What infant seat do you have? Do you like it?

[ChristusG]

We need to get an infant seat for DD#3, due in October. The previous seat we used for our other two DD's has expired. I looked at Babies R Us the other day and there are SO many choices! Which one do you have? Does it have a lot of padding? Comfy for baby? Easy to install? Not overly heavy?

 

I know that a lot of infant seats go up to 30 pounds now, but that's not a must have for me. My other two DD's outgrew the infant seat in length long before they outgrew it in weight....so they definitely won't need it until 30 pounds. I think that DD4 is just over 30 pounds right now. :001_huh:

[KRG]

I have this one:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10860397

 

It was easy to install, padding is ok, it is starting to feel heavy now--he weighs 19lbs. It's rated for 30lbs and 30 inches. He's 29in. I am probably buying a new one today. It was top-rated when I bought it. I don't really have any complaints.

[lailasmum]

I really like seats by Concord for comfort and really sensible design and good for taller kids but find them a bit hard to find, and was looking at a Kiddy car seat as they have brilliant safety records. We will probably get a Kiddy soon as the concord must be on the verge of expiring. Britax car seats are good too but so huge and not found them so generous in sizing plus they seem so be the hardest to install of any of the car seats we have owned.

[pgr]

We did a ton of research (I agree - the choices/reviews are no less overwhelming than when looking at curricula...) and ended up getting the Chicco key fit (ETA: key fit 30). Our current car won't fit 3 seats, so we've done a lot of installing, uninstalling, reinstalling since our little guy was born (on 5/28). Easy! Also, it's fairly light (well, so is he right now). Nice padding, very super easy to adjust the belt length. Cons- it truly was stinky out of the box as reviews say; we aired it out in the sun. I have a super sensitive nose and it seems fine now. Also, the padding next to baby is very synthetic and not very breathable. It hasn't been too hot here, but I plan to put a thin layer of cotton or muslin under him in the heat. All in all we like it much better than the peg perego we had with our first two....

Edited June 17, 2011 by pgr

[vonfirmath]

We need to get an infant seat for DD#3, due in October. The previous seat we used for our other two DD's has expired. I looked at Babies R Us the other day and there are SO many choices! Which one do you have? Does it have a lot of padding? Comfy for baby? Easy to install? Not overly heavy?

 

I know that a lot of infant seats go up to 30 pounds now, but that's not a must have for me. My other two DD's outgrew the infant seat in length long before they outgrew it in weight....so they definitely won't need it until 30 pounds. I think that DD4 is just over 30 pounds right now. :001_huh:

 

We LOVED our Safeseat and are going to use it again with this baby. (It is called Snugride 35 now)

 

The cool thing about the Safeseat/Snugride32/Snugride35 is that they accommodate a longer baby than the original Snugride/Snugride30

 

My son (90% for height) still fit the Safeseat at 13 months when we moved him to a rear-facing convertible. The Safeseat will expire when this child is 15 months old -- but I figure that is plenty of time. We still have another convertible at home and may get the MyRide 65.

 

ETA: We travelled with the Safeseat his first Christmas and loved how easy it was to install in the rental, etc even without the base. But the install with the base with a seatbelt is easy-peasy (our car at the time did not have LATCH so I never installed that way) It spoiled me for looking for the follow on car seat.

[PeterPan]

The trend is to keep them rear-facing longer, which is why the weights are going up on the infant seats. I suggest you get the highest weight rear-facing seat of the style you prefer. We loved our graco safeseat. It now goes to 35 pounds. That kept my ds rear-facing well beyond a year, and he's somewhat tall for his age and long-waisted. Now I have him rear-facing in a Radian XTSL, which will keep him rear-facing for a long while. It then turns around as a regular seat.

 

I'm not a carseat tech, but my assumption is the weights are going up on the infant carseats with the goal that eventually the legal requirements will go up too. I think rear-facing till at least 2 is becoming the new norm.

 

BTW, Britax makes snuggly wonderful seats, but I really like the convenience of the infant seat popping out to fit on a stroller frame or go in a grocery cart. The Graco safeseat will fit on a stroller frame, making it very convenient. Other brands have a similar feature. Then you can get these snuggly things (if you live where it's cold) to go in the seat and zip up to keep them covered. I never had such stuff when my dd was little, but they sure were marvelous this time around with ds. :)

[kesmom]

We have the Chicco Keyfit this time and have liked it. My 8 month old still has one harness slot to grow into and he is above average length. (don't know his exact measurement, but 75th percentile last month at check up)

 

We usually leave his seat in the car, so I don't worry about lifting it.

