They will figure out how to unbuckle them. Use this to avoid that issue.
Car Seats
- Thread starter cyfan92
- Start date
Focus on how comfortable it is, so look at padding, leg support, and that sort of thing. When on long car rides the last thing tou want is a little one freaking out because they are uncomfortable. Secondly make sure it has a cup holder. Picking up a sippy cup off the back seat ground isn’t the easiest thing when going down the road and the little one is freaking out because it fell. As a side note, the after market ones suck.
this can’t be stated enough (especially if you plan on having more kids). Wife has a Pacifica and although that had room. I drove a Camry. With two car seats in the backseat it was ok, but three was awful especially when they got to the age and car seat size where they were using the car’s seatbelts. It was impossible to get them all buckled. For a pure usable argument, the sturdy cup holders are important. They’re handy and you don’t realize how handy until you break one off. Another consideration is these car seats are really only approved for use for a few years before regulations regulate them out (whether that’s industry pushing that timeline or truest a safety thing I couldn’t speak to it). We made the decision to not get the 3-1 or 4-1 models because of it because we figured when the kids grew out of the old ones, it’d be time to buy a new one.
It has been a few (four or five) years since I've needed to buy a convertible car seat, but here's my advice. And FYI, I'm something of a strict car seat person, I research the crap out of everything, so you may think my advice is ridiculous:
- The best thing you can do is keep your child rear-facing as long as possible. Both of mine rear-faced until four years old. Between 3 and 4 is ideal. The seat matters less if you have it rear-facing, as that ultimately matters more than the seat itself in those situations.
- The two best brands on the common market are Britax and Diono Radian. There are some brands like Clek that are, like, $500 and even safer, but the Britax and Dionos are (or at least were a few years ago) the best mid-price with highest safety ratings.
- If you do intend to stay rear-facing for as long as possible, you'll want a seat that goes to a higher weight. The Diono Radian RXT rear-faced for longer than the Britax, I think it had an extra five pounds rear-facing. We had a Britax Boulevard with our daughter, then switched out for a Diono as she got a little older and threw the Britax in the car she rode in less. We just went straight to the Diono for our subsequent son. It doesn't come in as many fun prints, but that's really not the point of safety. The Diono is also narrower, so you can get three of them in a row in a car, if need be.
- When you do front-face, again keep in the three-point harness as long as you can. And then in a high back booster, then in a low-back booster. Think of it this way - every step you make to the next step up of a car seat is less safe. If we all could rear-face, we would be safer in a car.
- Always make sure the clip is at nipple height on the child, whether rear facing or front-facing. Make sure to read your instructions thoroughly to see if the car seat needs anchored, etc. Do not keep a diaper pad or anything between your child and the seat, unless it's made directly by the manufacturer. Same thing with putting anything between the car seat and the backseat of the car - you can use a pool noodle for adjusting the angle of infant seats, but make sure to read up on that.
There are a lot of great car seat forums out there, www.thecarseatlady.com is invaluable.
- The best thing you can do is keep your child rear-facing as long as possible. Both of mine rear-faced until four years old. Between 3 and 4 is ideal. The seat matters less if you have it rear-facing, as that ultimately matters more than the seat itself in those situations.
- The two best brands on the common market are Britax and Diono Radian. There are some brands like Clek that are, like, $500 and even safer, but the Britax and Dionos are (or at least were a few years ago) the best mid-price with highest safety ratings.
- If you do intend to stay rear-facing for as long as possible, you'll want a seat that goes to a higher weight. The Diono Radian RXT rear-faced for longer than the Britax, I think it had an extra five pounds rear-facing. We had a Britax Boulevard with our daughter, then switched out for a Diono as she got a little older and threw the Britax in the car she rode in less. We just went straight to the Diono for our subsequent son. It doesn't come in as many fun prints, but that's really not the point of safety. The Diono is also narrower, so you can get three of them in a row in a car, if need be.
- When you do front-face, again keep in the three-point harness as long as you can. And then in a high back booster, then in a low-back booster. Think of it this way - every step you make to the next step up of a car seat is less safe. If we all could rear-face, we would be safer in a car.
- Always make sure the clip is at nipple height on the child, whether rear facing or front-facing. Make sure to read your instructions thoroughly to see if the car seat needs anchored, etc. Do not keep a diaper pad or anything between your child and the seat, unless it's made directly by the manufacturer. Same thing with putting anything between the car seat and the backseat of the car - you can use a pool noodle for adjusting the angle of infant seats, but make sure to read up on that.
There are a lot of great car seat forums out there, www.thecarseatlady.com is invaluable.
You can get an after-market cup holder on most car seats, like the Diono Radian 3rxt. I wouldn't make the choice on the car seat based off of the cup holder.
That is different from what other posters have said above.. I'd give more weight in a decision to a mom (you) though than the likely male responses.. So, would you say get the BLVD over the One4Life?
