Experienced Moms.... Car seat Question

[AmyG89]

For all you experienced moms out there I need opinions on car seats. I'm only 8 weeks so I have PLENTY of time but I just want to have an idea of the baby products I will be needing.

I was originally set on the Chicco KeyFit 30 Car Seat. I've been researching and reading reviews and I was excited to try one out in person. Then, I started reading reviews stating that this car seat does not fit in shopping carts and universal strollers (snap-and-ago) This is a problem for me so I started to look at other car seats.

I came across the Graco Snugride. This comes in 2 models (The Snugride & Snugride 32) A Lot of people are complaining that this car seat, especially the 32 are much heavier than most other car seats.

We also can't decide if we will be getting a travel system or just getting the separate car seat/ stroller.

Any advice on these car seats or other ones that you recommend??

[AmyG89]

Thank You Ladies! I think I will be going out to the stores next weekend to try them myself.

Thanks a lot!

[mami1323]

I used the Chicco travel system.  But my son was huge so he grew out of it in a matter of months then we had to upgrade.  I made sure to switch it as soon as he was past the weight and height limit.  

[Estee_Marie]

I got a travel system.  That way you kill two birds with one stone.  Also, it's much easier when you take the baby out to just put the carseat in the stroller instead of moving the baby in and out.  I got mine at babiesrus.com.  I got the jogger one because as soon as I get back to work I'm pretty much on a timeline to get back in shape.  Hahaha.

[DoulaSummer]

Chicco Key Fit is AWESOME and has repeatedly rated highest among infant carriers.

Technically...carseats are NOT supposed to go on the top of shopping carts.  They are NOT made for that and constant forcing it to attach to a cart can void a warranty if you are in an accident and the insurance company does its job and sees the wear and tear that would not normally be there from recommended use.

I am HUGE on car seat safety, so I just want to throw this out there.  Car seat laws are MINIMUM requirements.  There are car seats that rear face to 45 lbs, harness to 80lbs and booster to 120lbs (of course most children outgrow car seats by HEIGHT before weight).  Since when has doing the bare minimum acceptable for our children?  Rear face longer.  Harness longer.  Booster longer.  Car seats are always cheaper than medical bills and caskets.

If anyone is serious about car seat information, please feel free to e-mail me.

[Irish741]

We have the Chicco Key Fit (not the 30) travel stytem. I LOVE IT!!! The car seat itself is 9 lbs. So it is on the heavier side. The Key Fit 30 fits a child up to 30 lbs and 30 inches. The regular Key Fit goes to 22 lbs and 28 inches. Other than that they are almost the same. The travel system is a bit expensive but changing the car seat form car to car and manuevering everything was a total dream. I do agree though that the car seat is not always compatible with shopping carts (I had to up my son in the cart itself which was not always the greatest option when I was grocery shopping...and once he got pretty heavy lifting it over the cart was a bit hard). I also hear that it is not really compatible with other strollers but I am sure that is the plan since it comes with its own stroller. I think a drawback to having a separate stroller apart from the travel system would be that if you don't want your baby in the carseat when you are walking around you would have to buy another stroller.

Anyway...that is my 2 cents...Chicco Key Fit rocks!

Good luck in your carseat hunt!

[pertykitty]

its such a personal choice.  my boy grew out of his seat early by length and weight.  my dd, haha she is still just 22-23 lbs and is 2yrs!  

im with tired, didnt care for the stroller, im more of a sling kind of gal anyway.  i would wear my baby more than carry her around, keeps people from touching too.

there are new standards that many moms are going with, the extended rear facing.  check with your carseat, some larger carseats can be rear facing for longer periods and can be used with a newborn.  be VERY careful when placing babies carseat on the cart at the grocery ect.  some dont fit well and with a small bump baby can go flying!  

[JoyRenee]

tiredbuthappy- I KNOW!!! I get so angry when I see these large 6-month-old babies in infant carriers!!!

[smjmekg]

I have a Safety 1st Winnie the Pooh stroller/car seat. It came with a base to leave in the car and there's a pole that attaches it to the stroller, I love it! My giant of a son fit in it until he was 9 months old, then I had to move him to a big boy car seat. (He was way too tall for the infant car seat.) Now at 18 months, he's almost outgrown the one I bought him at 9 months, lol. The Safety 1st isn't that expensive, I think I paid around $150-$200 for the whole thing, car seat, stroller, and base. The only bad part is it's a pretty big stroller so if you have a small trunk you won't be able to fit much else in but I have an SUV so I don't have a problem with it. The car seat fits in every shopping cart I've come across so far, and it's not very heavy...I'd say at best it's 5 pounds. I found it at Sears, Walmart, and Babies r Us...I didn't look many other places, when I saw it at Sears I told DH I wanted it, and we got it. Good luck shopping!

[tiredbuthappy]

i had a travel system but hated it. Loved the graco infant seat and the very lightweight frame for snap and go. hated the bulky, inpractical stroller. and i got one of the small graco travel systems (not the quatro touring, but smaller size). Don't get me wrong- it's a lovely stroller. but it's big and heavy so daily use was not reasonable. it took up my entire trunk, was heavy to hoist in and out, and when you're simply running errands, it's just not worth the effort. i bought a cheap stroller to replace it.

if i could do it all over again, i would get the infant seat and lightweight base. graco is fine. my baby is a moose and she'll be outgrowing it soon, but i see so many moms carting their infants in it when they shouldn't. if your kid's feet hang past the end, then they're too long and should not be in the seat for safety reasons. my super chunk will outgrow it in length before weight. it is heavy (i just weighed her and the seat together at the dr's today, and i've been carting 28 pounds of baby and seat), but you get used to it. anyways, i would get a good, lightweight stroller for when the baby outgrows the infantseat/snap n go.

[JoyRenee]

I have a Snugride and love it! The only issue is that this seat is smaller so baby grows out of it faster. I already got her a convertible car seat that we'll put in the car once it gets a little warmer.

ALL car seats have to abide by the same safety requirements and laws, fyi.

I would get a travel system. You can usually save yourself some money that way, too.

[youngmum91]

we have used a travel system and have found it so much easier but every1 finds different things easier

[cocacolapanda]

I know there kinda expensive, but we got a britax one and the stroller to go with it and it came with one base.  I love it!  Right now my sister in law is using it, but we'll be using it again for #2.  We wanted to make sure we would have a better one because we knew it would be used by at lest two kids.

[Steph_b]

I'm not an experieced mother but based on consumer reports the sungride only scored a 55 overall and had a poor rating in the crash protection, the Chicco key fit and Chicco Key fit 30 had the highest overall rating of 80 amd scored very good in the crash protection.  To me the saftey in the car is more important that the ease of being able to put the seat in a grocery cart.  the consumer reports said that Chicco perposly made it not fit in the grocery cart becasue they don't reccomend having the infant seat on the grocery cart.

I just bought the Chicco travel system and it seemed very nice in the store.  I don't have a baby to test it out with yet.

I hope this helps.

[kmcghan]

I used Graco for my girls, the snap and go which also comes with the matching stroller. It fits on all grocery carts and stuff like that. As they got older I about a Britax which is for older kiddos.