Car seats, all the same or one better than the others?

kjp1969

Explorer
I own 3 Recaro's and love every one of them.

The best way to secure a car seat, sit in it and have someone else fasten it. Also, we got a life size baby doll to get the straps situated so we weren't doing it the first time out of the hospital. -of course minor adjustment was needed, but we weren't putting it together at the hospital, either.

That would work well. I usually put all my weight on it to squoosh the auto seat padding, then cinch up the belt. You don't want it to move at all when its installed.
 

Frank

Explorer
Pedro, I have 2 with that knob and one without. The knob adjustment is great.

Kjp, yeah, same concept. -it's just easier to do it with 2 people though can be done solo.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

mdz79

New member
Hello Hansonian,

I have 4 different recaro seats and 1 Chico. I can recommend Recaro only.

When my first son was born I bought this:
RECARO Young Profi plus http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-00.html
and ISOFIX BASE http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/isofix-base.html

I can only recommend - no problems or anything.

Then, later (after 9 months of age of my son I bought)
RECARO Young Expert plus - http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-i/recaro-young-expert-plus.html

You can still use the same ISO-FIX base
Why to use ISO-FIX base - it is more secure. The seat is mounted to the base and the base is fixed directly to the car's "bones"


Then I bought:
RECARO Monza - http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-iiiii/recaro-monza.html
Again, because it has iso-fix system.


One very important thing to consider is the Seat protector - If you use iso-fix base you do not need it.

If you have questions just let me know.


mdz
 

Pedro

Capitan rally fluffer
Hello Hansonian,

I have 4 different recaro seats and 1 Chico. I can recommend Recaro only.

When my first son was born I bought this:
RECARO Young Profi plus http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-00.html
and ISOFIX BASE http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/isofix-base.html

I can only recommend - no problems or anything.

Then, later (after 9 months of age of my son I bought)
RECARO Young Expert plus - http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-i/recaro-young-expert-plus.html

You can still use the same ISO-FIX base
Why to use ISO-FIX base - it is more secure. The seat is mounted to the base and the base is fixed directly to the car's "bones"


Then I bought:
RECARO Monza - http://www.recaro-cs.com/en/products/child-seats/ece-group-iiiii/recaro-monza.html
Again, because it has iso-fix system.


One very important thing to consider is the Seat protector - If you use iso-fix base you do not need it.

If you have questions just let me know.


mdz

In the USA we do not get the ISOFIX base or the same seats. This is our lineup: http://www.recaro-cs.com/us/home.html
 

BIGdaddy

Expedition Leader
I have 3 kids, here's my thoughts:

Baby/infant seat: Buy the graco stroller travel system.
http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Passage-Travel-System-Morgan/dp/B002RL7US0

With it you will get:
-Baby seat
-Stroller that the baby seat clips into, that will eventually be able to hold a larger child
-Seat base
THEN, add to this purchase a spare base for each additional car. $30.00 or so: http://www.amazon.com/Graco-SnugRid...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287456&sr=1-1

This baby seat will be rear facing only
______________________________________________
Child/toddler seat: Graco Comfortsport convertible infant/toddler seat. cost is around $100
http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Comfort...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287522&sr=1-3

We've had two of these, and the quality/ratings are high. These are seats that will rearface, and then be able to forward-face when you're/they're ready.
___________________________________________________________________
Toddler/preschooler seat: Cosco 5-point booster. Around $40.00 @ walmart/target
http://www.amazon.com/Cosco-Juvenil...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287603&sr=1-6

This seat has high ratings and is as big as it needs to be and as small as possible.
_________________________________________________________________________

Our oldest is six, so we've had a long time to form our opinions on these products, and their cost vs. value. I know some will put thousands into their child restraint systems but honestly the ones above have been beat to crap in our cars and by our kids, and are still very functional. By the way, that graco stroller is the one we choose when we go to theme parks even though we have a graco double (front/back like an f14 fighter) stroller. It will hold 3 kids with creative placement which is especially useful at the end of the day when everyone is pooped out. :)
 
Last edited:

mdz79

New member
In the USA we do not get the ISOFIX base or the same seats.

Ok - I had no idea. I thought it is worldwide.
 

MaverickTRD

Adventurer
I have 2 Recaros, one goes from rear facing to front facing, the other goes from standard front facing to booster seat. I can't imagine having anything else
 

Lynn

Expedition Leader
With our two girls we went through a ton o' stuff.

