I have a question, Does anyone carpool with toddlers? My sister in law and I always car pool but now both of our children are in toddler seats. Before we would just buckle the baby car seats in each others cars but now the toddler seats are not as easy to switch from car to car. How do you moms car pool? Are there brands of seats that you recommend for carpooling (easy to install from car to car) Please let me know your experiences or are my car pooling days over?
My kids both have one that sounds a lot like the one Amy W has, but I know theirs aren't Eddie Baur. My son's has Eddie Baur on it, but it's a Costco brand - I think. We found them at Babies 'R Us and although it's a little annoying to move them (and impossible if you have a sleeping child in it) it's not that hard, especially after you've done it a few times.
I don't car pool with my toddler but I would recommend the DOREL JUVENILE Eddie Bauer 22-741ATI Deluxe Convertible Car Seat. It is the one that we have for our toddler and we move it from car to car several times a week. If you have the latch system you just click it in. If you don't you just stick the seat belt through the back. I can switch the car seat from car to car in about 2 minutes flat!!! Plus, this seat can ride facing backward for infants or foward for toddlers and up to 80 lbs. I highly recommend it! It comes with a cup holder and has two mesh pockets on the sides for you to put snacks, cups, toys, etc. in. Hope this helps!
We have a spare carseat. Wal-Mart sells a cosco touriva that goes to 40 lbs and can be rear facing - this is very bare bones but an extra seat doesn't need to be plush. That is what we have used for 4 yrs w/o problems.
I am almost a pro at changing out carseats but it does take work to get the seats in tight. Maybe I am a fanatic about having them really secure so I really get a workout - even with latch clips. We have britax seats and they really fit in tight plus at 40 lbs they have a strap that tethers to the back so in a crash the seat doesn't fly forward and cause a whip lash type effect. My girls will stay in the seats until 65 lbs then move to the booster. My 5 yr old still doesn't complain yet so I'm not concerned. You have quite a ways to go in 5 point harness seats so i would just pick-up an extra seat and leave it in your car. That way you know the seats are secure in case of an accident. Have your SIL do the same.
OK, I agree that changing seats can be a pain. The only thing I can recommend is make sure the toddler seat can be strapped in using a seatbelt instead of just the latch (and I believe most seats do). It's true that it can be hard to get it as secure as using a latch, but it's so much quicker and easier to strap it in and out of the car using just the seatbelt. I don't know if that helps or not, but that's what we have found to work the best, and most of these seats you can get very affordably and they go rear and forward facing so they last a long time.
My sister and I used to have this problem. We just always have the extra seat in our car. In other words, I had carseats for my two plus her one. She had 3 carseats in her all the time.
