Infant Car Seat recommendations for 06 Ford Focus wagon?

[dot1]

I'm looking for a compact infant seat for my ford focus wagon (has latch but we're only supposed to use the latch on the side seats-not middle).  Currently we have a Britax MArathon forward facing for 4 yr old dd and I plan to use it rear facing when the baby outgrows the infant seat.  I don't think I'll get an infant seat with a high weight limit just because I don't think I will want to carry around that weight.  We also have an Alpha Omega with 50 lb wt. limit (5 pt. harness) that I'll likely use for dd when we switch baby to the Britax.

Any recommendations on a compact, safe infant seat that has worked well in middle seat using seat belt, next to another car seat?  I'd like to get it in the middle seat if possible (safer + still room for passenger).  I looked on the consumer reports site (we have a membership) and they rated the Evenflo Embrace high for safety, as well as the Britax infant seat. 

I'm looking for safety ratings, easy to install/use....but also something that will fit our small back seat.

Anyone suggestions of where to start?  Another challenge - I'd have to order it online as we live rurally and have no stores with higher quality infant seats.

Thanks, wise mamas! :)

[an_aurora]

I would not buy an Evenflo infant seat.  I'd look at the Chicco Keyfit (nice and narrow) and the Graco infant seats.  The Britax Chaperone is huge and it's a bit of a tricky install since it's hard to get 80% of the base on the vehicle seat.

[dot1]

Thanks for the tips.  I would have loved another Britax - too bad it won't fit in our car. 

I'm curious why you wouldn't recommend the Evenflo (it's the Evenflo Embrace I was looking at).  It had the highest crash test rating in consumer reports - but the ease of use ratings were a little lower and there weren't enough reviews for me to get a good sense of what problems were encountered with ease of use.  If it's that the base is fiddly to install, maybe I could just buy a base for my husband's vehicle too so we never have to move the base once it's installed?  It seems like such a good deal.  I'm curious to know what others have found with it.  We had an older Evenflo infant seat (2nd hand before I really knew much about expiry dates, etc) - it didn't seem that comfortable for dd but I really loved the carrying handle and that I could easily fit it into shopping carts, etc.

Chico Key Fit appeals too - but pricey, and reviews comment on the material being sweaty and chemical-smelling (?flame retardent), which concerns me a bit.  It had a lower crash test rating than the Evenflo Embrace and the Britax (highest safety ratings), but was still rated very good (just not excellent). 

Thanks again.

[mama2soren]

Originally Posted by dot1 

Thanks for the tips.  I would have loved another Britax - too bad it won't fit in our car. 

I'm curious why you wouldn't recommend the Evenflo (it's the Evenflo Embrace I was looking at).  It had the highest crash test rating in consumer reports - but the ease of use ratings were a little lower and there weren't enough reviews for me to get a good sense of what problems were encountered with ease of use.  If it's that the base is fiddly to install, maybe I could just buy a base for my husband's vehicle too so we never have to move the base once it's installed?  It seems like such a good deal.  I'm curious to know what others have found with it.  We had an older Evenflo infant seat (2nd hand before I really knew much about expiry dates, etc) - it didn't seem that comfortable for dd but I really loved the carrying handle and that I could easily fit it into shopping carts, etc.

Chico Key Fit appeals too - but pricey, and reviews comment on the material being sweaty and chemical-smelling (?flame retardent), which concerns me a bit.  It had a lower crash test rating than the Evenflo Embrace and the Britax (highest safety ratings), but was still rated very good (just not excellent). 

Thanks again.

Consumer Reports is notoriously unreliable when it comes to car seat recommendations, and should basically be ignored.  There is no way to know which seat is "safer."  All seats pass the same testing, and no company aside from Sunshine Kids actually releases the results of the testing (ie: did they barely pass the standard or pass it with flying colors?).  CR seems to publish retractions for most of the car seat advice they give!

All car seats have flame retardant fabric, including Evenflo.  Some fabrics are "sweatier" than others, but most are going to have some sort of sweat factor, since they're not made of natural fibers.

