Since 2009, the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), has been annually releasing their booster ratings, based primarily on fit of the 6 year old dummy, and, as we all know, fit is the best indication of performance. No matter how much bling your booster has, if it doesn’t place the seatbelt properly on your child, it can’t do its job.
Booster seats serve one primary purpose: to place the car’s seat belt over 3 strong points of a child’s body. A properly fitting booster will sit low over the hips and across the center of the shoulder to spread the possible force from a crash over these strong areas.
It’s finally here! The day we’ve all been waiting for. Clek Foonf’s little sister has arrived, Fllo! The Clek Fllo is just as stylish and modern looking at the Foonf and this Tank color is pretty awesome. The weight was definitely a welcome surprise! Dragging it up the stairs was not the work out the Foonf had been. So let’s dive in!
Let’s be honest, all day at a dealership trying car seats in all the vehicles would be a dream come true. Ain’t nobody got time and well, the dealership wants to sell those cars without us in them. So, we are just going to make do with a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country and a 2012 Dodge Journey. My CSFTL colleague, Jess, and I both have three kids, in seats, in one row. This is our reality and we know it’s many other’s reality as well for many reasons.
Congrats, you’re going to be a new parent! Things are constantly changing in the newborn world, so even if this isn’t your first, there’s still a lot to learn. To help you mark at least one thing off your list, we’re going to help with narrowing down that dreaded car seat decision.
Rear facing is the safest way for kids to ride in the car, no doubt about it. Ideally, kids should ride rear facing until they are 3-4 years old. Most convertible car seats on the market now will easily fit the average 3-year-old rear facing, however, all seats are not created equal in terms of height room. A rear facing seat is generally outgrown when the child’s head is 1″ from the top of the shell or they reach a stated height limit (of course, there are exceptions to both these rules; it’s important to follow the instructions for your specific seat) so the height of the shell is an important number to take into consideration.
We would like to take this time to introduce the newest members of the CSFTL family.
These awesome additions were provided by Huggable Images, a company that makes safety training dolls and custom huggables. Huggable Images has given us the opportunity to take their dolls for a test drive and see what we think. You’ll be seeing these dolls in our reviews down the road to fill in the gaps where we don’t have children the correct age/size to fit the seat we’re reviewing. Today we’ll be looking at these dolls on their own to see how they stack up to real life children.
Confused by the differences between Graco’s rear facing only seats? You’re not alone. Graco recently changed the names of their rear facing only seats and added 4 new models.
Their current models are the SnugRide Classic Connect (original 22 lb version), SnugRide Classic Connect 30, SnugRide Classic Connect 35, SnugRide Click Connect 30, SnugRide Click Connect 35, SnugRide Click Connect 35 LX, and SnugRide Click Connect 40.
*This seat has been discontinued* Recently I had the opportunity to check out the latest offering to the rear facing only seat market by Baby Trend: the Inertia infant car seat in the Horizon fashion. The seat itself has many similarities to Baby Trend’s popular Flex-Loc infant seat, but the base is full of new technology for Baby Trend, featuring an anti rebound bar and rigid lower anchor connectors. This seat has been discontinued.
If you have a small car, you know how difficult it can be to fit a rear facing only car seat in it. We decided to put 25 rear facing only car seats to the test and find which seats take up the least amount of front to back space. Remember that all seats fit differently in different vehicles, so even though you find a seat that takes up less front to back space, that doesn’t mean it will fit correctly in every vehicle. It’s always suggested that you try before you buy.
