best seat for infant, high weight limits, ease of use?

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I am out of the car seat loop with my youngest being 8.5 and in a Marathon Clicktight with plenty of room to grow. But I need to get a seat for my nephew's baby who is not born yet. What is the current suggestion?

It has to be easy to install and easy to use. I know the mom will use it correctly if it is easy but is the type who will leave the straps loose if they are hard to adjust. I was thinking of a Marathon Clicktight because I know how easy it is to use, but do new moms want an infant seat with base?

I know the weights are higher on infant seat these days but do people really carry around a 12-18 month toddler in those seats?

what is the easiest to use with the highest rear-facing weight for a newborn, and is skipping the infant seat a popular idea?

[abh5e8]

I skipped the bucket seat, but I think most mom's do prefer it, especially new mom's.

Why the need for a high weight limit? I don't know of anyone carrying around an 18 month old in a bucket seat, but it's still good as a car seat. and even the high weight limit seats will not take a child to FF, so they will still need a convertible seat next. What does the mom want, or think she wants? I would start there.

That said, my sister has loved the chicco bucket seat and used it with all of her babies.

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[specialp]

They outgrow in height before the weight limit is reached. No, I didn't carry around the bucket after a few months, but I did love being able to carry it when I could as I had both of my kids in late fall so it was winter when we were out and about. It is a heavy carseat though, even without a baby in it, but I would still use a bucket seat again if I had a 3rd (not happening). We skipped a bucket seat (or extra base) for DH's car and always used a convertible in his.

ETA: We started with a chicco that needed to be replaced and then had britax b-safe. Both are similar and good seats.

[mikala]

I would use an infant seat for at least the primary vehicle. The ability to remove the whole seat from the car to carry it into the house without unbuckling and waking a sleeping baby is priceless. As other posters have mentioned it's especially useful for late summer /fall babies to keep them warm under a fleece cover.

[KrisM]

I carried DS2 in a bucket until 20 months. He would always, always fall asleep in the car on the way to drop DS1 at preschool, so I would haul him in and out of the school in it. And it was super nice in the winter taking 3 kids into preschool to just have to carry him like that instead of negotiating us through the parking lot with 3 little kids and winter gear.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I was thinking of a high rear-facing weight for safety, but I meant for a convertible seat, not the bucket. I know that the dad (my nephew) will make sure it is used properly and a high weight seat means rear-facing longer, especially if pediatricians are now telling parents to rear-face until the limits of the seat.

Mom will be stay-at-home, so no daycare dropoffs.

what is the "best" infant bucket seat these days? Ease of use is probably the most important factor, especially the harness.

are there any systems with seat plus stroller that are recommended? back in my day people were buying them separately because the strollers were not so great.

[specialp]

I still think it is best to buy separately because what someone needs in a stroller can be very specific. However, the Britax b-agile is very similar to a city mini and I believe the b-agile stroller and b-safe (bucket) carseat work together and can be bought as a system. We used it and kept the stroller in my car all the time, but also had a bob stroller.

For convertible, it depends on so many things including how well it fits in the vehicle rear facing. DH had a small vehicle at the time and we tried several before we found one (roundabout) that worked. DH is very tall so we always had to put RF seat on passenger side in his car. Mine was less of an issue so after b-safe bucket seat we went to marathon in mine. We RF until 3.5.

[gymnbomb]

We loved our Chicco KeyFit30 infant seat. It was very easy to use in terms of both installation and harness adjustment, and we used it until about 14-15 months (though the weather got nicer around 13 months so we mostly left it in the car and took him in and out after that). We started with a convertible in our second vehicle, and it worked but was WAY less convenient, even just for things like being able to be inside the house or store or restaurant while putting baby in/out of seat instead of outside in the hot/cold/rain/etc.

There are a number of seats now that rear face to 45-50 lbs. Some of them also have high height limits, others are generally outgrown by height before being outgrown by weight. Here is a list from last summer, there may be a few more by now: http://csftl.org/rear-facing-past-40-lbs/

We have a Graco Extend2Fit 3 in 1 (chosen for reasons not having to do with its booster capability) and I am extremely happy with it. I also LOVE our Milestone, though it only rear faces to 40 lbs. In fact we just bought a second one for the grandparents car. My 3.25 year old is 34 pounds and comfortably rear facing in both. We've also had a Graco 4Ever and a Chicco Nextfit, both of which are perfectly good seats now that they have fixed the harness strap adjustment problem on the Nextfit, but for a lot of reasons including ease of use I like the Milestone and Extend2Fit better.

[acmom]

I would definitely go with the "bucket" infant seat. It is so nice to be able to move a sleeping baby and keep a baby warm in it. Also, all 3 of mine were very little and the last 2 were early and needed to pass the carseat test at the hospital before going home. The infant bucket seats often fit tiny ones better than the bigger convertibles. I don't know if my younger two would have been able to go in a convertible initially bc of their small size (some of those have slightly higher starting weights and/or mention in reviews that it is tough to get a good fit with small babies).

We loved our Chicco Keyfit with all 3 (we used 2 different versions of the seat) - very easy to use!

[AnnieW625]

I used a Graco Safeseat (30lb., 30") with DD2 and I was really happy with it. I used it full time in my car and in DH's (Dh dropped off and I picked up) until she was a year old and then it became a stationary seat in DH's car until she was about 18 months old. I wish I would've gotten the seat when I had DD1 in 2006 but I remember thinking why do I need such a high limit baby seat? (we had a super basic Graco Snugride 22 for her), but the seat was awesome and I loved using it with the Uppa Baby Vista stroller frame, especially at the grocery store because the basket was so large. DD2 was not a good sleeper except in the car seat so it was great to just keep her sleeping and not have to move her.

So I know there are other options now but I would encourage you to look at or recommend one of the higher weight seats. I see a mix of Btitax, Chicco, and Graco here.


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