Car Seat Suggestions?

I have a Triumph and hate it! I find it very difficult to adjust the straps. And the crotch latch comes up to her belly, which is too high. But other people seem to like it. I say try adjusting the straps on the show model at the store and pick the one that is easiest to adjust. I wish I'd done that. Lesson learned. lol

I use the Costco car seat. It's great it reclines when they are tired or sleeping and slides right back up when they wake up. My uncle did a lot of research and he said that the Costco was the same as the Eddie Bauer only a lot less expensive.

I got the Graco Zephyr and I love it.
Here is the Target link. Last car seat you will need to buy!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_2/601-###-#...

Hi!! My daughter just turned one and we have the Evenflo Triumph. I like it because you can adjust the straps using a knob on the side of the seat. Also, it is curved around her just a little so she can rest her head if she needs to nap. There is a model that is just like it, but a "step up" and has cup holders. I may wish I had that one later! The Triumph was $130 I think (at Babies R Us). We drove all the way to Nashville with her and she was great in the seat!
Good luck!

my son will be one end Oct and we needed a second car seat (convertible) to get us through one more month until we turn it around. We found a Graco convertible online at JCPenney for $150 with high safety rating. Target carries a Graco with highest safety rating for $150 (not convertible). The primary seat we bought was the Britax Roundabout for $250.
Hope it helps!

Do you want easy or safety? In my book, safety is always first. You can't beat the Britax car seats for safety. I know they are pricey but if you get the right one it should last until your child is 65 pounds (probably at least 6-7 years old) and ready for a booster. I would rather buy one really good car seat that will last a long time than several cheaper ones. The Britax Marathon and Britax Decathelon are both convertable seats. They go rear facing until the child is 20 pounds AND 1 year old. They go forward facing from 20-65 pounds AND at least 1 year old. My daughter will be 3 in October and she has just outgrown her Britax Roundabout (it only goes to 40 pounds). I replaced it with a Britax Regent which goes up to 85 pounds. My son will be 5 years old this month and weighs 42 pounds. He has been in the Britax Husky (the Regent replaced the Husky) since he was about 2 1/2 years and he can stay in it until he is 85 pounds. I think all the Britax products are easy to strap the child in. However, they are not always easy to move from car to car because they are big and heavy (and safe). We have Britax car seats in both our cars (2 Huskies, 2 Regents,and 1 Parkway booster for when I have a 3rd child with me). Check the online websites. Sometimes you can find the Britax seats on sale if you are not particular about the pattern. Good Luck!!
T.

There is a car seat safety program that gives car seats to parents for a $20 donation. I dont know how to get in touch with them I lost the number. I got it with my daughter when she became old enough. Its a convertible car seat. I am still using it now and shes almost two. I know they give them away every third saturday at the Bill Heard Chevrolet in Kennesaw Ga I dont know if you have other friends but maybe you can ask around or surf the web and find out. I will look for it if you like. They are brand new. If not Graco is always a great brand. Oh by the wAy do you know of any good day care centers or people that keep kids in the area?

i completely understand your frustrations, being a single mother myself : we have to stick to a budget!!! :) When my son needed a car seat, i tried going to the Baby Depot and Babies 'r Us, holy cow they were expensive!! Finaly i went to my fave store Target and found exactly what I needed in the price range that I could afford. I think the brand was Cosco. Then, I took it to the local Highway Patrol Office and they gladly showed me the correct way to install a car seat. They said that 70% of all car seats are incorrectly installed!!! I hope this helps! good luck!
-B.

Try Britax. Go to babyuniverse.com and check out the Britax brand. I love it and will never use another brand. I think it's one of the most safest and easy car seats.

A.

We ADORED our car seat. Our son is about to turn 3 so we had it a while (he outgrew his infant seat early). We had the Evenflo Triumph. It doesn't tighten using that little pull strap between the legs. It both loosens and tightens using a knob on the side. SOOOOO easy. Everyone who ever kept him and used the car seat was so nervous about it but ended up LOVING the thing. I don't know if they still make it but my boss also had an Evenflo that she liked. The drawback is that the Triumph only goes up to 40 lbs.

We just got a car/booster convertible seat at Target. I think it may also be an Evenflo but it's an Eddie Bauer one (around $70). It goes from 20-80 pounds. The problem is if you have a smaller car (like my honda) it is virtually impossible to make it not ROCK in your car. It took the fire department almost an hour to install and they still weren't totally satisfied. It's tight now, but I check it every couple of days. We'd have returned it if Sam hadn't peed in it the first time we used it! :-) We may still get another if this one loosens up again.

HI K.!
When my daughter was ready for a bigger seat we looked and looked and finally decided on the "Cosco Alpha Omega Elite" it had really great ratings and the plus is you won't have to
but another seat because it grows with the child (with a litte adjusting) and eventually turns into a booster seat for a other child! I love it! It is relatively easy to clean (my daughter had and still has car sickness so I needed to be able to take the seat apart for thorough cleaning).
I bought mine at Target! They had the cheapest price!
Hope this helps!
Cindy

I liked my evenflo and my graco. It's all about preference. Make sure you have one that can adjust for when she starts getting taller. We usually spend about 89.99-129.99.

