Car Seats- The Bane of My Existence

Lynlee - posted on 06/13/2009

We bought a seat that would suit a newborn rear-facing and then can be front facing until our son is about four. A lot of our friends bought baby seats that only suit newborn to six months which I thought was a waste of money. Our next baby will get the seat we currently have and we will get a bigger one for our three year old.

Geralyn - posted on 06/13/2009

Kimberly, great post. I agree with Joy about contacting the fire dept. I met with a certified child passenger safety technician at our local fire department to review whether I had the convertible seat installed correctly. She said that the Sunshinekids Radian 80 is the seat that they all use. It has the 5-pt harness and it has a weight limit of 80 lbs. According to her, its the only seat you have to buy while they continue to need a 5-pt harness.... She put her infant in it with the insert that the manufactures provide and she will use it til her baby maxes out of it weight wise. [I am on my second car seat now... moving from an infant carseat to a convertible, and having spent over $500 so far.... I wish I had known about the Sunshinekids one...]

Joy - posted on 06/12/2009

A little suggestion that may take some of the confusion out of it for you. Since safety is our #1 priority, I would suggest that you call your local fire department and find out when they offer a childseat safety course. For one thing, unlike the carseat manufacturers, the instructor of the class will spell it all out for you in simple terms. They discuss everything from what the law requires to what the safest thing is to do. The one in my town, if you make a "donation" of $20 or more, you get a brand new car seat after the class. They give it to you right after class. And then, before everyone leaves, they had us all line up our cars and the firemen went from car to car, couple to couple and A) showed us how to properly install it and B) took it out and made sure WE knew how to properly install it. They gave us hints and tips based on each of our individual vehicles. If you have the manual for your car, that will make it even easier for them to teach you. Every car is different, which, if your carseat hunting alone, doesn't make it any easier. We were glad we took the class because the one we were looking at buying, we later came to discover wouldn't have fit properly in our particular car. They don't mention that on the carseat box either....not every carseat is compatible with every car. Hope this helps :)

Adf0905 - posted on 06/11/2009

It is all totally over-whelming. I'd never even heard of extended rear facing before a friend of mine (who is really passionate about it) opened my eyes to it. Otherwise I would've switched my daughter at a year and not known any better. From the extended rear facing sites, I learned about extended 5 point harnessing.



But I definitely agree....the information just isn't as publicly known as it should be and new parents need a heads up! Shoot....my daughter's pediatrician told me at her 12 month appointment that she needed to be switched around, so apparently doctors need to become more aware of it as well! The AAP finally came out with their recommendation to extend rear face, but lots of people are in the "well, it's legal!" mentality, so I don't think the news will get out there until it's the law to keep kids rear facing or in a 5 point harness longer.



With the right carseat, you won't need so many carseats in a short of amount of time. If parents are really hurting for money, a newborn can be put straight in to many different types of convertible car seats. Lots of them start at 5 lbs and many of them have infant inserts. That's what we'll be doing with our next baby. We'll be moving my daughter to her Britax Decathlon (which is being used as her spare right now) and the newborn will be put in to the Recaro Como (which is what my daughter is currently in.)



Kudos to you for switching your son back to a 5 point harness, momma!