Seasoned Mom Advice Car Seat/stroller

I know you posted this a while back, but I was reminded of your post when I recently purchased a new stroller. My daughter is 9 months old and I wanted a small lightweight stroller like you mentioned you were looking for. We ended up with a combi stoller. It is lightweight and compact. I can put my diaper bag on the back it doesn't tip over. It does have storage on the bottom, but I prefer to have it on the back for easy access. I can also steer this stroller with one hand if needed. If you haven't already found one, you might want to check this one out at Babies R' Us. We recently took it too the zoo and it did great.

Hi there, check out the Alpha Omega Elite Carseat by Cosco. You can find it at Baby's R Us. It is for infants of 5lbs all the way up to children 85+ lbs. The back adjust as your child grows. I had one in each of our cars for my son and loved it so much that when my daughter came a long I bought two more for her. My son is now 5 and still fits in it and he is tall for a 5 yr old(aprox 46" & 44lbs). He will deffinately not need another seat. They are a great price considering how much use you get out of it (around $169). Hope this helps!

We have Britax car seats for both of our children, 2.5 yo daughter and 10 mo old son. We love them! The main thing my husband looked for was comfort and also a big one for us is that the straps on the Britax car seats don't get tangled. We found with an old car seat we started out with we were always untangling the strap and it was a pain. I don't care what other people say, I say Britax does live up to the price you pay for them.

As for the carseats...we have two Britax Marathons and we love them. The main reason we went with these is because both of my boys are/were VERY BIG. They both grew out of their infant seats at 4 months. The Marathon was the convertable car seat that we felt would last the longest for us because of their weight and height limit. I do not have anything to compare them to because we have not tried anything else but I can say that we love ours.
For strollers, we got a stroller at Target (I think it is a Cosco brand). I can not remember how much it was but I am pretty sure it is less than $40. It has three cup holers for the parents, a pretty good size basket on the bottom, a tray and cup holder for the child and is pretty light weight and folds up easily.
Good luck finding your baby gear, it seems to always be such a pain to make a choice!

Hi K.,

Does your son sit up on his own? I bought a stroller at Wal-mart for our daughter (she is now 3) for about $20. It has 2 positions but neither lay down (that is why I asked if he sits up). The stroller has a basket on the bottom for purse or small/medium diaper bag. At the handle there is a mesh thing that holds 2 cans/bottles and a middle section for keys or pacifier/etc. It is very easy to set up, just a matter of pulling it up until it snaps. It also has brakes. I do not use mine anymore and haven't for a VERY long time. My daughter also preferred to be held or walk (whichever the case was at the time) so I was thinking about trying to sell it.

For the car seat, I think mine have usually been Graco car seats which have always been great for me.

I would have never imagined that someone would consider the Britax car seats a status symbol... we got ours because it came highly recommended by my friends with children, as well as Consumer Reports, and similar reviews and is known for safety - which is most important (fyi my pediatrician recently told me of a new study that shows from age 1-2 remaining rear facing reduces infant death by a greater percent than from birth to age 1).
I would think Peg Perego would be more of the "symbol" though also a great car seat. We love the Britax Marathon and plan to get a second one soon so we don't have to remember to move it from vehicle to vehicle. It really is worth the money! Oh, and if you get the 15% off one item coupons for Babies R Us you can save quite a bit on a car seat!!

As for the stroller... we take the jogging stroller everywhere because it is so smooth but I know we need to find a different option.

T.

I agree that the Britax carseats are just a symbol. I can not say for a fact that the carseats we have are better than the Britax, but I do know that we LOVE our carseats!

We bought the Cosco Alpha Omega seats for both of our children when they were about one and we still have them for both children. I like the seats for the comfort they seam to provide, they fit perfectly on our seats and seem to fit no matter what car we use, they convert to a booster seat when they get older and the material has lasted for over four years! It is easy to take apart and I just toss the cover in the washer and it always comes out beautiful.

I would just suggest taking your son to the store and seating him in the different carseats. See which one you feel the most comfortable with. I really think that if they are installed properly, most carseats function in the same way. I have never been in an accident with my children, but if I were to get in one, I feel 100 percent confident that the seats we have will provide the safety they need. I am not an expert-just my opinion.