Car Seat Question!

ceillyang · August 2016

FTM here. If I buy a car seat this year. Will I need to buy a new one 4 years from now? Not sure how often safety requirements change. Deciding between a neutral color car seat or a cute pink one for my girl.

emy730 · August 2016

That largely depends on the seat you choose to buy.

adorebella · August 2016

Most car seats last for 6 years and have an expiration date on the bottom. The reason is the plastic becomes brittle and would not hold up in an accident after that point.

rcm599y · August 2016

If you buy an infant bucket seat, you'll need to buy a new one around the time baby is a year old. My infant seat goes up to 31 inches (don't remember the weight) and my son was 30 inches at his 12 month appointment so it was time for him to switch to a convertible seat then. A convertible seat works for rear and forward facing so my plan is to keep him in that seat until he is ready for a booster. The convertible seat I have does not expire for 8 years so barring a car accident or recall, I do not plan to buy another. The infant seat will be passed down to baby #2 for me so I went with a gender neutral option.

Wholesome · August 2016

I usually recommend getting a bucket infant seat to start because they are made for teeny tiny babies. Then when your kid maxes out either the height or weight limitations on that (usually around 12 months), I recommend getting a convertible car seat that can rear face for as long as possible before you flip it around to forward facing. I have the Diono Rainier because of its very high limitations for rearfacing because we would like to rear face as long as possible. The seat is heavy and large though, it barely fits in my Subaru Forester, and that's with the Diono Angle Adjuster, which tips the chair up more, so it doesn't take up so much room from directly behind.

this video gives a 1-minute explanation as to why most moms prefer to rear face as long as possible:

https://youtu.be/Sg5i9YInU64

ashanne88 · August 2016

Agree with @emy730. It's going to be seat/manufacturer dependent. If you're getting an infant bucket seat, keep in mind that it will only be used for a year or possibly less. If you're getting a convertible seat, it will last a lot longer. I like to look at it as how much to a want to spend overall and what do I want to be able to reuse vs just re-buy.

ceillyang · August 2016

Thanks for all the feedback so far! I was thinking about getting a 3-in-1 car seat that converts which is why I had that question, but I need a stroller so I think I'm going to get a travel system and just buy my daughter a booster seat when she gets older so our 2nd can take over the car seat.

Wholesome · August 2016

Oh, I forgot to mention the specs for my Diono Rainier, just in case you are interested. I can rear face until my son is 50 pounds at which point I can turn it around and forward face with the 5-point safety harness up to 90-pounds. THEN, using he same seat, I can use it as a booster up to 120-pounds. So, I won't need to buy another seat for my son.

I also use the seat on airplanes - I have to forward face it on airplanes though because it is too bulky to rear face. Having your kids locked and loaded in a car seat on an airplane is SO much easier than trying to keep them in a seat with a lap belt, and much more comfortable for everyone.

Wholesome · August 2016

There is a huge string on strollers, with many people talking about their preferred strollers. I bought a travel system stroller to go with my infant car seat (it matches the high chair, pack and play too, so I thought I was getting a magical find. It was horrible, I hated it because it isn't practical for my use (don't really like the high chair, hated the pack and play too, haha). The travel system strollers are only really good for mall floors and other completely flat, clean surfaces, which is not what we stroll through at all. For some, it's perfect though. I ended up getting a Mountain Buggy Terrain stroller for our needs, I purchased an adapter so I could use my infant bucket seat on top while he was tiny. I got blinded by matchy-matchy pretty-pretty and didn't look beyond that for our practically and function.

katesmama0706 · August 2016

@ceillyang your travel system seat won't fit your baby until they're ready for a booster. You also don't need a complete travel system to use a stroller. But if those are your preference your baby will outgrow that car seat around 1 year as PP have said and will need to be in a convertible seat while they are rear facing as long as possible and then can be forward facing in the convertible seat as well until they are big enough to be in a booster seat. If you would rather not buy 3 seats then you can absolutely use a convertible with a newborn just make sure that it is rated for newborns (google has lots of lists of ones you can use with a NB, this is what we've done for our kids) and remember that you can't take it in and out of the car as easily as you can with an infant seat.

katesmama0706 · August 2016

Oh also, you'll likely get a ton of awesome responses on this type of question on a Ask A STM thread, in fact I am pretty sure we had a long discussion about the pros and cons of different car seats a few weeks back, but I'm on mobile and can't link to it.

Carly79 · August 2016

We did a infant seat and stopped using it by the time my DS was 6 months old. It was heavy and he looked big in it even though he still met the requirements for safety. We knew we'd need a convertible one eventually because we wanted him rear facing until he is at least 2 so we went ahead and bought a convertible one around 6 months. This baby will use the infant carrier and DS will be in the convertible seat when baby is born. Then, when baby is ready to transition out of the infant seat, we will buy DS a forward facing seat that converts to a booster and put this one in the convertible seat. The forward facing is typically less expensive than the convertible so we figured that's the most economical. Then by the time this baby is ready for something else we can evaluate our options. We picked gender neutral for all of our big purchases (stroller, carseat, swing, etc) so we could use it for future children.

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