Car seat??

[KaisaG]

Okay so Baby Eman is about to grow out of his infant car seat... so we are going to have to get him another one for my husband's truck since he takes him to daycare every day and I pick him up. We have a Britax Marathon in my car that is supposed to last until he's like 55 pounds or something... But I don't want to have to get another one of those because it's a $270 car seat that we REALLY just can't afford right now. Preferably the car seat will be one that is REALLY easy to get in and out of a car- because my husband leaves it at daycare cuz sometimes my MIL picks him up earlier than I get off work. We have been using a Graco Snugride- but like I said... He's about to grow out of it... Any help/.recommendations would be greatly appreciated!! :bow2

[becky]

I'm a big fan of the all in one car seats. I have used them for both my girls. At one point we had 4 car seat just for Kayla becuase we needed one for each of our cars and one for each of my parents cars. I dont know what thier rating is now, but two years ago when i was shopping for Myah the Eddie Bower seat that grows to a booster was the best out there. That is what i plan on getting for the baby. Myah moved right into the big seat when she was 4 months old and had no problems. I love love love it!

[KaisaG]

Becky- Do you have any idea how much they run??? I think tha tis the same one that one of my cousins uses. The Britax one that I have is the highest rated one right now... but it is SO pricey that there is no way that we can get another one

[becky]

oh my goodness. i haven't priced it yet. I just saw the new one at target and love the new color. let me look it up for you. one sec.....

[becky]

Okay...this is what we used for Kayla...have had 3 or 4 of these.
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_8/602-5487644-0469408?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B0002TEA78
and this is what i have for Myah:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_10/602-5487644-0469408?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FJOWXM

I love the eddie bower so much more. I look at car seats this way...when we had kayla we had gotten her jsut the car seat at first knowing later we needed a booster. When she out grew her car seat the thought of having to buy two more seats was just nuts. That is how we ended up with the convertable. So when it came time to pick one out for myah we asked which was the best of the convertible and got the Eddie Bower. I absolutely love it!

[KaisaG]

Wow, thanks. I could handle $200... well... I could after I get paid on Friday.

[daisydoc]

Personally, Love the Britax car seats! Got in an accident (minor - got rear-ended while stopped). I called SRPD and talked to their carseat specialst, who said you could run over a britax carseat with a semi-truck and still use! They are as close to indestructible as you can get! We have two of their Wizards's which can go rear facing from 5-30 lbs and forward facing 20-65 lbs. We have one in my car and one in James' truck for Sevannah. Because Sevannah outgrew her infant seat at about 5 months we forked out the money for the new Graco Infant Safeseat for Jazper which limits are 32" and 30 lbs! Once he outgrows his infant seat we are either buying the Britax Boulevard (just recently released by Britax in place of the wizard we have) or are getting one of their booster (the parkway... for kids 38 -60 " tall and 30 - 100 lbs) so that Sevannah can stay in it until she's 6yrs and 60lbs which are the current requirements! My parents have a Britax Wizard and my MIL just had to buy the Boulevard b/c she says she wants to come get Sevannah once in a while. So we told her she had to have a seat in her truck! I installed it about a month ago... she still hasn't come and taken Sevannah!

Here's the link to the Boulevard:
http://www.britaxusa.net/products/360_boulevard.aspx

Here's the link to the Parkway:
http://www.britaxusa.net/products/360_parkway.aspx

[becky]

I have a hard time spending alot of money but dont we all. What caught my attention when shopping a couple year ago was that the new Eddie Bower seat has • Rear facing for infants 5–35 lbs. forward facing for toddlers 22–40 lbs. belt-positioning booster with children 40–100 lbs. All I have to do is buy one and that's it. Myah fit so well in it when she was little that i didn't even have to get one of those inserts for the extra padding. It so easy to change the sholder position too. I had to rethread with the old one and it was a major pain in the butt even though the process was easy to do. I'm not a fan of having to remove the entire car seat jsut to adjust the sholder straps as the baby gets older.

[LMS]

When I had brendan we were of... limited financial means ;) My MIL is all about everything inexpensive and got us the Costco Touriva. Very inexpensive, CERTAINLY not of the quality of a britax... but it's a carseat, and it's easy to move around (we do a LOT) so you might want to look into that (Walmart)

[KaisaG]

Yeah- I think we are going to get one that converts to a booster. It doesn't make sense to pay $200 now- and then pay $250 again once he grows out of that one. I like the Britax Marathon... Rear facing it fits 5-33 pounds and then you can flip it facing forward until the child is 65lbs (I just checked...). I guess technically if we can afford it we would never have to buy another one. My husband was thinking of seeing if his mom wanted to go halves on it because she was saying that she was going to buy one too.

[Marisa]

http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.jsp?itemID=183757&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=183757&cm_ven=Bizrate&cm_ite=OSA
Jackie: We got a Cosco too, I think that's also who has the Eddie Bauer editions and they make Safety 1st brand too. Anyway, we got this one, the Alpha Omega Elite and it goes from a rear-facing car seat for infants from 5-35 lbs. then, it's a forward-facing car seat for tots 20-40 lbs. then a booster for kids 30-100 lbs. You adjust the height of the headreast, and the legnth of the harness when the baby's in the seat or out. It's SUPER easy. And really easy to install. Sometimes I leave mine at daycare if family will be picking Brianna up. We paid $159 at Kmart.

