This week's topic is.....
BIG BOY CARSEATS
I have quite a few giftcards to Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby still and I was thinking about using some of them to go ahead and buy a big boy carseat. I also have a coupon for anything left on my registry, so I'll be able to get a good deal on a carseat for when Pearson grows out of his carrier.
So my question this week in simple.....
Do you like it?
We have the Safety 1st Complete Air 65 Convertible. It is pretty nice and gets the job done, it has great safety standards, but there are some things I would have done differently. First off, the new safety standards want you to rear face until 2 years old, instead of 1 year old and this carseat is too big to fit in either of our cars rear facing(one of them being a Navigator!) even though he could fit in it rear facing we can't fit it in the car...so we have to do front facing. Also, I wish I would have gotten one that converts to a high back booster you can use with the seat belt. I know Graco and Evenflow make one that does all three(search 3 in 1 carseats)...rear facing, front facing with 5 point harness, and front facing booster with seatbelt. I'm probably going to get one of those to go in our other car so we don't have to keep switching the carseat...plus I can use it up to 100 lbs with booster/seatbelt combo...just something to keep in mind! Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see what responses you'll get on this as I've been thinking about that even though we are probably 6 months to a year away from that (time flies though). On someone else's FB post about the same topic, I saw a lot of nods for Britax. Something else to consider is that Babies R Us usually does a gear trade in event a couple times a year. It probably isn't any better than your coupon, but just something to keep in the bag of your mind. Anyway, I'll be checking back to see what people say. :)
ReplyDeleteWe got the Evenflo Triumph LX Convertible Seat. I love it! It's a little pricier than some (around $150) but I feel like we made the right decision for Amoriyah. It's weight limits are very high (I don't see how in the world any baby would ever grow out of it, at least, until they're 4 or 5 when they start needing a booster). Which, I guess that could be a downfall, this one doesn't convert to that. But, I decided not to worry about that right now because the booster is only arond $30 alone so I figured when the time comes for that we'll just buy one. You should be able to keep him rear facing for at least 2 years or possibly even longer, which I don't even know if anyone does, but that's what they recommend these days. A couple of other cool features is that it's super easy to adjust the straps. Instead of having to take the cover and everything off like you do others, you can just pull up and down to adjust to the height of their shoulders; its really easy! Also, to make the straps tighter once you have them snapped in, there's just a knob you turn that clicks so it's also super easy and quick. It seems rather large, but it fit pretty well in my little Hyundai Elantra. Also, it is really tight and snug in the car, which of course, is the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteHi! We are expecting our first baby & just attended an extensive carseat class at our hospital last weekend. They were wonderful & very informative! I never imagined how stressful picking out a carseat could be! They REALLY, REALLY stressed the importance of keeping your little one rear-facing as long as possible. We saw some scary crash test videos of rear-facing vs front-facing & it's amazing how much safer rear-facing keeps your little one. Some sites they recommended looking into are
ReplyDeletewww.AAP.org, www.safekids.org, www.NHTSA.dot.org, www.carseat.org
Also, the hospital (Baylor Med Center of Frisco) offers free carseat checks on the weekend where they have nurses who are carseat certified & they will show you how to properly install your particular seat & make sure you can install it appropriately yourself. They will not name a specific brand they prefer but they name dropped Britax a lot
Hope this helps!!
we have a britax and a graco one. we like them both.
ReplyDeleteBritax Marathon... love it!
ReplyDeleteBritax Boulevard 70 CS and it is fabulous. They are well worth the cost and often onsale through albeebaby.com if you wanted to use your gift cards on something else!
ReplyDeleteWe have both the Evenflo triumph lx and the Evenflo Symphony dlx. Both have higher height and weight ratings so they can be used longer plus both are capable of extended rear facing (I believe up to 40lbs) The Symphony can be used as a five point harness both rear and front facing then as a booster seat up to 100lbs plus the ratings were pretty good! We learned after our son to try to find one that can last awhile and be used both front/rear.
ReplyDelete