Stuck in the house again
January 30th, 2010
…and missing Clint’s birthday party. And the third molar. And three hours of researching car seats online.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Ahem.
Aside from safety, which is obvious:
- I need a seat with a super easy to adjust harness because a doubled cloth diaper and a disposable are a huge difference, and there might be some Luca-transport in the coming months. When it’s rear-facing I don’t want to be digging my hand down between the seats trying to tighten the harness around a wiggly baby.
- I would realllyyyyy like good straps that don’t twist, because I am OCD about strap-twistage.
- I would like it to be very comfortable since we frequently take car trips that are longer than an hour.
- I would really like to be able to tether it front or rear-facing, even though we can’t do either in our current car. BUT – we could very likely be in a new car before Hazel outgrows this seat or has passed it on to a sibling (we’ll have another baby with in five years I HOPE)… I would really like to be able to tether a rear-facing seat and so far I can only find this in the most expensive one I am looking at.
- I’m trying not to let weight be an issue – there is no way Hazel will outgrow any of these seats in weight before height.
- I’m trying not to let money be an issue. We can afford all of my top 3 candidates right now, and I’ve been watching the most expensive one for a year. It’s on sale very frequently, and probably will be in February. We will get our money’s worth out of any of the three because we drive all the time and Hazel will use it for years. I don’t want to get a cheaper one only because it’s cheaper.
- I can’t decide.
- Why can’t crash test results be released in this country? I don’t get it.
- My head hurts. I need to go make something.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
they don’t release crash test results? i picked our seat based on a website with results that my uncle sent. is that a new thing, not releasing them? have you checked out http://www.carseatsafety.org? that’s what sold me on the graco nautilus over the britax last year.
January 30th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
They release results of pass or fail compliance tests ( and if it’s for sale it passed), and they do ease of use tests and stuff like that to rank the “best”, but not difinitive results about which ones did better than others and why, like in Europe. That link didn’t work by the way!
January 31st, 2010 at 8:14 am
Have I mentioned lately what a wonderful mother I think you are? :) Love, M.O.M./Grandma Jan
January 31st, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Britax!
February 1st, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Do you have Hazel on the passenger side for a reason? I’m confused as to where the seat should go. We have LATCH behind the driver and passenger seats but not in the middle seat, but most of the stuff I’ve read said that the center position is safest. So, we can’t decide which is safer… the sides because of the LATCH or the middle in case of side impact.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:25 pm
We have her on the side because if her is in the middle, both the passenger & driver have to be pushed all the way forward. Neither of us could drive more than ten minutes that way, so we put her on the side opposite the driver so when I was traveling with her alone, I could more easily reach back and do whatever when we were stopped in traffic and stuff. From what I’ve read, my #1 convertible choice (the Britax) is fine in the middle of a Honda Civic. I’m hoping that it’ll give us more room than her SafeSeat.
I’d guess that putting the baby in the middle for side-impact reasons is a better bet, because you can get a rock solid install without using LATCH. I’ve never read that it’s necessarily SAFER than a seatbelt install, just more convenient. Now if you have a convertible seat tethered using LATCH, that might be safer… I don’t know. It seems like it would be.
If you don’t let Clint and Mikey do it, that is. :) Car seat install FAIL.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Yeah, we were thinking that since the Prius says a car seat could be installed on any of the rear seats safely with the belt alone, that keeping the wee one in the middle makes the most sense as long as we can get a snug fit. Most Prius owners seem to use the middle without problem. And, surprisingly given the size of the car, lots of people said they fit three seats across the back! It really is like a clown car (or a Tardis).
February 4th, 2010 at 8:30 am
try http://www.car-safety.org. the forms are where i got some of my info, mainly through links on other posts and suggestions from other moms of incredibly large, tall children who outgrow almost all seats before they can sit in a booster safely. :)