Car Seat for Tall Baby

The Graco SafeSeat accommodates both larger and heavier babies. I can't remember the exact specs but I got that model expecting my baby to grow beyond the standard rear-facing car seat well before 1 year.

For my first son, we had the standard graco infant seat that comes with the travel system. I think it lasted him to about 9 mos. I saved it for my second son. Unfortunatly, he outgrew it at about 4 months. I wasn't ready to put him in a convertable seat yet. I decided to get the graco safeseat. He is now 9 mos and a big boy. He will still be able to use the seat for quite a while and it does fit with our original travel system stroller. It is also nice to be able to take the whole seat out of the car if he is sleeping. Another advantage is that it has an adjustable sun shade which convertables do not. I am glad that I bought it. Check out the reviews on www.elitecarseats.com

D..
Look at Britax seats--the Marathon and the Roundabout models come to mind. This is a very good brand, and these seats are for infancy to 40 lbs. You can't go wrong. Also, I see all of the recommendations for Graco seats. A friend told me that they have poor crash ratings. I would verify that before I bought a Graco car seat, in case this is correct.
Good luck.
Amy

Both my husband and I are tall as well. My son was 21 inches and 9lbs at birth. I had the Peg Perego infant seat and hated it. I just felt like my son seemed squished in it. I know they have made some changes to it (mine was a 2005) but I don't think they increased the length limit. My son outgrew it at 4 months. I'm not positive, but I think the Britax infant seat has a longer length limit, so you might check it out. The Graco Snugride has the same length as the Perego I think, but honestly, it seems roomier to me.

We now have the Britax Boulevard convertible seat and I LOVE it.

Welcome to the big baby club! Everyone thinks my 15 month old is 2. My advise is not to worry about a infant carrier. My son was to active for it. We ended up getting an eddie bauer car seat that grew with him. To carry him around we used a snuggly carrier that you wear. He loved being able to sit up and see everything. This worked great for us. good luck!

I have to agree with Leslie, you really won't use the infant carseat beyond the first 3-6 months anyway. Once the babies learn how to sit up, it's pretty much a done deal for the infant carseat anyway. So the Graco Travel system that all first time parents buy is fine for the first few months and then you can switch to the convertible that will last at least 2 years. I've been told that the rule of thumb for carseats is when the top of the back of the carseat reaches their ears, it's time for a new one.

My daughter was 24 inches at birth, she just turned 5 and is 4'8" tall.

Good Luck with the big kids; they always seem awkward as their bodies are outgrowing their mentality. My sister says my daughter looks like the slow kid in the classroom.......LOL :)

I recently participated in a focus group for a new carseat line from Graco designed specifically to last longer for longer/heavier babies. It's on the market now and is designed to hold babies up to (I think) 31 inches instead of the standard 26 or 28. I wish it had been available when my twins were born as they both outgrew their seats way sooner than I was ready to switch!!

Good luck.

My husband and I are very tall and both of our kids are bigger than average but I have had very good luck with Graco carseats that fit them. As far as the carrier that you will use when baby is first born,you probably will not use it longer than 3 months because of the length of the baby. Good luck with everything.

My husband is very tall, and our baby did turn out to be very long (consistently 97+ percentile).

Graco has a new line of carseats (mentioned in another post) called the SafeSeats. The Infant SafeSeat is built to hold kids up to 30 lbs and 32 inches, as opposed to the 22 lbs and 29 inches of the Graco SnugRide. 32 inches will hold the vast majority of babies up to 1 year old.

When the seat is in the base the baby is defintely sitting up (not laying down), which is good because my baby is totally into sitting upright now. She seems to be quite comfortable in it. The padding is nice, and the cover is removable. She's getting big enough that we leave it in the car the majority of the time, but it is nice to still have the option to take the seat out and pop it on the stroller. It is also nice that the seat is engineered to be used without the base, so we can use it in taxis or in other people's cars without detaching the base and hauling it around (very helpful while living in the city with 1 car).

The major drawback to these seats is that they are HUGE. They do not fit properly on most shopping carts, nor do they fit in most flipped restaurant highchairs. It is also a bit heavy, but in it's defense, I thought all of the carrier seats were awkward and heavy, so I didn't care if this was a pound or so more.

Even with these issues, we are still glad we purchased a SafeSeat rather than going straight to a Britax or other convertible.

Hi, D. ~ I am very tall (6'2") and my husband is average, but our daughter has taken after me. We had used the Graco stroller system that came with the car seat and she was fine in it for the first 9 months and then we had to get a convertible car seat because her legs were just getting too long for the Graco seat. I think that most infant car seats are a standard size, but it's when the baby gets older and you need to get a convertible car seat is when you will find that some accommodate taller babies more than others. We had looked into the Britax models, but after much research and after actually putting her in the Britax at the store, we found that she would be outgrowing it soon. And as I am sure you know, Britax is not cheap! So, we went with the Evenflo Triumph and she fits very well in it and hopefully will for a while. Also, the Triumph gets very high ratings on everything that I have read. Hope this helps and best of luck to you! L.