Infant Car Seat-Which is better???

[dme147]

I am trying to decide on an infant car seat, which is better? The Graco Snugride? The Chicco Key Fit? Or the Graco SafeSeat?

[o_mom]

The Snugride is the least user friendly of the three, but still a safe amd decent seat.

Between the Keyfit and the Safeseat, it depends. Both have built in lockoffs and can have the handle up in the car. Both go to 30 lbs, but the SS is taller and will last longer. The KF fits very tiny babies better, but both will work for an average size newborn.

[chays]

Its interesting that you say the SS is taller. I was with a friend last week with my 20 month old dd along to help test drive the seats. She was too tall for the safeseat, but I think that she would still just barely fit in the keyfit (a little room abover her head).

[o_mom]

The stated height limit on the SS is two inches taller than the KF. Julie (joolsplus2) had both and her DD2 was out of the KF well before the SS. They are both outgrown when the top of the child's head is an inch from the top of the hard shell. For the SS this is about when it touches the EPS foam on the "lip" of the seat.

[Joolsplus2]

Sometimes just how you plunk the kid in a seat can make it appear a different size...the SS1 is really way larger than the KF (particularly if the SS1 doesn't have the gracopedic foam)...Here's Leah outgrowing the KF http://picasaweb.google.com/joolstag/LeahInCarseats/photo#5015871597836312962
And here she is 7 months later getting too big for the SS1 http://picasaweb.google.com/joolstag/LeahInCarseats/photo#5101172270539604018 (she might still fit in it now at 21 months, her torso hasn't grown a bit in months!)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 3 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/Leah.aspx