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Nurseries and Baby Gear
lancyjo
member
212 Facebook Admin.
Convertible car seat recs, please!
lancyjo
member
Hi! I'm new to this board so please forgive me if this has been asked hundreds of times and I've missed it!
We're starting to look into convertible seats since the carrier is getting heavy, and Aria wants out of it ASAP when we go anywhere. (sleep in it? Forget it. Only on trips of an hour or more on the road... She won't stay asleep when we get her out, either.)
We aren't wanting to spend a lot of $ per seat... We have to buy three seats. (Aria spends almost equal time in my crossover, hubs truck, and my Mom's van. -she's our sitter- and we don't want keep switching seats around)
I would love Britax (or the like) but the price is just too steep with us buying 3.
Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated!
212 Facebook Admin.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Convertible car seat recs, please!
I am a vote for the britax car seat....we got a good deal on amazon...
But all car seats are deemed safe by law so anything you choose.
Will she be in each car equally? I would get a britax for the car she will be mostly in and then others for the other cars....IMO
All carseats have the same pass/fail tests in order to make it to market, so used properly they all are safe.
Britax seats are fine but really aren't the best on the market currently. They have shorter shells than many competitors and since the vast majority of kids outgrow seats for height long before hitting the weight limit that translates to shorter shelled seats being outgrown sooner. Britax seats have lots of bells and whistles, but IMO the bells and whistles are useless when it means the seat will need replacing sooner.
The graco myride 65 is consistently recommended on car-seat.org for longevity (the shell is tall and the weight limits are high) and the biggest complaint is that it's very reclined when forward facing, but since your daughter is a few months old you have a few years before you have to worry about a forward facing seat.
The evenflo triumph advanced is also frequently recommended as is the safety first comfort air. Both have reasonably tall shells and high rear facing weight limits.
The other seat that is very often recommended is a cosco scenera 40RF. It's a bare bones seat and can be trickier to install (you may want to go to a free carseat check to make sure it's in right) but it's a safe seat with reasonably high height and weight limits both rear facing and forward facing and it's $40-50.
If I were getting 3 I would get one cushier seat (graco, britax, whichever you like) that you would use for longer trips or times when she's most likely to need/want to sleep in the car then 2 coscos for the cars she spends less time in.
I would avoid any of the 3-in-1 rear facing/forward facing/booster seats (except the diono radian, which is a fantastic seat, but pricey, which is why I didn't mention it here) because they're usually subpar in at least one use, usually as a booster. Many offer a deadly seatbelt fit in booster mode, although if they're otherwise a good seat for you you can use one in harnessed mode and get a dedicated booster years down the line when you need one.
I agree with the post above that mentioned the Scenera and a few others.
That being said - you might want to consider a few things here. 1) How long do you plan on rear facing? AAP recommends until age 2 at least - and ideally to the length of the seat. After the research I have done (a lot over at car-seat.org - but also recently at fb group carseat for the littles) I'm hoping to make it to 3. That being said - a lot of seats won't go to 3. If your baby outgrows the seat and you have to buy 3 new seats.. then that may not save you a lot of money.
2) though it sounds like the cars you have should be ok - your crossover - depending on model (aka I have a subaru forester - you will have install issues with some seats) and DH's truck could all be an issue (vans are normally ok
) I recommend you head over to car-seat.org or carseat for littles on fb and ask with specific vehicle models which they recommend.
As my goal is to rear face soooo long - The diono radian (yes can be expensive but if you watch - especially on kohls (They run a bogo 50% off deal and sometimes it overlaps with kohls cash or coupon) - anyway - it will likely last me until my baby is 5 years old or more.. (I saw someone mention 6 or 7 recently). Another seat is the complete Air 65 - they did put a strict 40 inch limit (overall height) recently - but I've heard conflicting things on this.
Those are the two I know the most about for this - I have had a scenera and it is bare bones - but it is a safe seat that will rear face a good long time - be warned - if you use it to its full rear facing abilities - you likely will need a whole new seat for forward facing.