Car Seat Safety Ratings?

Whatever carseat you buy, make sure to keep your daughter rear facing as long as possible. One year and 20 lbs. is the bare minimum for legal forward facing. If your daughter is able to fit rear facing still, keep her that way. Children's Hosp. installed my seat and they are highly recommending keeping children rear facing up to 2 years old.

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There are new safety standards out that reccommend that you do not turn them around at one year and 20 pounds, but wait. If your seat is only good until 22 pounds, check in to a good convertable car seat. One that can be rear facing and then turned to be forward facing.

www.ConsumerReports.org lets you research carseats for free. We purchased a Cosco AlphaOmegaElite and have not regretted it for a minute (we bought it 4 years ago and is now her highbacked booster as she is 5 years old). There may be a better seat out there now though.

So, please read up about it to find out all the reasons to keep your precious cargo facing the rear. If your current car seat won't handle her weight and height, then look in to onw of the convertable car seats that can be used facing rear and then forward. (Be sure to look for one that holds the forward facing to higher weights and as a booster to higher weights - you'd hate to have to buy another one yet....)

We have bought 5pt harness car seats for both of our children from Sunshine kids. These are the only seats that have a 5pt harness from infant to 80lbs. Both of our kids love their seats. They are pricey but if you consider how many seats you would purchase until they are not required to sit in a seat it is worth it.

WE HAVE THE BRITIX BOULEVARD ITS A GREAT CARSEAT, IT GOES TO 65LBS AND IS VERY SAFT ITS A 5POINT HARNESS. YOU CAN GO TO BRITIX.COM, I THINK ANY SITE YOU GO TO YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHECK OUT THE RATINGS AND ALSO SEE WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THEM.

http://www.britaxusa.com/

There is no hurry to turn her forward facing. I have a Britax Roundabout, which is very nice and can accomodate rear facing up to 33 lbs. The Britax Marathon will let them go rear facing even longer. Rear facing is fine until they reach the weight limit. It's okay if their feet touch the back of the car's seat. If you are in an accident rear facing seats support their head and back without whipping their head around like forward facing would. If you really want to go forward facing both of the Britax models listed above can be installed either way.

www.consumersearch.com gives ratings on lots of different products. This is what we have used to find our carseats for our 2 children.

This is a personal rating, not professional, but my son was in a Graco Comfortsport in the center of the seat in a Suburban. Someone ran a light in front of me...no time to stop, so we hit head-on into the side of her. It totalled both cars and my son was just fine!!! We did replace the seat (even though there was no apparent damage) and of course got another Graco!

I would say that if you visit target.com, babiesrus.com etc and read customer reviews on each product you'll get a good idea of which ones other mom's liked and disliked about the different models.

I'm pretty loyal to Graco products and LOVE the safeseat step 2 from Graco. There is also a Graco CarGo carseat that can only be purchased online and I really like it as it will convert to a high back booster with a belt positioner.

If money isn't an issue I'd go with the Britax brand but they are quite pricey and in my opinion just as good as Graco. Graco also has super customer service.

Good Luck

Another plug for Baby Bargains. I have used it to research just about every purchase I've made for two kids. There is also a message board at www.babybargains.com that has tons of people (including CPSC techs - those are the car seat inspection safety people) dishing about what is best, easiest to use, fits in what car, etc. I think this is a better choice than Consumer Reports because it is more inclusive and also gives practical advice - not just crash test info.

Here's the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website to check for recalls on whichever car seat you are looking to get: http://www.cpsc.gov/ Check recall and product safety news, search for product type or company, and also you can sign up for their Recall Notification List (recommended) and be notified as soon as a recall happens, except for the latest car seat recalls, go to the nhtsa.dot.gov website.

www.nhtsa.dot.gov Click recalls, then look for child safety seat (car seats) recalls, and then search by manufacturer. This site will have the most current information on car seat recalls.

www.safetyalerts.com Their infant child section on recalls is sometimes easier to work with for some people, but is not updated as quickly or often as the above two sites.

www.kidsindanger.org Numerous links on baby safety topics.

Hi B.!
There is a great series of books out there called "Baby Bargains." It is a book all about safety ratings, and value, and has lots of different brands. It has tons of stuff in it, from cribs to carseats to where to buy what. I highly recommend it. They come out with a new book every year so that you always have the lastest info, prices, and safety ratings. I know that Barnes and Noble carries the book, so you could even stop by one and just browse it for the information you need. But, we bought ours - it was worth it!

Hope that helps!
D.

Another vote for Britax. They're great seats and rated very well. Also, it's good to keep her backward as long as you can! Feel good that you're finding what's safest for you daughter.

K.

Hello B. S,

My daughter is the #1 important person and safety was really important to me too. I purchased the Britax Roundabout carseat that went up to 40lbs. Then they came out with the Britax Marathon, I bought 2 of them since I babysat the seat goes up to 65lbs. My daughter is 6 and I bought a booster seat with a highback, Britax Parkway I gave that one to my Mom and I purchased the Britax Monarch.
You can order at britax.com or babyuniverse.com. There are also ratings too. I hope that helps. There was an article in the paper that a family was in a rollover and there little one was in a Britax carseat and it didn't even move.
No injuries. I really like that the seats are solid and heavy. Not too heavy, but you won't see it move from side to side when you turn the corner. Nicely padded and comfortable. Easy to adjust and wash the cover.

All I can suggest is make sure it has a 5 point harness, they are safest. Good luck, also, your local fire department will help you install it to make sure it is done properly.

Try Consumer Reprts.com-they have ratings for everything!

I will give another recommendation to Baby Bargains. That book has really helped me and my husband make good purchases for our daughter. We have a Britax that was boought for us off our registry. We needed another seat for my husband's car and we can't afford Britax but we found the there is a model made by Britax but under the Fisher Price name. It is the Voyager. We bought it from Babysurplus on Ebay. It rated at 4 1/2to 5 stars on four different websites. We paid $119 with s/h. Hope this helps.

I second Brittax. Everything I have read and heard about these seats is excellent. We unfortunately weren't able to dish out the money for one and went with the Uptown (by Safety 1st) from Walmart and/or Target. It was around $90 and it also rates very high with safety and it has high harness slots (which allows for a taller child to fit in the seat longer at the same weight ratings). It was very easy to install and is very comfortable for our daughter.

I also agree with the other response to keep your child rear facing as long as possible. That was the other thing that I liked about the Uptown because the minimum height to forward face is 34 inches....which we are just now reaching at 18 months!

Good luck with your car seat search!