[kitten18]

:lurk5:

My niece is pregnant with her first and I'm trying to help her pick out some baby stuff.

[Carrie12345]

I have the Snugride 35, and I love it. It is pretty heavy, but I don't carry it in and out unless it's very cold or rainy. Ds seems quite comfortable, and it has more than enough room to grow.

[A.Balaban]

We have a Chicco Keyfit 22, which only goes up to 22lbs. They do make a Keyfit 30 which goes up to 30lbs.

 

Love, love, love Chicco. I have the entire Cortina travel system, and their new single stroller...

[ChristusG]

The trend is to keep them rear-facing longer, which is why the weights are going up on the infant seats. I suggest you get the highest weight rear-facing seat of the style you prefer. We loved our graco safeseat. It now goes to 35 pounds. That kept my ds rear-facing well beyond a year, and he's somewhat tall for his age and long-waisted. Now I have him rear-facing in a Radian XTSL, which will keep him rear-facing for a long while. It then turns around as a regular seat.

 

I'm not a carseat tech, but my assumption is the weights are going up on the infant carseats with the goal that eventually the legal requirements will go up too. I think rear-facing till at least 2 is becoming the new norm.

 

BTW, Britax makes snuggly wonderful seats, but I really like the convenience of the infant seat popping out to fit on a stroller frame or go in a grocery cart. The Graco safeseat will fit on a stroller frame, making it very convenient. Other brands have a similar feature. Then you can get these snuggly things (if you live where it's cold) to go in the seat and zip up to keep them covered. I never had such stuff when my dd was little, but they sure were marvelous this time around with ds. :)

 

We definitely rear face as long as possible. But when kiddo outgrows an infant seat, we usually have a Britax Marathon for them to rear face in after the infant seat. My two older DD's are both in Britax Regents (which they don't make anymore) so they will stay harnessed for as long as possible.

 

I think I'll take a better look at the Chicco's and the Graco's then! Our previous infant seat was a Graco, but it didn't have much padding. Maybe they have more now.

[PeterPan]

Well good! I'm not saying the Graco is the most luxurious thing ever, but it worked for us. The infant seat we used with dd kept whacking out her tailbone, it had so little padding. The Graco Safeseat was fine, never doing that to ds (to our great relief!). Haven't seen the Chicco's. I'm guessing you're just looking at pricepoint and extra-nice features there.

 

The other nice thing about getting the infant seat to go up in weight is it can be a spare seat for other vehicles when you switch them over to your Marathon in the main car.

[Leav97]

Chicco Keyfit 30

 

 

It works until they are tall and heavy.

[vonfirmath]

We have a Chicco Keyfit 22, which only goes up to 22lbs. They do make a Keyfit 30 which goes up to 30lbs.

 

Love, love, love Chicco. I have the entire Cortina travel system, and their new single stroller...

 

Warning: The Keyfit 30 fits a larger (by weight) baby but NOT a taller baby. This is the advantage of the Safeseat/Snugride 32/35 series. They also fit the added height.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=22734

 

So it depends on your babies specs whether this seat would last longer for you or not.

 

The Keyfit and the Snugride35 are the most frequently recommended (The Keyfit for babies that are likely to be less than 5 pounds at birth)

 

Another one I'm seeing recommended more and more lately is the Safety 1st Onboard 35

For the Snugride series: At least make sure you get a front adjust infant seat. The cheaper ones tend to be rear adjust which are a PAIN to work with on a daily basis.

Edited June 16, 2011 by vonfirmath

[CalicoKat]

Well good! I'm not saying the Graco is the most luxurious thing ever, but it worked for us. The infant seat we used with dd kept whacking out her tailbone, it had so little padding. The Graco Safeseat was fine, never doing that to ds (to our great relief!). Haven't seen the Chicco's. I'm guessing you're just looking at pricepoint and extra-nice features there.

 

The other nice thing about getting the infant seat to go up in weight is it can be a spare seat for other vehicles when you switch them over to your Marathon in the main car.

 

We used and liked Graco too. I always hot glued an extra rectangle of padding on the seat.

[happypamama]

We loved our Graco SnugRide for our first two babies, but they outgrew it in length long before weight (5 and 6 months), and I didn't personally care for how they fit into a convertible seat. So when it expired, and we needed a new seat for DS2, we bought a Graco SafeSeat infant seat (now the SnugRide 35, I think). He was over 9 pounds at birth, but he was able to use that seat until he was 18 months old, since it holds babies of longer lengths. I almost never used it as a carrier, especially not when he was a tiny infant, but since we were switching cars frequently, it was so nice to have the poppable seat and a base for each car (and to be able to bring it inside out of the heat and cold). I am looking forward to using it in a few weeks with baby #4.

