We are so, so close to having everything in place for Baby Buckeye's upcoming birth. However, there is one piece of the puzzle yet to be purchased, and it's a "biggie". We need a car seat. The one we used with the other three was well beyond expired, very well used, and was only a 3 point (instead of a 5 point) harness, so we got rid of it once Sophia grew out of it.
So I've been "shopping". I write that with quotes, because where we live, shopping means online research and hunting. Our local big box store (the only one for miles) only carries two or three models, and so I've been reading a lot online trying to figure out what our options are. And it seems to be boiling down to the same thing everything we try to buy does:
Quality versus quantity.
What I mean by that is that we struggle with how much to spend on what. Obviously, a car seat is pretty high on the importance scale. So we should lean towards quality, right? Except that "quality" seems to be a matter of opinion. And a matter of extremes in price. I wish I could go somewhere to test out these options myself, but for now I have to rely on websites, which either extol the many virtues of a certain seat or completely slam it with criticism, some of which seems completely emotionally based. It's a tangle that's tough to unwind.
And I keep going back to: quality versus quantity.
I want a good, safe, easy to use car seat. I don't want financial stress because of it. But I have no idea where to go from there.
So if any of your other mothers have thoughts, I'm open. What infant car seat do you use and why? How did you choose it?
And more...how do you decide how much to spend on what? What areas do you go for quality, and what areas do you just go for the cheapest?
4 comments:
We really struggle with that too. We usually end up somewhere in the middle, trying to balance the features/safety along with price. Sometimes the decision was good, and sometimes I regret it since car seats are not cheap. My favorite place to research car seats is to read the Baby Bargains bulletin board: http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=12
We decided to use our infant seat again. It's in good condition and is a 5-point harness even though it expired in December.
Ah yes, the carseat dilemma... We ended up ditching the infant seat after Moses grew out of it and going with a convertible seat. Part of this was because Moses and Judah both *hated* being in an infant seat. I think it's how they're positioned in it - kind of folded up. Anyway, we made the plunge with a Britax convertible seat when Judah was little and haven't regretted it! When Baby C was born she inherited the Britax and Judah went into a bigger seat someone gave us. If no more babies are forthcoming in the next few years, Clementine will stay in the Britax. Very worth it in our minds!
One thing to consider is that infant carseats only go to 20 lbs and then you need to buy another one once they reach 20 lbs. Unless of course you've got a seat from one of your older kids that would work.
I really like the Graco My Ride which harnesses to 65 lbs. It's a bit spendy but very much worth it IMO.
Aunty Linda bought my carseat as my baby gift. It was a Graco 5pt and had a jungle theme. That's about all I know about it. We had 2 bases so it would move between cars easily and just moved him out of it about 2 months ago.
I'm honestly pretty laid back about car seats. Of course I want them safe and Graco has been around awhile so I'm thinking generally safe and even if I had purchased it I think it would have been right in my price point.
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