Evenflo seats are usually not recommended, especially for small cars, because the handle MUST be down in the car, and there must be 1.5" of clearance between the car seat and the seat in front of it.  This means that the Evenflo seats cannot be used properly in many smaller cars without making the passenger seat virtually unusable.  While there haven't been major recalls of Evenflo infant seats recently, some people are still skeptical of the brand after several mass recalls of Evenflo infant seats in years past for major issues, like flying off the bases in a crash.  I suppose that's unfair, since Evenflo obviously seems to have fixed those issues, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, at least.

I would not choose a seat based on how it fits in shopping cart.  An infant seat should never be placed on a shopping cart.  There are many reports of babies being seriously injured when the seat falls off of the cart, or the cart tips over.  It is safe to put the child's seat in the main basket of the cart, but it would certainly make shopping more difficult.  Many mamas here find it works best to leave the car seat in the car and wear the baby in a comfy wrap or sling at the grocery store.  Better for the baby, too, since prolonged sitting in car seats lowers a baby's oxygen level and can cause plagiocephaly.  

The Graco Snugride 30 is also a fairly narrow infant seat, and not too huge.  It is a "higher weight limit" seat, but not nearly as big as many of the other HWL infant seats, like the Snugride 35 or the OnBoard 35.  It's relatively inexpensive, too.

I wouldn't stress too much about finding a way to get the baby in the middle position.  Yes, it is safer, but the safest option is to have a seat that fits well in your car and is easy to use properly.  Truthfully, the safest option would be to have your 4 year old in the middle and the infant outboard.  The rule of thinking is that the least protected child should be in the most protected position.  A RF child is much more protected in frontal and side impact crashes than a FF child.  But, many very safety-minded parents on this board and over at Car-Seat.Org feel confident about their choice to have both kids ride outboard if it's difficult to find seats that puzzle well right next to each other.

[dot1]

Thanks so much mama2soren for such a thorough, thoughtful reply.  

I totally agree with it being better to carry baby in wrap, etc.  I had significant upper back issues last time (even with the Ergo/cuddly wrap)...so the ability to put the seat right inside the shopping cart (on the bottom where it's not going to tip) was useful at times when my back just needed a break or I didn't want to wake up a baby that finally finally napped.  However, that's not the deciding factor re. infant seat - just something that might sway me to choose one equally good option over another.

I had no idea about the unreliability of consumer reports - thanks for the tip.  Just curious what is flawed about their ratings, especially the crash test ratings?  They rated Graco seats really low for crash test - wish I knew why. 

Thanks for the tips on the Evenflo - that completely rules it out.  We had it in the centre before so the handle wasn't an issue - however for sure it would be an issue this time. 

And thx for reassurance re. outboard seat - do you know off hand which seats have the best side impact protection?  It maks sense to put 4yr old dd in the middle if I can - I'll try it.

Thx again!

[mama2soren]

http://www.car-safety.org/guide.html#cr

Here's a good article to look at.  Scroll down about half way to get lots of info on CR testing and its flaws.  Without actually seeing the results of crash tests (which, as I mentioned, no company releases except for Sunshine Kids), there is no way to know which seat has the best SIP.  What we do know is that RF provides excellent SIP.  So, you can safely assume that if you can get a solid install of the car seat RF, it's easy to use correctly (ie: easy to get the harness nice and snug, etc.), fits your baby well (ie: the lowest harness slot is not too high for new baby's shoulders) and it can keep your new baby RF as long as possible, it's the safest seat for you.  Since you will have a Marathon to pass down when the baby outgrows the infant seat, you don't have to worry about getting the biggest RF infant seat.  Most kids make fit RF in a Marathon until at least 3.  Mine will fit RF until 4, I'd guess.

Infant seats with lock-offs can be easier to install, if you intend to do seatbelt installs.  You might find it's easiest to know which seat to get if you go to a Babies R Us.  They usually have most of the popular infant seats in stock (like the Chicco KeyFit, Baby Trend, Graco 30, etc), and you can take them from the store to test them out in your car.  The three I just mentioned are some of the narrowest infant seats, which could help you get the two seats side by side.

[dot1]

Thanks again :)