 

If you don't need a poppable seat, we also have a Graco MyRide, and while it's big, I really like it as well. I think it's rated for tiny babies, though you'd have to see if the lowest harness strap height is too high for a newborn or not. It does have an infant insert, though I haven't used it, since we got it when DS2 outgrew the SafeSeat. (However, he's 30+ pounds, almost 32 months old, and is still comfortably rear-facing in it. My 6yo DS1 was able to use it, forward-facing, until almost age 6, so you could get a lot of mileage out of it.)

 

Both of those seats are big and take up a lot of length in the car, so if you have tall adults, you might have trouble with the arrangements. I couldn't put either of those behind the driver's seat, nor in the middle spot, in our little Ford Focus, or DH couldn't drive. However, neither are a problem in the middle row of our van; DH has plenty of room.

[happypamama]

We used and liked Graco too. I always hot glued an extra rectangle of padding on the seat.

 

I would be very cautious about this. Seats are only crash-tested with the items that actually come in the box with them. Adding anything else to the seat can cause the seat not to function as tested, in case of a crash.

[RebeccaS]

We recently had a foster placement of triplets. I needed more seats. :tongue_smilie:

 

We already had an Evenflo seat from Walmart. It was...meh. Not much padding and I found the seat not very user friendly to take apart for washing (we had a spitter).

 

DH bought us a second seat. It was a Baby Trend from Target. I like that it was easy to adjust the height of the straps (you turn a knob that moves it up or down as needed). The triangle handle is strange to me, but dh loved it. And, you remove the seat from the base by the baby's feet making it more natural to remove and go (as opposed to the latch being behind the head).

 

We borrowed a 3rd seat from a young couple in our church. It was the Chicco Keyfit 30. Oh wow. I loved that seat. It was great for our tiny girl (and I believe that was a listed perk on the site) however, I just looked up the price and yikes! But, I would pick that one if I had to do it all again.

 

Of the 3, I'd rate the Evenflo the lowest, but mostly on being more difficult to clean and much less padding for the wee one.

[Pretty in Pink]

I also have taller, skinny babies, so we don't need the 30+ lbs weight limit on some of the newer seats.

 

I am trying to decide between the Graco Snugride (original, with the 22 lb weight limit) or the Chicco Keyfit (original, with the 22 lb weight limit). The Chicco is easier to install and adjust, but the Graco is just half the price.

 

Then again, I already own a Safety 1st Air Protect 65 convertible seat. I could bump ds #4 (who will be 3 in August) up to one of our Nautilus seats and put baby in the Safety 1st seat and just save myself the money. I wonder how much I really need to be able to move the seat in and out of the car? You would think I would have this figured out by the 5th baby. ;)

 

ETA: The Key Fit is more plush and comfy; however, I keep reading about babies getting really sweaty in it. I guess the fabric isn't very breathable. The Key Fit also does not fit on the front of a shopping cart (not something I do, anyway, but in case you need to know). You gals have me curious about the SafeSeat though. Off to look...

Edited June 16, 2011 by Pretty in Pink

[vonfirmath]

ETA: The Key Fit is more plush and comfy; however, I keep reading about babies getting really sweaty in it. I guess the fabric isn't very breathable. The Key Fit also does not fit on the front of a shopping cart (not something I do, anyway, but in case you need to know). You gals have me curious about the SafeSeat though. Off to look...

 

The Graco Safeseat is the 2007 version of what is now called the Graco Snugride35. It was also called the Snugride32 in between

 

(The Safeseat had limits of 30 lbs/32-inches, The Snugride32 was 32/32 and the Snugride 35 is 35/32. The Snugride30 is an upgrade to the old Snugride (22 lbs/29 inches I think) -- with a limit of 30 lbs and the old 29 inches height)

 

The Snugride 35 can use the base of the Safeseat/Snugride32 -- but if using an older base you also have to abide by the lower weight limits.

 

The Snugride30 can NOT use a Safeseat base or Snugride35 -- you need the new Snugride30 base.

[Pretty in Pink]

The Graco Safeseat is the 2007 version of what is now called the Graco Snugride35. It was also called the Snugride32 in between

 

(The Safeseat had limits of 30 lbs/32-inches, The Snugride32 was 32/32 and the Snugride 35 is 35/32. The Snugride30 is an upgrade to the old Snugride (22 lbs/29 inches I think) -- with a limit of 30 lbs and the old 29 inches height)

 

The Snugride 35 can use the base of the Safeseat/Snugride32 -- but if using an older base you also have to abide by the lower weight limits.

