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What Carseat are you getting???

2K views 49 replies 28 participants last post by  elonwy 
#1 ·
Sorry if this has been posted before.
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I have been going over and over and over carseat reviews, and I just don't know what one I want. I am leaning twords a Graco Snugride, but I am not sure if I want the normal one, or a snugride 32.

So what are you all getting and why?
 
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#27 ·
I used a chicco keyfit30 last go around and really liked it...but true to most reviews you'll find, the fabric is very "hot". Either use a prefold under the baby or a flannel receiving blanket to wick away sweat...

it was very easy to install in pretty much any vehicle BUT beware that your seats are deep enough..it fit in our stratus but really didnt in the jeep cherokee or the bmw

I have to check to see if it will fit in our quad cab yet...

the cover hold up really well to abusive washing though! and my daughter preferred to sleep in the darned thing more than anywhere else
 
#28 ·
I haven't read through all this yet but,

Quote:
Originally Posted by I Need Coffee View Post

So what are you all getting and why?
I have absolutely no idea.
I'm so glad to see this thread is here so I can read up on what the rest of you are doing!! I just started really looking at what we need (first living baby) and all this picking, choosing and wishlisting is overwhelming to me!
 
#29 ·
I went shopping last night at Babies R Us fully intending to purchase a Chicco Keyfit based on reviews. I had read reviews stating that the sunshade wasn't as good but I couldn't believe how bad it was! We live in a hot area so that concerned me in addition to a review that the fabric was really hot. However, Dh talked me into this seat:

http://www.gracobaby.com/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=1759021

It's adorable but it is lined with fleece everywhere! I'm worried it's going to be too hot. He says that we never leave the baby in the seat anyway (and we haven't with our other two) and he plans to run the air condition in the car, so what difference does it make. What do you think?
 
#30 ·
i would think that fleece would actually heat up less than the vinyl stuff when left in a parked car in the sun. and even if you do end up leaving a babe to nap in there during the summer, i don;t think fleece would be any hotter than the other stuff that doesn't absorb sweat at all.

i actually used a cotton car seat cover during the summer anyway (i know i know...the family safety board people would flame me for this...it's ok) because regular car seat fabric seems so not-breathable during hot summers.
 
#31 ·
Thank you :) That makes me feel better.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tzs View Post

i would think that fleece would actually heat up less than the vinyl stuff when left in a parked car in the sun. and even if you do end up leaving a babe to nap in there during the summer, i don;t think fleece would be any hotter than the other stuff that doesn't absorb sweat at all.

i actually used a cotton car seat cover during the summer anyway (i know i know...the family safety board people would flame me for this...it's ok) because regular car seat fabric seems so not-breathable during hot summers.
 
#32 ·
if you're referring to my post, that's just what I call the car seat style/type, not the parents.
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granted, I did start calling it that because we have acquaintances that left their child in her bucket seat practically from birth to 8 months, but I don't intend to pass judgment on anyone based on the car seat they pick. i really doubt anyone here on MDC would choose such a "hands off" parenting style to that extent anyway.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeminijad View Post

And BTW, using a bucket style seat does not mean someone is a 'leave the kid in the seat all the time' type. I find convertibles from birth with a tiny floppy body very difficult.
 
#33 ·
My son outgrew his Snugride at 4 months so we will not be doing that again. We replaced it with a Radian, which is an amazing seat (and the only one you need to buy) but it is really heavy for our carless life.

For #2 we bought a Combi Cocoro. #1 still fits rear facing at two. light, compact, easy to install.I can clip it to my rolling bag wen we travel.
 
#34 ·
yeah...my son was 17 lbs at 2 months and i think he outgrew his infant seat around 4 months...we definitely are not going to be getting an infant seat i don't think.

i am REALLY leaning towards this one: http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=3822327 because the ratings are excellent in both canada and the states, i haven't found any really negative reviews of it, it should fit in our yaris on the side so haye can stay in his turbobooster in the middle (he's 74 lbs, super tall and 5, so it would be pointless to buy him a radian at this point), and the headrest comes off for rear-facing...sounds pretty awesome to me. plus we live in the canadian desert and the baby is coming close to june...there's NO WAY i am going to want to lug a baby around in a carseat! we are baby-wearers to the bitter end!
 
