Car Seats

We just ordered convertible car seats for Josh and Lia.  I spent a week and a half figuring out the best car seats for them.  Here’s the research, so you don’t have to start from scratch.  The usual disclaimers – I’m not an expert, just a mom who did a lot of reading and wanted to help you find information to make a good choice.  The best car seat is one that fits well in your car, one that you can use properly, and one that fits your child.

Where to get good information

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently revised recommendations on car seat use.  To sum up, you want your kid facing backwards as long as possible, at least age 2.  Then in a forward facing seat until they outgrow the height and weight limits, and finally in a belt positioning booster seat until they are 4’9” and 8-12 years old.

Here’s the hard part about picking out a car seat.  There are a lot on the market, and they all have to pass minimum safety standards.  There is no place that ranks them according to how well they did in crash testing, it’s just pass/fail.  In the USA, we don’t require side impact testing, even though 1 in 4 car accidents is a side impact crash.  So car seat manufacturers can claim pretty much whatever they want about side impact protection.  If you want data, look to European models, because they require pretty high safety testing, including side impact data.  Even then, it’s tough to measure any car seat in general, because performance is related to how well it fits with the car being used with it, the fit, and the installation.  The IIHS does release rankings of booster seats, if you’re interested.

Consumer Reports does their own testing, and ranks car seats based on several factors, including crash data, ease of use, ease of installation, and price.  Several car safety experts have criticized their testing methodology.  To be honest, since just about every car seat did equally well in their crash tests, and the NHTSA also ranks ease of use, I’d skip getting a subscription to Consumer Reports just for this.

That page also has a link to finding a free car seat inspection station, where someone can check to be sure the seats are properly installed.  I’ve had mixed success with these stations – in Charlottesville, it sends you to the fire station.  One person was fabulous, one was not so great, and even gave out incorrect information about when you needed to chance from LATCH to seatbelt use.  You can also go to a certified car seat technician to install them.

The other place I got a lot of great information was http://carseatblog.com/ and http://www.car-seat.org/.  They had lots of reviews, pictures, information,  discussions of pros and cons, etc.  I’m amazed that people have as much free time to post as they do, but there is a ton of information and opinions available.

My Choices

Our kids started in Maxi-Cosi Micos.  Those are the kinds that you can snap in and out of a base that stays in the car.  We went with the Mico for Nora because the crotch strap was closest to the back of the car seat – 3 inches (over an inch closer than the next model I measured.)  Bringing home a tiny preemie, I didn’t want to have to stuff the car seat with towels every time we needed to get her in the car.  It goes up to 22 pounds, but Josh is 17 pounds and complains loudly on longer car rides.   In our case, it was all about fitting our kid into the car seat.  I didn’t take into account the need to get the car seat into our car, and it didn’t fit well – we ended up getting a minivan a few months after Nora came home.  Until that point, the car seat rode behind the passenger seat, which was pushed up so far it was useless.  (List price on the Mico is around $180, which about what we paid for Nora’s at Weebsworld.  I got the new one at albeebaby.com for about $100.)  Maxi Cosi is made by the Dorel Juvenile Group, as are several brands of car seats.  My one big gripe — they had a recall on Nora’s seat, which we used for Josh, and we weren’t notified even though I registered it.

Lots of people like the infant carriers because they can click into a stroller.  While that is really convenient, and nice if baby fell asleep in the car, I’ll just point out that the angle that’s best for surviving a car crash is not the optimal angle for keeping an airway open.  There’s a reason they make some kids do a car seat trial before they send them home.  I’ve always just moved the kids into the stroller and left the seat in the car, and it’s no big deal.  Then again, if I still lived in New England, I might feel differently about moving my kid in the cold.  Kids shouldn’t be in their coats in the car seat – it makes it too hard to adjust the straps properly.  If I had to do it again, I might have skipped the infant car seat and gone straight to a convertible, or looked for an infant car seat with a higher weight limit – some have a 30 lb. limit.

Nora moved into a Britax Advocate 70 CS when she was about 8 months old (December 2009).  List price is $379, we got ours at BuyBuyBaby with a 20% off coupon.  It’s a big monster of a car seat, with padded wings on each side to protect the people sitting next to the car seat in case of an accident.  PROS: My husband was easily able to install it, both rear and front facing and the firefighter confirmed he’d done it correctly.  The LATCH system was pretty easy, the seatbelt installation a bit harder because you need a clip for the seatbelt.  Britax offers great customer service, and when I called to ask about the foam that broke in the headpiece at 2.5 years in, after the warranty expired, they still sent me replacement foam for free. CONS: The Click and Save feature, which is supposed to make it easy to ensure a snug fit, isn’t as helpful as you’d think.  It’s an all-day task to remove the cover, wash, dry, and refit it.  (If your child hasn’t been sick in their car seat, just wait.)  Nora isn’t a particularly tall child, and we had to flip it to forward facing at 18 months.  Lots of people report the foam breaks.  OVERALL: It’s very highly rated, has good side impact protection (wings that surround the child’s head), and was the top of the line in 2009, when we purchased it.  Nora seems comfortable in it.

