Car seats.....

[MomtoCandJ]

When I was pregnant with dd there was a website that told you what car seat was the most compatible with your car. I can't find it :( . I have the same car, it's a 2002 Ford Taurus. Can some please link the site or tell me what seats are best for my car? We can spend about $150.00 on a seat, but would like to spend less.

[Lily_Grace]

It was never fully operational. The website, I mean. It required people to upload the data themselves.

 

I use a series of car seat measurement spreadsheets. You can measure the width, height, and depth of your car's positions and find a seat to match. With a Ford Taurus, most options are open to you (depending on how far back the driver's seat goes). But your budget is going to make finding a convertible or long term seat a hair difficult. I would suggest looking on AlbeeBaby for a good deal. An Evenflo Triumph Advance or Graco Myride 65 might be your best bet for high harness heights (16.5in). If you wanted to spend a little more, Graco came out with a new seat called a MySize that has a longer life, fitting bitties to biggers, but you may have to wait for it to come on sale. Most of the prices I'm seeing right now have it at $180, but Amazon likes to fluctuate a lot.

 

There are some that I would strongly suggest staying away from:

Cosco Scenera

Graco Comfort Sport or Classic Ride

Anything with the promise of being a 3-in-1 without an adjustable headrest.

 

The first two are quickly outgrown, and the last never works properly. Either they become too tall for the seatbelt to not fit the seat properly, or the harness weight is too low to feel comfortable switching a kid that early.

 

 

 

If you're looking for an infant seat, the only one on the market I would recommend staying away from is the Graco Snugride Classic 22. This is the one without a center pull strap, so each harness strap has to be tightened individually in the back. It's not a bad seat. Let me say that now. It passes safety tests and blah blah blah. BUT, it is the worst for parent misuses because tightening and loosening each strap under the seat is a pain in the rear end and I almost never see it done properly and consistently.

[LifeLovePassion]

www.car-seat.org

 

This site has info, and you can ask a question there as a guest.

[ktgrok]

walmart.com is where I got my seat, they have last years models often times for less than anywhere.

[happypamama]

I can't comment on that car, specifically, but I can tell you that the big Graco infant seat (not sure what they're calling it now, but it goes high enough in height/weight that my babies can fit in it until about 18 months) will fit in a 2004 Ford Focus (though maybe not behind a tall person). We also have a Graco MyRide (and the newest model is *really* nice with a lot of padding and special inserts for infants and everything), but it is a HUGE seat, very tall and wide. I do think we had it in the Focus rear-facing for a while (I know we had it in there forward-facing), but for a very young infant, it may not have worked, as it may not have been able to be reclined as much as a newborn needs. (I have the same problem with it in my Ford Windstar minivan, so if you need it to go behind a tall person, I probably would not recommend that seat for a newborn.)

[MomtoCandJ]

Dh and I are both under 5'4 so tall people do not frequent my car :) We need a seat that is rated for 4lbs because dd was 5 lbs 2 oz when we brough her home. we prefer to buy an infant seat and then later get a convertable, i don't like waking up sleeping newborns :) and i need it easy to carry for short people.

[Shellydon]

Dh and I are both under 5'4 so tall people do not frequent my car :) We need a seat that is rated for 4lbs because dd was 5 lbs 2 oz when we brough her home. we prefer to buy an infant seat and then later get a convertable, i don't like waking up sleeping newborns :) and i need it easy to carry for short people.

 

 

I would look at the Chicco Keyfit. It is rated from 4lbs. I would consider getting the Keyfit 22 rather than the 30 since you are short as the 22 is much smaller and lighter. I loved my great big infant seat that was rated to 30 lbs because I have very tall children, but I never carried it as it was so heavy.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chicco-KeyFit-Infant-Seat-Chevron/dp/B0081K8MHY/ref=sr_1_4?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1369318614&sr=1-4&keywords=keyfit

[Lily_Grace]

Dh and I are both under 5'4 so tall people do not frequent my car :) We need a seat that is rated for 4lbs because dd was 5 lbs 2 oz when we brough her home. we prefer to buy an infant seat and then later get a convertable, i don't like waking up sleeping newborns :) and i need it easy to carry for short people.

 

There are a series of seats made for preemies, and those will be your best bet. http://carseatblog.c...t-of-best-bets/

 

Here's a set of pics I show people who ask about seats rated for 4lbs/5lbs+. The pics were taken two days apart from each other, and aside from putting the head rest in the one seat, are exactly as they come for a newb.

 

Here is my 7lb, 19in 37 week infant in a Graco Snugride Classic:

 

 

There are numerous issues with him in this seat. The straps start out way too high, for starters. They should be at or below his shoulders for rear facing. The buckle is at his toes. Theoretically, I could fix this by putting a rolled up blanket between his legs, but I don't like doing that when it's so far. He did not fit this seat, though the weight/height requirements say that he should have.

 

 

This is my 7lb, 19in 37 week-2 day old infant in a Chicco Keyfit:

 

 

The addition of the body pillow sold with the seat and the extra harness slots made the shoulder straps fit much better. IIRC, it also had a two position crotch buckle slot, so that I could move it out as he got bigger. (eta: nope, it doesn't. I just looked at pics online of the naked shell and there's just the one crotch buckle position. BUT, it fit my son until he was 1.5yo)

 

 

 

I'm a scant 5'3", 100lbs and found both of these seats easy to carry. Both were fine in that department. Fitting my child was a different story, though.

 

Take a baby doll with you and go shopping. Or a teddy bear, or something. I use Mickey Mouse a lot of the time now because he has the right newborn proportions to show parents (I'm a CPST). If the doll doesn't fit, keep looking.

[BarbecueMom]

Dh and I are both under 5'4 so tall people do not frequent my car :) We need a seat that is rated for 4lbs because dd was 5 lbs 2 oz when we brough her home. we prefer to buy an infant seat and then later get a convertable, i don't like waking up sleeping newborns :) and i need it easy to carry for short people.

 

We bought a Chicco KeyFit 30 this time around, but it was about $180. It's rated for 4lbs. OB was concerned we might have been dealing with IUGR a few weeks ago (it's all good now though), so I bought the smaller rated seat. I'm 5' on a bad hair day, and I just hate carrying infant seats, so hopefully this one won't be too bad. The deciding factor was the reviews saying this seat was much easier to install/uninstall than other seats, which is important because DH has a bad back and can't be hanging out the car for 20 minutes swapping seat bases. I've always thought the seat that is easiest to install properly is probably the safest.

[raceNzanesmom]

The seat that's easy to install and use is the best for you. My top picks for an infant seat that start at 4 lbs include the Graco Snug Ride 30, the Chicco Keyfit , First Years Via i450 (if you can find one), the Safety 1st OnBoard Air 35, the Evenflo Embrace 35, and any of the Britax infant seats.

 

The Snug Ride is my fave for the price, Chicco is my fave for ease of installation. I've never had an issue installing a Snug Ride, but Chicco truly makes it easy. Britax is always good.