Good Luck
Katie

If you are in Columbus, you can always shop at Mikayla's Childrens Resale on Gentian Blvd. They have good stuff and the prices are reasonable!

I love my Graco one. I got it from Baby Depot in Burlington Coat factory. I dont know if they have one where you are at but they do have a website. Babydepot.com It's called a Costello ComfortSport� Car Seat and was 69.99. I got mine before my daughter was a year old cause she was to long for the infant one and it has grown with her. Plus it also has a snack and cup holder which I love now that she is older.

Hi K.,

I am a mother of 3 ages 5,4 and 15 mos. For my older kids I really liked the Cosco Alpha Omega. My 15mo old is more petite than they were though, and we're on the go more now, so I felt she needed something she could still rear face in if I wanted her to. She has two carseats that I love. The first is the Graco Safeseat. It is a rear-facing only infant car seat that seats up to 30lbs and 32". It is very convenient when we're out at naptime since I can remove the seat from the base. I purchased it at Target for $129. She also has the Evenflo Triumph that I purchased as her convertable carseat. It seems very comfy & she does fine forward facing, it's just not as convenient for napping. I thought it was $119, but I just looked online and found it for $139 - so I might have hit a sale. :) The Cosco Alpha Omega was a great seat too - my kids used it for over 2 years and it will rear face also. They are on the tall side though and we had to get a high back booster for them by the time they reached booster age. For that reason I decided to get the Evenflo Triumph b/c it looked so much cozier and a better fit for her.

Also, if you wonder if the carseat you choose will fit well in your vehicle, you can go to Babies R Us and pick your carseat, ask an associate if you can fit it in your vehicle. The will take it out for you while you check fit. This way you don't have to buy it, get it home, put it in...only to discover it's not a good match for your car. I'm not sure if other places allow this, but I know Babies R Us did. :)

There are several carseat sites you can go to the Internet to check out ease of use, how it fits in your vehicle, etc. Two good sites I know of are:

www.carseat.org and
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.9f8c7...

Best of luck to you!

C.

We love the Graco Ultra Cargo seat. It has a snooze bar for a little recline. It doesn't go rear facing, but if your baby will be 1 you won't need that feature. It's also lightweight for ease of taking in & out, if necessary.

I also have the Evenflo Triumph mentioned by another responder. We love this car seat. My daughter is now 3 and a half and still using it. She is a bit small for her age, but no problem using the seat still. We expect to be able to use it until she is near 4 so will get about 3 years out of it. For the $100 or so we paid I think it is a great investment.
Have never had any problem with adjusting this seat to fit a car...and I've had it in about 6 different cars now. Several of my friends have other models that need rolled towels under them to make them fit in some cars, so I like that this one is so adaptable. Very easy to get her in and out of, very easy to change vehicles, and always gets great safety ratings...just my recommendation :-)

We bought our little one the Evenflo Triumph car seat. It can be rear facing or forward and can fit children for a very long time through toddler-hood. It rates #1 or #2 (flip flops usually every year) with the Britax seat (that cost $250). This one runs about $100-$110, and you can usually use a coupon from Babies R Us to get more money off. We love it. It's comfy for our son, he's been in it since he's about 5 months -- and has used it both rear and forward facing (since he's now 18 months). It has a 5-point harness and the shoulder straps have three height adjustments. We highly recommend it!

Britaxx has some of the best ratings...

I suggest that unless you HAVE to move her to a new car seat keep her rear facing it is safer the longer you keep them rear facing. but if you have to turn her we have this one and its great! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=240089...

IMO Britax is WAY over priced, I dont know many people that can spend 300$ on a car seat, with diapers being 15$ a pack average. and then clothes they grow out of in a month or two.

i love the Evenflo Triumph 5. I think it was under $100.

It's been a while since I've had to use a car seat (my 4-year old is in a booster seat now). I've always liked Graco seats though... most models have very high safety scores (check this out because you would be surprised!), usually very easy to install (although I would definitely recommend having your local fire dept check your seat installation), very easy to get the baby in and out and comfortable for the baby as well. They have very good pricing as well. Check online for better pricing and/or check the Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory.
Best wishes,
C.

Alpha and Omega. I got it when my son was 9/10 months old (he's tall) and am still using it. It can be used rear facing as well. It has the 5 point safety harness and converts as they grow.

We bought the Evenflo Triumph and love it. The Evenflo Titan was also highly recommended by Consumer Reports but we went the more expensive Triumph because the shoulder straps went higher on it and we could use it longer. You can go to the Consumer Reports website and look and see their current top listings for free.

You don't have to spend that kind of money on a car seat! Target has some great ones - I found mine for under $50.00.