I’ll start this review with a confession: I’m a huge fan of Britax seats. My oldest daughter rode in a Britax Wizard for most of her rear facing years and my younger daughter still rides in a Britax Boulevard occasionally. I’ve found these seats very easy to install and use properly and the Wizard made me an early fan of the no rethread harness. For the record, the “best” seat is the one that the caregiver can install and use properly *every* time.
Everything you purchase comes with a manual, whether it is a lawn mower or a DVD player. When you are preparing for a child, multiply that by a bouncer, a high chair, a stroller and a swing. Chances are, you read them to know how to put them together and their basic function.
When Graco announced their first 4-in-1 car seat, I was parts suspicious and parts intrigued. In general, multi-mode child restraints tend to fall short in at least one mode. It’s no small task to make a restraint suitable for a 4 lb newborn all the way up through an 80 lb 10-year-old.
Ilana has a long torso for her age and doesn’t have much room left in her other boosters. She needed something taller (the third row of the Town and Country doesn’t work for backless boosters and with five kids in seats, moving her isn’t an option). The van has had problems with Safety 1st boosters in the past, but it was a good price and super cool, so decided to give it a shot.
Maxi-Cosi offers two booster models that received a Best Bet rating in the 2014 IIHS Booster Ratings: the mid-priced, RodiAP and the higher end RodiFix. Both boosters offer a fairly high top belt guide so they’re both long-lasting as the child grows. The RodiFix does not convert to a backless booster, includes ISO-FIX connectors to secure it to the vehicle seat when not in use, and has closed shoulder belt guides that keep the seat belt in place. In this review, we’ll take a close look at the RodiFix.
We bought my Mazda 5 when my youngest daughter was on the way. I loved how roomy it is, how it has 3 rows, and most of all, those sliding doors. It’s narrow enough that I can park in the skinniest parking spaces and still unload both of my kids without trouble.
Seven year old Val normally rides in a high-backed booster
Seven year old Val normally rides in a high-backed booster
Most of the time, my daughters ride in captain’s chairs in the second row. This works out fine because those seats are adjacent to my beloved sliding doors so it’s easy to get them in and out. But sometimes, we have company in the car and somebody needs to move to the third row for a while.
Our Clek Olli has been a big hit with our family. My daughter likes how comfortable it is and we like how portable it is. More than one last-minute ride with friends has been made possible by the Olli. The Heart Shades print we have is also very fashionable.
Evenflo is a long-standing manufacturer of a variety of children’s products. Among those products is our favorite: car seats! When Evenflo offered CSFTL the chance to review multiple incarnations of their popular SecureKid combination seat, naturally we said yes!
When we heard that Kids Embrace was coming out with a series of superhero-themed backless boosters, the CSFTL team was pretty excited! We’ve already taken a close look at the Kids Embrace combination seats, so a backless booster for some of the older kids was a great option.
RECARO was founded in 1906 in Germany. They have been making car seats for over 100 years?! Not quite, but they have been making seats for cars for that long. It wasn’t until 1998 that RECARO entered the child passenger safety scene. It’s now 25 years later and they have just introduced a new high back booster. RECARO was generous enough to provide one of their new Performance BOOSTER seats for me to review.
