Perhaps you’ve seen members in our facebook group asking about a rear facing only (“infant”) seat be warned to “make sure it’s not rear adjust!” Or perhaps you yourself purchased a rear facing only seat, and you can’t find the adjuster strap to tighten the harness. What’s going on?
We’ve all been there. Parents post a cute picture of their cute baby on Instagram in her car seat and the Chest Clip Brigade starts in with murmurs of, “Gently, mama, her chest clip needs to be 3mm higher on her chest or your baby will die in an accident. Don’t you love your baby?”
Our Facebook page and our Facebook group are home to many, many questions from caregivers. One of the most common questions is how to choose the right car seat. In many cases, the child in question is well over 2 years old and rides forward facing but is not yet ready for a booster. Sometimes a great deal on a convertible car seat seems too good to be true and our users don’t want to pass up what seems like a great deal. The catch is that the convertible or multimode car seat on sale might not be the best value for a child who is already forward facing. That very common scenario begs the question: what type of car seat — convertible, multimode, or combination is best for this kiddo?
Graco has turned the CPS world on its head a bit with the convertible Extend2Fit car seat. The big marketing feature of the seat is the extendable tray that can give a bigger child up to 5 inches of additional rear facing legroom. We’ve found, however, that the seat’s best features are the 50 pound rear facing weight limit and how well it fits in a variety of tight spaces. When Graco announced a version that converts to a high back booster, we were excited to take a closer look at this 3-in-1 version of the seat, which has rear facing, forward facing, and high back booster modes.
“Longest lasting seat on the market!”
“The last seat you’ll ever need!”
These phrases are music to a frazzled parent’s ears: researching and choosing a car seat is confusing, time-consuming and the idea of doing it all over again in a few years (or months!) can make even the most calm and collected of parents want to sell their car and move to the city. But sadly, car seats are not one size fits all, and marketing claims aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
If you’re on any social media outlets, you’ve probably seen an ad or ten for the mifold. We sure have! We’ve been anxiously awaiting its release. Unlike most products, the mifold got its start with an Indiegogo campaign so the manufacturer was taking orders for it long before its release to market.
Baby Trend has revived another retired car seat. This time, the Compass Pathways B570 Booster has been redone and given another shot at life. When the Compass Pathways came out it was the latest in a line of folding high back boosters from Compass. Since then, Compass and Harmony have phased out their folding boosters. Safety 1st has stopped producing the BoostaPak. But now, Baby Trend has brought the PROtect Yumi to the market, a folding high back booster that’s great for travel or everyday use.
Vehicle shopping is a daunting task. Many times, the sales staff descends upon you as soon as you enter the lot. If you need to quickly replace a vehicle, shopping can be even more stressful. If you are not in a time crunch, you have more time to weigh options. Two of the last three times we’ve chosen a new vehicle, we didn’t have the luxury of time. As a family of seven, any old vehicle won’t do and when our main vehicle died a painful, unexpected death, we were suddenly living in a world of hurt.
Whether you have two weeks or two hours to make the decision, here are some things to keep in mind when choosing a new vehicle.
What’s in your tech kit? It’s a popular question that Child Passenger Safety Technicians ask one another, so thought I would go through a tour of what I carry in my tech bag. A little background: I’ve been a CPST since 2010, and I’m about to be confirmed as an Instructor. I work for the fire department and I do a couple dozen checks a month. I have a storage trailer that contains my large backup of supplies, but here is what is in the bag that lives in my trunk and travels with me to every check.
Our friends at Cosco have been busy lately introducing a slew of new convertible and multimode car seats to fit a variety of children at a variety of reasonable price points. The Comfy Convertible is another new model; in short, it’s a Cosco Apt 50 with a VERY plush cover and plush inserts. Let’s take a closer look.