We had one Britax, which are supposed to be among the best, but bulky. We've also had several others. We pretty much looked over them closely and decided what looked best to us. IIRC Consumer Reports did a test of car seats a couple of years ago and they pretty much all failed. Not too encouraging, but brought me to the point I wouldn't go by brand.

Definitely go with some form of drop-in infant carrier. As mentioned earlier, you don't want to disturb the critter any more than necessary. Also nice when visiting a friend. Pop out the carrier and bring it in the house for a kid seat. Most I've seen have a rounded base so that they can be rocked. Matter of fact, for a few weeks our daughter would only sleep in the infant carrier.

Restaurants usually have a hammock thingy for the infant seat, as well.

And the infant carrier has a nice handle that babies lack. When you're bringing the groceries home you can set the carrier on the driveway, load up your armload of groceries, and just pick the carrier up and go. So much more convenient that trying to cradle a baby in your arms while trying to do other things.

Also recommend one of the simple strollers that the infant seat clicks into. Here's an example I snatched off the web, but we had a simple one we bought at a consignment store for about $20:

graco_universal_infant_seat_stroller_30_vero_beach_10096924.jpg

We had one of the graco 'systems.' IMHO the strollers are really heavy and bulky. Pretty much need a minivan or truck to haul it around.

After the kiddo gets too big for the infant seat, just get a cheap umbrella stroller. So light and easy to deal with. The only advantage to the big strollers is using them as a shopping cart on major mall trips. My wife even did one black Friday sale with the stroller and no kids...

YMMV
 

MaverickTRD

Adventurer
My kiddos like to think we all have matching seats :)

601601_10202898016555617_710411834_n.jpg
 

chaingangster

Observer
Recaro all the way

Love it! I'm a huge fan of our Recaro seat for our two year old and plan to get one more for our second when she's big enough. Got a Britax B-Safe Infant seat for her in the meantime, haven't used it yet, she'll be here in a week and a half, but I'm already wishing Recaro made an infant seat!
 

java

Expedition Leader
I have 3 kids, here's my thoughts:

Baby/infant seat: Buy the graco stroller travel system.
http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Passage-Travel-System-Morgan/dp/B002RL7US0

With it you will get:
-Baby seat
-Stroller that the baby seat clips into, that will eventually be able to hold a larger child
-Seat base
THEN, add to this purchase a spare base for each additional car. $30.00 or so: http://www.amazon.com/Graco-SnugRid...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287456&sr=1-1

This baby seat will be rear facing only
______________________________________________
Child/toddler seat: Graco Comfortsport convertible infant/toddler seat. cost is around $100
http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Comfort...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287522&sr=1-3

We've had two of these, and the quality/ratings are high. These are seats that will rearface, and then be able to forward-face when you're/they're ready.
___________________________________________________________________
Toddler/preschooler seat: Cosco 5-point booster. Around $40.00 @ walmart/target
http://www.amazon.com/Cosco-Juvenil...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328287603&sr=1-6

This seat has high ratings and is as big as it needs to be and as small as possible.
_________________________________________________________________________

Our oldest is six, so we've had a long time to form our opinions on these products, and their cost vs. value. I know some will put thousands into their child restraint systems but honestly the ones above have been beat to crap in our cars and by our kids, and are still very functional. By the way, that graco stroller is the one we choose when we go to theme parks even though we have a graco double (front/back like an f14 fighter) stroller. It will hold 3 kids with creative placement which is especially useful at the end of the day when everyone is pooped out. :)

1000% agree. We had the same system. It was very very nice to be able to put the baby in the seat in the house, out of the cold rain etc. And when they fall asleep in them you can take the whole seat into the house.

Then get the two larger seats once they are forward facing and you can get them in and out easier.

Al least get one with the bases you can leave in the car, its the way to go when they are little.
 

A3M0N

Observer
We trusted Graco with our kids safety. We used the stroller/car seat combo. They graduated to Graco forward facing seats, they're in Graco boosters now.
 

TXLX

Observer
http://us.diono.com/
We have one and wish would have got one for the older two kids
Not bulky easy to put kids in, wife is short
Can put three across in almost any car
Well built

I have two of these. After a lot of research, these are the best in my opinion. I can put two in the second row and still have a seat available. Also, they fold and go into a custom bag for when we fly and need to take the seats with us. I think the company used to be called Radian or Sunshine, can't remember. I think I paid around $250 each. Can go forward facing or rear facing.
 

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