Infant in convertible carseat

maidmarian83

We primarily use my car for most kid-related things.  DS1 is in a Radian, and DS2 is in a Chicco Keyfit 30.  DH only uses his car to go to work and home, but he picks DS1 up from daycare.  We have an Evenflow Tribute in DH's car for DS1.  DS2 starts daycare next week, and I figured that I would just buy another Chicco Keyfit base for DH's car.  When I looked these up, they're almost $80 on Amazon.  This seems like a lot for something that we're not really going to use for too long.  It's way more cost effective to just get DS2 a cheaper convertible seat for DH's car, since he can use for so much longer.  We will eventually be getting him a Radian for my car.

For my actual question... I know infants can go in convertible carseats (provided that it's one that's safe for infants 5 lbs or more), but does anybody have any real life experience with this?  Is it a total PITA to get them in and out of the seat?  I've only used an infant seat and the people I know IRL have only used infant seats.  Should I just suck it up and buy the Chicco Keyfit base and use it for a few months? FWIW, we had DS1 in a Radian around 7 months because I'm short and it was getting difficult to pull the Chicco carseat in and out of the car.

TYIA!

Eleventy11

You can always use the seatbelt in lieu of a base. DH does drop off every day and does this. We also did it when DD was little in my mom' struck. It's not hard and is just as safe. The base is mostly for convenience.

maidmarian83

Eleventy11 said:

You can always use the seatbelt in lieu of a base. DH does drop off every day and does this. We also did it when DD was little in my mom' struck. It's not hard and is just as safe. The base is mostly for convenience.

I had absolutely no idea you could do this.  Maybe I should have looked at the manual again...

Thank you so much!  

DreadLoc

Eleventy11 said:

You can always use the seatbelt in lieu of a base. DH does drop off every day and does this. We also did it when DD was little in my mom' struck. It's not hard and is just as safe. The base is mostly for convenience.

true that.  just give your manual a quick readover, watch a seatbelt install video on youtube, and practice a couple times.  completely just as safe as long as your seat allows it, bases are just for convenience.   

maidmarian83

DreadLoc said:

Eleventy11 said:

You can always use the seatbelt in lieu of a base. DH does drop off every day and does this. We also did it when DD was little in my mom' struck. It's not hard and is just as safe. The base is mostly for convenience.

true that.  just give your manual a quick readover, watch a seatbelt install video on youtube, and practice a couple times.  completely just as safe as long as your seat allows it, bases are just for convenience.   

For some reason, I always thought that the seat belt install option was putting the seat belt through the base instead of the car seat.  Both our cars have LATCH, so I never even took a look at the seat belt options.  This makes me super happy.

maidmarian83

FTWR said:

maidmarian83 said:

DreadLoc said:

Eleventy11 said:

You can always use the seatbelt in lieu of a base. DH does drop off every day and does this. We also did it when DD was little in my mom' struck. It's not hard and is just as safe. The base is mostly for convenience.

true that.  just give your manual a quick readover, watch a seatbelt install video on youtube, and practice a couple times.  completely just as safe as long as your seat allows it, bases are just for convenience.   

For some reason, I always thought that the seat belt install option was putting the seat belt through the base instead of the car seat.  Both our cars have LATCH, so I never even took a look at the seat belt options.  This makes me super happy.

We don't have LATCH in our cars so we used a seatbelt to secure the base but instead of moving the base into DH's truck, MIL's car, etc. we would just use the seatbelt on the actual base. No need to spend more $$$

We always just moved the base and, so far, have not had to move it to a car without LATCH.  I feel like a total idiot for not knowing this.