[lmfike]

We use the evenflo triumph for Jules. We love it. I don't find it that hard to move from car to car but we use the straps that attach to the metal hooks in the cars(both of our cars are newer 2003 & 2006). And I found out last Dec that my sister loves it too. She came down for visit. I went to switch my nephews car seat from their car to ours(we were going to lunch) and found she has the same car seat/same color. Jules was like whats he doing with my seat(only her seat was still buckled in my car at that time).

[meeg124]

We use the evenflo triumph for Jules. We love it. I don't find it that hard to move from car to car but we use the straps that attach to the metal hooks in the cars(both of our cars are newer 2003 & 2006). And I found out last Dec that my sister loves it too. She came down for visit. I went to switch my nephews car seat from their car to ours(we were going to lunch) and found she has the same car seat/same color. Jules was like whats he doing with my seat(only her seat was still buckled in my car at that time).

We had this seat for Caden, when he outgrew his infant seat, and we loved it. It rates very well, according to Consumer Reports and I think we paid $150. Since Caden is such a big guy, we already had to uprade to a bigger car seat and I bought him a Britax Husky that is rated for up to a 100 pounds (I think). We chose that one because of the Britax brand and because at the time I bought it, it was the only seat I could find with a 5 point harness for that weight limit. However, I have to say that I hate this Britax car seat. Especially compared to the Triumph. The straps always twist, it's a pain in the ass to tighten down the straps and to take the seat in and out of the car. If you need to clean the cover, you can't just take the cover off of the seat, you have to completely disassemble it (not fun when it's covered in puke) and I don't think the straps are really comfortable for Caden. He just seems to complain a lot more about this carseat than he did the last one.

Good luck on finding a new seat!
Megan

[Lynette]

Sorry no help here, we just broke down and bought a Britax Marathon for each car. It was one of those things that when you hear cops say it is what they put their kids in you know if you ever got into an accident that extra $$$ would defintely be worth it.

Actually with that accident we stopped to help with the other day Brian mentioned the lady had crappy car seats. The three year old was in a Cosco and the lady said she felt him hit the back of her seat. Granted, that could have been from improper installation, I dunno but the mom made the comment that neither car seat held the kids in place :(

[KaisaG]

Lynette- Have you heard anything about the Britax Marathon failing tests because it reclines too much? I read that this morning -- and I had thought it was supposed to be one of the best ones??? It's not just the cost of a Britax that is making me hesitant to get another one... I need something that is easy to get in and out of a vehicle easily too.. cuz my MIL picks Baby E up from daycare Tuesdays and she watches him on Friday...

[becky]

I take mine in and out of the car alot since at the moment we only have one car and before we moved i used to car pool with my friends alot. Mine was pretty easy to take in and out considering it is a full size seat that goes to 100 lbs.

[daisydoc]

We don't have to take Sevannah's seat in and out very often b/c we have one in each vehicle but when we do in order to clean it, it's not hard. We have latches in my MDX but just use the seat belts in James' truck.

[becky]

I so wish i had latches in our car. Ours is so old that i have to use the belt. I love the latch system! I want a new car so bad :)

[daisydoc]

Me too!!! Love the latch system! So much easier to install (at least I think it is) and the seat seems so much more secure. I love my MDX but James gets closterphobic in it so we've been thinking about getting something else. If we change vehicles I want a Yukon b/c they have latches where as James wants to get me a 4 door truck, and he's partial to Fords, which do not have latches even in their brand new trucks!

[Lynette]

Kaisa- No, I hadn't heard of that? I will have to Google it!

Anna- We have the latch system in the van but not my Explorer, what a cool invention!

[KaisaG]

Lynette-- Here's what they said verbatum

The Britax Marathon convertible seat remained attached with LATCH in crash tests at the federal speed standard. But with a 33-pound dummy, the manufacturer’s maximum claimed weight, the seat tilted back excessively. We think that could happen in a real crash if the seat is not installed perfectly. The Combi Tyro infant seat also tilted back too far in crashes at its 22-pound weight limit.

The whole article is at:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/child-car-booster-seats/child-car-booster-seats-505/overview/index.htm

[Lynette]

Oh ok, I was wondering how it tilted backwards when it was against the seat but I was thinking as an almost 2 year old mommy with the seat facing forward :)

They are saying when it is rear facing for little babies at the max weight of 33lbs (one BIG baby!) that when it is using the LATCH system it could tip back, and I can totally see that actually. Since the LATCH thingies are all the way down in the crack of the seat it fits low through the slot in the back (like in our 2005 van) but with the lap/shoulder belt the shoulder part rides up higher in the slot so in a crash it would keep it from tipping (like in our 98 Explorer):

With all four models, problems occurred only when the seats were in their rear-facing position and attached with Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, or LATCH, a universal connection system for child car seats and passenger vehicles in which connectors on the car seat attach to metal anchors in the car.

By contrast, when we connected the child car seats with car safety belts, all performed fine. So if you already own one of those car seats, you don’t need to throw it out. Just install it with the car’s own safety belt, not with the LATCH connection.