If I was going to do it again, I’d probably go with the Pavilion G3 – it’s like the Advocate, but sans-wings to protect the passenger nearby.  If you’ve got a kid in a backless booster next to the carseat, it’s a great idea.  If the kid riding next to them is in their own car seat or booster with SIP, it’s not necessary.  No way could you get three of them across a seat, if that’s a factor for you.  Honestly, a person in a seatbelt next to the Advocate would be uncomfortable.

When it came time to get convertible car seats for Josh and Lia, I assumed I’d just order 2 more like Nora’s.  Calling to get some prices, I learned that my favorite gear store had stopped carrying Britax.  They expressed concern about the company’s change in ownership.  Looking at the G3, the latest generation of Britax seats, I’ll agree that they added a nice touch with the gizmo to keep the crotch strap out from under the kid’s rear end, but not a lot of the nifty safety improvements you’d expect from Britax.

We narrowed down our choices, based on several people’s recommendations, to the Recaro ProRide ($299), the Peg Perego Prima Viaggio 5-70 ($329), and the Britax Advocate G3 ($379).  I skipped the Diono (formerly Sunshine Kids).  People either love or hate them, and many people have problems installing them rear-facing.  I don’t mind spending $300 on a car seat (assuming my kid uses it for 5 years, that’s about $5/month.  I’ll pay that to know the kids are as safe as they can be.)  I don’t want to spend $300 and then hate it.

All three (Recaro, Peg Perego, and Britax) have their die-hard fans.  Recaro is a German company, and they make race car safety gear.  Their seats are assembled in America. Peg Perego is an Italian company, new to the convertible car seat market, but with a strong history in the infant car seat market.  Britax is now owned by a European private equity firm, and has a long history of being known for their safety features.  I quickly eliminated the Britax, because the others had better features for less money.  Until we looked at them in person, I was pretty sold on the Recaro.  It was on sale for about $100 less than the Peg Perego, and the biggest complaint was that the sides were so deep that it was difficult to remove a rear-facing sleeping child without waking them.  The positive for the Peg Perego was the big rear-facing capacity (45 pounds), and the only negative comment I found from an owner was a complaint about how it fit in a Subaru.  Both of them had strong Side Impact Protection, and you can adjust the harness and head restraint while the child is in the seat.

When we got to the store to compare them… it was easy to see the Peg Perego was the winner.  The fabric was softer (we skipped the leather trim model), the seat fit easily into the front and middle rows in a rear-facing and forward-facing position, and Josh (a.k.a. The Fussy One) settled right in without a peep.  So did Lia, but Ms. Mellow liked both seats.  It was easy to adjust the straps, and to move the head supports, while the kids were strapped in.  The side impact head support seemed stronger.  It’s shorter than the Recaro, so it’ll probably fit rear-facing in a variety of cars.  (The headrest raises over the shell when forward facing.)  The major con – it’s not on sale anywhere.

When we got the seats – it turns out they were happier in the Recaro.  (We ended up with a Recaro and a Peg Perego for a few days, as the 2nd Peg Perego seat hadn’t arrived when we went to pick it up.)  The Peg Perego seat is pretty easy to install, and has a nice recline feature.  The strap covers are very long and very thick, so it’s hard to get the chest clip up to the armpits in small babies like Lia.  The Recaro is a taller shell, making it difficult for my 6’2″ husband to get the seat back enough to drive with that seat behind him.  It was easier to get the kids in and out of the Peg Perego seat.  If space is an issue for you – a small back seat or a tall driver, I’d go for the Peg Perego.  If space isn’t an issue, and you think the 40 lb. rear facing limit for the Recaro is enough for you, I’d consider the Recaro because Josh fell asleep in that seat instantly.  It was magic.  I’m hopeful our kids will learn to like the Peg Perego, and I’ve heard some suggestion that most kids like it more when they hit 22 lbs and can remove the infant insert.  If not, we may be ordering Recaros, and putting them in the 3rd row of the minivan, which won’t be easy to get kids in and out of while they are rear facing.  If I was ordering this for an infant… I’d probably start with the Recaro unless Peg Perego has addressed the strap cover issue.  Still –  they are both great seats and I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

Update – our kids never got comfortable in the Pegs, and we ended up buying Recaro ProRides, which they loved so much we got a ProSport for big sister.