Britax stuff was great for me to forget to put my kids in.
I had to read this sentence twice before I realized this wasn't a breast feeding related point.
At age one and two the sippy cup or bottle will either be thrown on the floor or at you, so the cup holder won't get used much at that age.
I think we definitely posted at the same time as each other, so I have a super-thorough answer here (and then I'll add more at the bottom):
I really, really can't enough talk about how valuable extended rear facing is. Here are a lot of great options on extended rear-facing - I would really recommend the Diono 3XRT due to its small footprint and relatively good price:
Best Seats for Extended Rear-facing - The Car Seat Lady
Recommended Car Seats for Extended Rear-facing The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids stay...
thecarseatlady.com
We got an after-market cupholder from them for ours, it jams down into one of the slots they build into the seat, and it wasn't removable. I do think cup holders are nice, but kids are not great at using them a lot of the time, anyway.
Have a Graco DLX from credit card points. We had a used Britax and gave it to a grandparent. The buckles on the Graco have introduced my little one to swearing after being used to the Britax.
The Graco buckles slide at will up and down the harness so I’m always trying to find the buckle. Not good in the winter when it is cold and windy and you are fighting the harness and a squirming kid. The crotch pad also tends to come off when pulling the kid out of the seat.
That said the DLX is a complete system. I think the Britax you might want a backless booster for your final seat, though I’m not sure. Left that stuff to my wife and she fed me so many details I can’t keep them straight.
The Graco buckles slide at will up and down the harness so I’m always trying to find the buckle. Not good in the winter when it is cold and windy and you are fighting the harness and a squirming kid. The crotch pad also tends to come off when pulling the kid out of the seat.
That said the DLX is a complete system. I think the Britax you might want a backless booster for your final seat, though I’m not sure. Left that stuff to my wife and she fed me so many details I can’t keep them straight.
Completely disagree. Eliminate brands and seats based on poor safety reports, but features really make the difference between the remaining options. As infants become toddlers and little kids, deep cup holders are important to continue to use the convertible car seats. We had one with a shallow cup holder and it was worse than not having one at all.
Couple other things to consider.
Shoulder height adjustment. Having something that is easy to change with a push button is nice rather than the ones where you have to pull out and rethread the harness through different holes.
Tightening process. We had one with a crank wheel system rather than the pull tether. Do not do that. The crank would get caught and it was difficult to get the harness tight. Threw that one away within months.
Convertible vs separate. The only real advantage of convertibles is if you're only planning on one child. If you're planning on having more, just buy the various stages as you'll end up needing multiple seats anyways.
I'm more looking forward to our final child being done with daycare/preschool later this year! If anyone has recommendations for best model Lambo/Ferrari to get to spend those savings on TIA!
OK. I will agree with parts of the last three points, but I just really disagree that a cup holder is a showstopper. Kids don't use it up until about 2.5 or 3. I think OP said he has an Odyssey, which we also have - if you lean down the middle seat there is a cup holder in the back that they can reach at that age. And again, with certain models (like the one I mentioned above), they specifically have aftermarket ones that you can position where you like, or you can get other models and get whatever depth you want.
Certainly you want to look at things like ease of shoulder height adjustment, but you do that once every few months, it's not like you're doing that every day. The tightening process is one that is certainly a bigger deal, as that goes to the safety of the seat.
Ultimately, no car seat expert is going to tell you to get one based off of the cup holder. Make the big decisions based off of rating, safety, stability, longevity, price and size. If you get it down to one or two after that, then look at incidentals.
I don't buy a car based off of the cup holders, either.
we had a Britax Boulevard and Marathon. Both were great with the exception of the cupholders. The cupholder was separate and kept falling off due to poor design. A water bottle half full would be too much weight for the cupholder and it would fall off.
I think we definitely posted at the same time as each other, so I have a super-thorough answer here (and then I'll add more at the bottom):
I really, really can't enough talk about how valuable extended rear facing is. Here are a lot of great options on extended rear-facing - I would really recommend the Diono 3XRT due to its small footprint and relatively good price:
Best Seats for Extended Rear-facing - The Car Seat Lady
Recommended Car Seats for Extended Rear-facing The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids stay...
We got an after-market cupholder from them for ours, it jams down into one of the slots they build into the seat, and it wasn't removable. I do think cup holders are nice, but kids are not great at using them a lot of the time, anyway.
I've read a lot on keeping them rear facing as long as possible. That was the main reason I stumbled upon the One4Life. It says its rated for up to 50 lbs rear facing vs the BLVD is rated to 40 lbs.
I haven't read much on Diono, so I'll do that this evening
Good point on the car. Our Sienna has the removable middle seat, so it's not installed often to make access to the rear seats easier. So the car doesn't have a cup holder accessible from the car seat. But yes, it isn't something you worry about until they're older.