 

The Snugride30 can NOT use a Safeseat base or Snugride35 -- you need the new Snugride30 base.

 

Thanks! You have saved me a lot of leg work. So many choices.

[susancollins]

We bought the Britax Chaperone carseat for Carson. We bought a new one this time for Grayson because we had gotten rid of the other one. Britax carseats have great safety reviews and tests.

[Annie Laurie]

We have a Graco Snugride 35 and like it. I almost got a Chicco Keyfit instead, both are rated high in safety. I have heard that the Keyfit is easier to use but the Snugride is a lot less expensive, I got it as part of a travel system. I don't use strollers all that much, but decided that it's worth it for when baby falls asleep in the car and I don't want to have to disturb him, I can just remove the seat from the base and pop it onto the stroller. When he outgrows the infant seat, I'll move him to a Britax Marathon, rear facing. Oh, and I haven't found the Graco Snugride seat to be hard to use or adjust, it's just heavy, but I don't cart it around anyway.

[vonfirmath]

We have a Graco Snugride 35 and like it. I almost got a Chicco Keyfit instead, both are rated high in safety. I have heard that the Keyfit is easier to use but the Snugride is a lot less expensive, I got it as part of a travel system. I don't use strollers all that much, but decided that it's worth it for when baby falls asleep in the car and I don't want to have to disturb him, I can just remove the seat from the base and pop it onto the stroller. When he outgrows the infant seat, I'll move him to a Britax Marathon, rear facing. Oh, and I haven't found the Graco Snugride seat to be hard to use or adjust, it's just heavy, but I don't cart it around anyway.

 

They Keyfit may be marginally easier to use -- don't know. Never used it but I've heard that. But the Safeseat/Snugride35 is SO easy to use that I'm not sure it matters. (At least with the seatbelt. Never installed with LATCH. But you can always install with seatbelt even if your car has LATCH in it)

 

We use the Graco Snugrider "frame" stroller and so the car seat gets lifted right out the car to the stroller -- or to the "inside" of a cart (not comfortable putting it in the front). We rarely have to actually tote the car seat itself around other than a few steps to and from the car

 

(And with DS 1, we lived on the 2nd floor and I still toted the car seat up there, all the way up to 24-25 pounds when we switched seats -- with no problems. The big weight is going to be the kid, NOT the seat, before too long. OTOH he was almost 9 pounds at birth so I never had a 6 lb lightweight)

[*Jen*]

My little one is in a babytrend seat and it drives me crazy! I will never buy another seat where you have to line up the buckles together to snap them into the crouch strap. It makes me crazy every time I have to put him in his seat.

[Spy Car]

Outgrown now but Radius by Sunshine Kids is steel-famed and incomparably strong. Not cheap.

 

Bill

[Annie Laurie]

They Keyfit may be marginally easier to use -- don't know. Never used it but I've heard that. But the Safeseat/Snugride35 is SO easy to use that I'm not sure it matters. (At least with the seatbelt. Never installed with LATCH. But you can always install with seatbelt even if your car has LATCH in it)

 

 

 

We use LATCH and have found it easy to install in a Toyota Sienna.

[domestic_engineer]

When an infant carseat expires, both the base & the seat must be discarded, right?

[blondeviolin]

We have a Maxi Cosi Mico. It's one of the lightest infant seats on the market (ours weighs less than 8lbs), which is really nice because they get heavy--especially with a 10lb newborn in it!

 

We went with the Mico because we have a Quinny Buzz and it snaps on to our stroller chassis. We had a Graco previously that I liked okay.

 

I would chose the Chicco over a Graco because of the alligator LATCH clips and ease of installation.

[Jryanbass]

I have a keyfit 30. After 3 kids and 3 different infant seats, I LOVED this seat. I have never had a seat so easy to install, lightweight, just an overall great seat!

[TheAutumnOak]

Now I feel bad...When my boys were young I did no research and bought whatever looked nice at Costco :leaving:

[Ellesmere]

nm

[Classical Country Mama]

Another vote for the Chico KeyFit 30. Wow. This thing is a dream. On my more insane days I'm tempted to uninstall and reinstall it just for fun, because it's that easy.

 

My almost-14 month old still fits in it beautifully (he's about 22lbs)--I'm hoping to get a few more months out of it, though perhaps not if he keeps eating like he did tonight. Sheesh.

[Ellesmere]

Nm