Infant Car Seat Recommendation

We got a Graco snug ride and love it. But our son is getting heavy!!! :)

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We used a Graco SafeSeat with both of our children. It looks a lot like the Snugride, but it accomodates them for longer (up to 32 inches long). Ours has the adjustment in the front which I LOVE. My SIL had a graco snugride that did not have the adjusment in the front, and it was a pain to adjust.

We went to BabiesRUs to check out all the different options and safety ratings. Then we went to Amazon.com to buy it for cheaper and with free delivery to our house...which was really nice since we live about 3 hours away from the nearest BabiesRUs. We didn't have to lug it home. :)

Oh, and someone told me that if you take an expired car seat to BabiesRUs, then they will give you a gift certificate toward a new car seat....You might look into that if you have an old carseat. You might be able to get a better deal.

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I went through the same thing when my daughter was born 19 months ago. We were given a snugride so we used that, and I loved it because you can take it with you, its light weight and with the base its really convienent. Also, if you have a Sweet Peace Soother (everyone NEEDS one of these!!) then the car seat just clicks in. But, she was out of it by the time she was 5 months, so we bought her the safeseat and that was good, but it was a lot heavier. I just had my second baby 6 weeks ago, and I bought him a snugride (the first one expired) to use until he out grows it, and then we'll switch to the safeseat. She just technically out grew it this month in height and weight, but we moved her to a forward facing seat when she turned one because her legs were so long she hated to be in it. They always hit the seat and she was squished.

So, personally, if you can afford it, I say go with both if you like to use the car seat as a carrier. Neither one of my babies liked to be "worn" so that wasn't a concern for me. If you look on craigslist sometimes you can find new ones for less than retail, that's what I did. They had gotten extra ones and so they sold them for less than at the store, but it was still in the box so it was safe and not really used. Good luck!

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as far as being heavy you don't have to take the car seat out once they turn 5 or 6 months old just leave it in the car. car seats do go up to about 35 pounds now but if its height that makes your children out grow them and not so much their weight then this won't help you. so go back and look at their hieght at 6 and 12 months and see if either of these two heights are over the height range of the new car seats. if they are then it maybe better for you to either borrow/buy a used one from someone you know that way you know it wasn't in an accident or just buy a convertable car seat that will assure you the ability to use it for many years. some main pointers are that children should (not by law but it's safer) sit rear facing til they are a couple years old, and be in a 5 point harness (not a booster or belt positioner) til at least 5.

We have the Chicco Keyfit 30 and we really like it. I spoke with a "carseat expert" at a local health dept and it is the carseat that they recommended for safety. In comparison to the Graco it seems much sturdier to me (I do childcare for a baby who uses the Graco, so I see them together every day). My dd is 8 mo and about 20 lbs and yes it is a bit heavy but at this point I'm carrying her less and less in it anyway. Plus, it is very nice-looking (not that that matters, but it is:)).

With our first two we had Graco infant seats. (It was a nicer model. The more expensive one at the time -6 years ago.) Loved it. Our kids were in them for about 11 months. Seemed pretty heavy duty. Had some nice features.

With our 3rd, we did more research. Found that Britax Chaperone is rated really high in safety. Was the ONLY infant seat we could find that had side-impact protection in case of an accident. Yes, it IS a little heavier than others. But SO much nicer! It just feels and looks heavy duty. You put it next to my niece's seat (cheap style Graco) and there is NO way I would ever use her seat for our kids.

We really like our Britax. Now that we started buying Britax, I don't know that we'll ever switch to anything else. (We also own 3 Frontier85's and another one that I always forget the name of.....)

In my opinion the Britax carseats are the best on the market, hands down. I used the infant carrier and then upgraded to a convertible seat. Now my 4 year old is riding in the Britax booster seat.

With our second I went with a Britax that would go up to 33lbs rear facing (since they need to stay that way till up to age 2 at the very minimum) and up to 65lbs forward facing. She stayed rear facing very comfortably till she was 31 months.

The only downside was that you couldn't take it in and out of the car like the Graco type seats. I usually wore my little one or we had the outdated Graco my son used so we would just toss that in the trunk if we were going to dinner and we'd take my daughter out of her seat and carry her in in the old seat. But when you figure how quickly they outgrow those Graco type seats it was worth a bit of inconvenince. She's almost 3 and still using the same seat.

I got ours on sale and with free shipping. Still expensive but well worth it. That seat is like a tank!

We have a snugride 35 and really like it. The front adjust is something I really like. Our son is four months and 15.5 pounds now, so it gets a little heavy sometimes, but I think any car seat would. I do like to be able to carry him in it if he falls asleep in the car. I've never really used it for shopping, so I don't carry him very far in it and if needed it does attach to the stroller.

maxi cosi mico. it was great. They do get heavy the older they get, but then u can just start leaving it in the base and carry them to and from the car, etc. We then switched to maxi cosi priori when they were getting too tall or heavy for the infant carrier. It is convertible and rear and forward facing. Its not too much $$ either, but its not the cheapest. A great website is diapers.com or albeebaby.com both have similar prices, and diapers.com gives u 20% off first order, etc. great shipping too. I heard people swear by britax- but those are 200+ $