#35 ·
I ended up ordering a Graco Snugride 22. :) I'm sure I'll be happy with that until baby is heavy enough I don't want to lift her in it LOL. When she's close to outgrowing it, I will probably order another Marathon (DS is still in his Marathon and it will expire in June 2012 anyway).
 
#36 ·
We have a Graco Snugride that was DS's old carseat and is still good for another year. I'll either use that or our Britax Boulevard CS 70. I'm pretty sure we're selling my minivan.
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(I'm going to miss that car...) It will be a tight squeeze in the back of DH's car with DS riding in a Nautilus, so we'll have to play around with it and see how it's going to work.
 
#37 ·
We still have a Graco Snugride(the regular one) left from our last baby, so we'll be using it again. Last baby fit in it till he was close to a year old. We contemplated on getting the bigger one but decided on the regular, so it wouldn't be so heavy to carry.
 
#38 ·
I have a snugride that I will probably use for a while. By about 6 months I get sick of lugging it around. I am also ordering 3 Radians. My other seats are about the expire (they are hand me downs from a family member), and I need to be able to get 3 car seats in a row. I am getting the Radian 65. There is no difference in the frames as far as safety and my almost 5 year old DD is only 32 pounds, so there is just no way that she would need a seat that went up to 80lbs.
 
#39 ·
We were given a snugride 22 with DS and it was OK in the beginning if you wanted to keep baby in the seat and carry it around. I think a lot of Graco stuff is just cheap and its not my favorite brand. I much preferred the Britax marathons that DS uses now and I think we may end up getting another once LO is 6 months.
 
#44 ·
We have a Graco Snugride 32 on loan for the first few months. It is HUGE in our tiny compact. We can fit it in the car if the front passenger moves up, luckily neither of us has long legs and we don't drive that much anyway. We have the Radian 80SL on our registry, since it's great for compacts and is good up to 80lbs.
 
#45 ·
I've heard radians aren't great for compact cars because they recline so much while RFing. We thought about getting one for this new LO but there is no way it would fit comfortably RFing in our Honda Accord. I would go to TRU to make sure you don't have to put your seat all the way forward to install it.
 
#47 ·
Radians have really high backs because of their high weight limits. This does make them harder in small cars. But they are very slim and we have had no problems installing them RF in the middle seat.
 
#48 ·
We are officially NOT buying a car seat in the US. The Graco is good to something like 35lbs, so we should be good til we leave with that and I have confirmed that anything we buy here will be illegal in Oz. Sooooo glad I checked that, didn't even occur to me til I was reading this thread.
 
#49 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by elonwy View Post

We are officially NOT buying a car seat in the US. The Graco is good to something like 35lbs, so we should be good til we leave with that and I have confirmed that anything we buy here will be illegal in Oz. Sooooo glad I checked that, didn't even occur to me til I was reading this thread.
So, I had to read up on this because I found it hard to believe that a seat like the Radian would not meet standards in other countries. From what I read on carseat.org that law is pretty insane. The seat has to be able to top tether while RF. However, they also only require people to RF to 13kg (which is like 28lbs) and they just changed it from 6 months to now a year. So, I would think that you may actually be better off using a US seat...
 
#50 ·
Yeah I had a conversation with my gf who is over there and she is using a car seat that is illegal but it's just a booster seat, her daughter is...6..7?

Part of the problem is they do a lot of stopping and checking of cars, lots of pull over breathalizer type things, stuff like that. If on some random chance someone decides to notice that we don't have the proper stickers on the car seat (which I have yet to figure out if I can even get one here with the rating stickers, the information I have found is contradictory) we'd getting a whopping huge fine, same thing if (god forbid) we got in a car accident and they saw that it was an illegal seat. So it's a balance of how much of a pain in the butt it is at what point/ how much trouble could we potentially get in.

The other thing I'm thinking about is we have no clue what car we will have when we get there. We'll definitely have a rental for a while, so probably a rental car seat too (again in this case standards are much stricter so not quite the same horrible issues as rental car seats in the US)....

The one thing I am certain of is that moving to Australia is COMPLICATED.
 
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