June 2019 Moms
meatballs37
member
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Product spotlight Car seats
meatballs37
member
I figured we have had a lot of questions about car seats and this would be a good second thread to get us chattering. I even don’t mind starting them every few weeks.
Re: Product spotlight Car seats
Pros:
-Affordable
-Not bulky Can click into multiple different kinds of strollers (with adapters)
-clicked into the base suuuuper easy. Not a struggle to load into the car compared to others we tried
-highly rated for crash safety
-one of the few that goes down to 4lbs for preemies to ride in
Cons:
-only an infant seat, you would have to buy a convertabile seat once you max out the height weight
We have the graco 4ever for DD now. And meh? I’m just not crazy about it (doesn’t seem to tighten well, super bulky, etc). I wish we had gone with the chicco nexfit.
ETA: does anyone have a convertible car seat they love?
For bucket seat we have a Graco snug ride. It worked for us. DS was only in it for about 7ish months because he is a huge kid. He is super tall and out grew it quickly. We never got a base for DHs truck since I did most of the transporting. We went straight to the contender in his truck since it was only used few and far between. This time DH picks up from daycare most days so we will probably get another base for ease. It's nice to strap the kid in inside and just click the seat in. While we did go straight for the convertible in the truck I really liked having the infant seat for going to resturants etc and having somewhere to stash the babe so I could eat.
Car Seats for the Littles - Its run by certified car seat technicians and has answers for everything under the sun when it comes to car seat safety. There's also a facebook group you can join to ask questions and get support from certified techs in real time
https://csftl.org/
I will admit I am a self-taught car seat crazy lady but they can be SO confusing but it is SO important to use the proper seat and use it safely!
DD is now in a Chicco Nextfit Zip and we like it. I was debating whether we would get another nextfit for the new babe or switch to Graco 4ever. But after DD threw up in her car seat I think I’ve decided to stick with Chicco. Zipping off all the fabric and tossing it in the washing machine really made cleaning up vomit a breeze. (As breezy as it can be, at least)
I really like our big car seat as well. I got our Clek on Amazon on super sale. My daughter is to and still easily rear facing. We have another rear facing setting to go. It’s the narrowest, extended rear facing seat on the market I believe. It’s kind of a beast in terms that it’s tall. We have a pilot and it fits in easily and we can push the seat back to accommodate my 6’ish husband
I would recommend the infant car seat only because it's sooooo easy to just click in it and go click out and go. I was just thinking this Sunday how much I miss being able to use that with DS. The convenience was worth the extra money to me.
While it is able to be used from birth (5lb minimum weight I believe) it takes up a ridiculous amount of space front to back until baby can sit unassisted and you can use the angle adjuster. For this reason, unless you have massive amounts of room in your backseat, I wouldn't recommend it from birth. It didn't fit in our Tahoe without the passenger seat being unusable without the angle adjuster for reference. It can slightly touch the seat in front but cannot brace against it, and that's also dependent on your car's requirements as well. Some vehicles don't allow for the car seat to touch the back of a seat in front of it at all.
Also, while I never had issues because I stayed informed on it, some complain on the install or the fact that Diono changes their requirements often regarding what things need to be used (shoulder pads for instance). Also, the height and weight limits are over-inflated. It has decent weight limits for RF and FF use but the height limits are overinflated. My son outgrew FF well before he was close to the weight. We did RF him to 3 in it but he quickly outgrew the FF height before he hit 4 years old so we had to get him new seats.
Overall, Diono makes a quality product but there at catches.
Both our children (6&2) are in diono's now. We switched both around 4/5 months and had the RXT. Our oldest rear faced until 4.5 and our youngest is still rear facing. We just had to replace due to the freak accident we had and I debated getting something different. It was a really hard decision to make especially knowing baby #3 is on the way but in the end we went ahead with new Diono (rainier) seats. There are a lot of complaints (as mentioned above) about install and the company changing things all the time but install is SO easy for us.. we've never had any issues with install. The only issue I have is the seat is so big front to back and even with a van it takes up a lot of space. But knowing these car seats so well and feeling so comfortable with using them I just couldn't convince myself to switch. We love the diono car seats and have recommended them to many friends who all have ended up loving them as well.
Peg Perego Viaggio for the convertible seat
We did this for my son and will do the same for this baby boy. Any questions about these I’m happy to answer!
@carleym93 Never had an infant seat and never regretted it. Those things are a massive PITA to me and there is no way in hell I would have carried it around. I baby wore my son until he was too big, put him in carts after that, and now he walks into
places with me. I still wear him now if the occasion calls for it. I only break out the stroller if I can go to multiple stores at once and he’s gonna sleep through it. But that’s me. I’m a bit anti contraption. I just find them to be much more of a pain and I don’t see the benefit
Friends since 2008
Started dating: July 1st, 2013
Engaged: July 1st, 2014
Married: July 1st, 2016
R born: July 8th, 2017
N born: June 30th, 2019
Baby #3 Due: July 7th, 2022
(maybe I only ovulate in October XD)
We now have 2 Graco Extend-2-Fits (one for each of our cars) and I like it a lot. The cover is removable and machine washable, which is HUGE for me. Especially in a convertible seat because they use it a LONG time. I like that in DH's truck where she doesn't spend much time, she can sit very upright and its very compact front-to-back. She seems to like it well enough.