shopping carts and carseats

addslove · March 2009

Ok. So I've been venturing out a bit more (yeah me!) and have been a couple places where Lil's carseat doesn't fit in the shopping cart. I have seen people put them in the seat portion of the cart but that doesn't seem very sturdy to me. So where do you put the carseat if it doesn't fit IN the cart? Today at Old Navy, I gave up on the cart and just ended up carrying the carseat.

hav2run · March 2009

If it does not lock in, I either stay in front of the cart and keep my hands on the carseat at all times or I put her carseat in the basket part of the cart. If I know she wont fit, I just put her in the snap n go and do not bother with the cart. I am so mad at Kroger for putting advertisement plates on ALL of their carts which prevents the carseat from latching in. What exactly is that all about? You can't convince me that those plates are comfy for older kids to lean against either.

AgathiP04 · March 2009

I remember how mad I was a Meijer for getting rid of their infant seat carts. At Old Navy and Kohls and JCP they have carts made for infant seats. At the grocery, I would do what the PP said. I remember, though, when Niko outgrew the infant seat, but was too little to sit up in the cart I was at a loss at Meijer! They didn't have the infant seat carts! How comfortable do you feel babywearing? I did that while shopping, too!

I was just thinking yesterday...how am I going to go to the mall next time? DS doesn't sit in a stroller anymore...

LoriZ · March 2009

Ditto PPs. I never felt comfortable putting the car seat on top of the seat part of shopping carts, so I would either put the seat inside the cart, use the stroller, or use the Bjorn. I still tend to use the stroller the vast majority of the time and only use a cart when doing grocery shopping. It turns out it's a great way to limit what I buy since I have to carry it all while pushing the stroller!

andailey · March 2009

I am quite short (5'2"), so I could never SEE over the carseat when it was locked into the cart.. (and it never really locked securely in place). For this reason, I have been using the Bjorn more often when venturing out with DD. She loves looking around, and the other day at Kroger, she even gripped the cart handle like she wanted to push the cart, which prevented me from grabbing items from the shelves.

She would wail when I gently removed her hands from the handle to retrieve items. So funny!

Megs&Nick · March 2009

We usually use the stroller. I can't ever get our carseat to lock onto the carts for some reason and I think the stroller is easier to push anyway.

MrsMoher · March 2009

I agree with all the PPs, we did a lot of baby wearing and we did put the car seat up top (even if it wouldn't lock) and just keep a very close eye on him. But I would suggest try to turn the car seat side ways in the seat part. We couldn't get ours to latch very often (I think the safe seat doesn't latch as well because of it being designed differently) and we often had to turn it side ways and althrough it didn't latch there was enough of the pumpkin-seat down in there that it was pretty darn secure. Plus you can always use the little kids seat belt to help hold the car seat in.

Also E sat up in the seat fairly early, we just made sure to cover the seat all around, back, front, and sides to help prop him up and keep his soft little skin from getting hurt by the metal. He did great pretty early (I want to say maybe at about 4 or 5 months even). He wasn't really sitting up on his own yet, but since we had our jackets, my purse the diaper bag (plus all the blankets and stuff in the diaper bag), we were able to put enough around him that he could easily sit in the seat and still wear the seat belt. Just be sure to put something OVER THE HANDLES... because they LOVE to chew on that thing. I forgot one day and couldn't keep my eyes off of him or else he was chewing on it.

bgsugrad · March 2009

I remember having the same issue with some of the carts - and I think one major place was Kroger - it was never really steady, so if I had to do some grocery shopping with DD I could only do a little at a time! I ended up putting the seat down the in the cart at most stores. When she was able to sit we got a seat cover and I always kept Clorox wipes with me to wipe it down first (still do)...we too would fill in the space with blanket, jacket....