Ready for the big boy car seat?

Dana - posted on 10/28/2009

I would keep him in the infant seat for a while longer. With the next level of seats, he would be sitting up more which can get tiresome at that age. Especially if he doesn't sit up real well as it is. He'll be fine as long as his head is still 1 inch from the top of the seat, you can actually use the infant seat for quite a while.

Carime - posted on 10/28/2009

in state of virginia the law is 1 year AND 20 lbs

Samantha - posted on 10/28/2009

They should remain rear facing until a year and 20 pounds because they don't have the muscle contol necessary in their neck to help prevent injuries until then.

Amber - posted on 10/28/2009

As long as you keep him rear facing until he 1 year its fine to move him to a bigger convertable seat.

Elin - posted on 10/28/2009

We tried waiting with out son who is almost 5 months old. It finally got to the point where he was uncomfortable being in the infant car seat. We finally broke down and bought a convertible carseat which last all the way through 100lbs. I found lots of really good ones, and well rated ones at Target. Make sure that when you use it in the rear facing position if you aren't using the LATCH system (which is soo easy and safe to use but some cars don't have it) that you can thread the seatbelt buckle through where it's supposed to go. We bought one and the place for the seatbelt didn't fit my hand and I couldn't install it in the car!!! BUMMER!!! Now we have a car with LATCH and it's super easy!

Cheryl - posted on 10/28/2009

I would wait, you will be surprised by how long it does take for him to reach that 20lb mark and the older he is before you switch him the better

Tounine - posted on 10/28/2009

We had the same issue with both our boys. We have a friend who is an officer and does car seat inspections and installations. He was absolutely adamant they must be rear facing until 1 year old. He recommended a seat that has a wide weight range and variable harness positions and works both front and rear facing. We ended up going with Safety 1st Alpha Omega. The only drawback is the back is higher so it takes up a lot of room in the back seat, but our son fit much better. And if they seem to be "lost" in the bigger seat he recommended rolling up towels or recieving blankets and putting them on either side of the baby. Good luck :)

Jenifer - posted on 10/28/2009

It is fine to move up to a convertible car seat - most of them can be used for infants. You may find that you miss being able to carry him around in the seat though! There are a lot of good convertible seats out there, just make sure you install it rear-facing until he's 1yr AND 20lbs at the absolute minimum (but the longer, the better). The Costco Scenera is a good, affordable seat. I'm using a Britax Marathon, which I really like. If you pay attention to the upper weight limits, you'll be able to use the seat for many years - I think my Britax will allow 5-pt harnessing (forward) up to 65lbs.

Christy - posted on 10/28/2009

You should check with your state. Ours is 1 year and I know 17lbs seems very close but you'll find that it seems forever to break the 20lb mark. Also, The little ones seem to "swim" in the larger seats until they have more motor control. I started out with one of the upright car seats designed for newborns but ended up buying one of the standard newbie seats that looks like a bucket with a handle because everytime we went to unload her, her head would be on sideways and she just looked terribly uncomfortable. We just prefered the type that "cradled" her

Jade - posted on 10/28/2009

My daughter was the same, at 5 months old she was 23 pounds and her feet hung off the end of her infant car seat! So what we ended up doing was buying one of the bigger car seats (we bought the Britax Boulevard CS) which is a forward and a rear facing car seat in one. I'm not sure where you live, but the law here in Canada is that babies must be both 20 pounds and a year old to be in a forward facing car seat, so really the only option for us was to get the 3-in-one style of carseat. There are a lot of car seats on the market right now that can be forward or rear facing, there's really varying price ranges. I've heard good things about the Safety First 3-in-one carseats, and they range around $100. We're extremely happy with our Britax, but it was a $400 dollar car seat (received it as a gift obviously!).