (a light ivory color.) It’s designed to blend right into the seat and be virtually unnoticeable, while still positioning the seatbelt low on the child’s thighs and safely in the middle of the chest. As you can see above, it is very sleek compared to the traditional booster.
The manual was in a pouch sewn to the booster – I did read it to make sure we were using it properly. The little clips on the side work like the secure guard on the Britax, to position the seatbelt and prevent the child from sliding under it during an accident. We seem to be able to leave the one side attached but the one on the buckle side needs to be slid on each time. I can tell already that this will lead to lots of nagging & reminding and pouting and eyerolling.
When it’s in the car, you can hardly tell it’s there.
Due to the angle it looks a little bit high in the photo above, but the belt actually sat right on her upper thighs. My daughter was about 60 pounds with shoes on at the doctor last week, so she might need to wait a little bit before riding in this. She’s pretty happy with it, and I was pretty happy with the price – just $19.99. I’m going to buy an extra for my husband’s car as soon as I figure out whether the tan or the “gray” would better match his beige interior (I think the “gray.”) This would be a great seat to tote around when you travel (booster seats aren’t for use on an aircraft but this one is lightweight and easy to stow.) My daughter has only really sat on it once and complained that it was “too hard,” so we’ve brought it inside until she it more motivated to ditch the pink booster. I don’t think it feels hard but what do I know. 😉
You can buy the Safety 1st Incognito Booster for $19.99 at Amazon.
Do you have an older child that still needs a booster, or do you forsee your little one being in a booster “forever?”
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
[…] My son loves that it looks like a big kid seat and even has arm rests & cup holders! It would be nice if it also became a low-back booster but I think by the time he’s finished with this he’ll either be booster-free or able to use a discreet booster. […]
I used a Graco very similar to this. The kids definitely liked it better than the car seats. However, boosters are definitely harder to sit on than the car seats.