Lauren is getting fairly big, in baby terms. Thus she is almost too tall for her rear-facing infant carseat. I don't want to spend money on another bigger rear-facing carseat since she will legally be able to switch to forward in 2 months, although it's not advised.
What do all of you with kids do? Should I shell out more money for a bigger rear-facing one so her little legs will have some wiggle room? Or just go for a high-back front-facing when she turns one? Oh it would be nice to have her turned around so she can see us!
And what kinds of carseats do you have? Do you like them or not? I was thinking about the Evenflo Chase LX Booster Seat. What do you think?
5 comments:
Peter is on the small side so he didn't need to be turned forward early but he did out grow the small car seat so we had to buy a new rear facing one that is convertible. It is the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite. The weight range is from 5-100 lbs in the different positions and we love it! We got ours at Costco for about $85 which it think is pretty good considering we can use it for so long! Every time we go to the Dr. he asks if Peter is still rear facing and he is so glad that he is! Our Dr is really for keeping them backwards for as long as you can but you are right it is totally up to you!
Sorry this comment is so long but I know how tricky car seats can be!
We flipped Grant when he hit 20 lbs which was around his 14 month mark. He was getting pretty long for his rear facing car seat, but I just made it work and told him to deal with it since I didn't want to buy another car seat and preferred to just move to a forward facing seat. Our pediatrician has some pretty strong ideas about the car seat guidelines... he says that in an ideal world, kids would remain rear facing till kindergarten as it is "safest" but in reality, no parent will ever do that. He has five kids and I like his input. He told us that the bottom line is that parents need to be able to have sanity and kids comfort. He recommended researching our car seat very well and spending a little more up front to insure high safety ratings so that in the event of a car crash, our front facing 1 year old would be most protected. We also left him in the middle seat for extra safety until his weight was making it too tough to climb in and get him in easily. Lots of people have very strong opinions about car seats and when to flip kids around, but for us, Grant was so much happier facing forward that it made him a better traveler, easier to get him the things he needed, and it was worth it. Good luck with your decision.
As far as car seats, we have the Graco Nautilus 3 in 1. Features that I really wanted were a cup holder (SO NICE!!), little toy storage was a plus, recline features were a plus, and side head support. This one was a little spendy up front compared to some of the cheap ones I found online, but it is comfy and he can keep his things in a place where he can easily reach them. My mom got a cheap one for her car and with two grandkids using it minimally, the straps are always twisting, the cover is falling apart, and it is really hard plastic underneath the cheap padding. We hope that Grant car seat will be used for his brother when he turns one because by that point, I am hoping Grant will weigh enough to switch to a high back booster instead.
We just got Lucas a convertible car seat that will work up to about 50lbs. We still have him rear facing and we just put a rolled up blanket under the seat to recline it which gives him a little more leg room. We got the Evenflo Tribute from Wal Mart for about $50. We thought about getting one that would convert to a booster too but we figured by then we'd hopefully have another one that needed a convertible car seat and we figured it'd be cheaper to just get a booster rather than a whole new car seat (as long as it hadn't expired). Hopefully this all makes sense., I shouldn't type long comments on my phone.
You have any advice for a couple expecting a baby around july 11th, and are looking for a good stroller/car seat? ;)
Um so besides being a NICU nurse I also have my certification as a car seat technician, so I can tell you from my point of view and you can take what you want from that. Because I am a little obsessive when it comes to car seat safety :) There is no need to by another only rear facing seat. What you'll want to get is a seat that can be used either rear facing or forward facing, called a convertible seat, they make lots of them. There are also some seats that can be used as a rear facing, forward facing, and then booster seat as well if you want to go that route (but you'll spend more money up front, something like here http://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-All-In-One-Convertible-Car-Seat-Salt-and-Pepper/15423073).
The American Acadamey of Peds actually recommends now that kids stay rear facing until age 2 for safety reasons (http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/AAP-Updates-Recommendation-on-Car-Seats.aspx). If you want to see comparison crash test videos of "rear facing vs. forward facing" just type that in on youtube and you can see how differently kids are tossed about during crashes. Another helpful site is safekids.org
They have awesome info on all kinds of safety tips and you can look up the info for the place there in Logan. The people there will be more than happy to help you figure out what kind of car seat is best for you guys and help make sure it is installed properly in you car. Hope this helps you decide some. The main thing is that you want to do what will work for you guys and most importantly be the safest for Lauren.
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