Cosco Apt 40 Review
In the market for a low-cost convertible seat that will last your child a few years? The Cosco Apt40 is the way to go.
In the market for a low-cost convertible seat that will last your child a few years? The Cosco Apt40 is the way to go.
Foonf is a funny word, yet if it is uttered in a room of Child Passenger Safety Technicians or Advocates, one will be met with many head turns, pricked ears, and immediate attention. I waited a very long time for my Foonf, and was thrilled to be one of the first to have hands on experience with this car seat.
*This seat has been replaced by the Britax G4.1 series* Britax has been a prominent name in car seats since they introduced their first car seat to the US in 1996. They make a wide variety of infant, convertible, combination, and booster seats. Thanks to Britax I was able to test out an Advocate 70-G3 convertible to share my thoughts with our readers.
The new Elite 80 Air from Safety 1st, (a Dorel subsidiary) addresses these problems brilliantly, and quite frankly, hit it out of the park for the 3-in-1 model. While it still will not be the only seat a family needs to buy, I can comfortably say that it will last most children from birth to age 8, and after that, a backless booster is only a few dollars.
Rear facing is the best protection for a child’s developing spine. Rear face to a minimum of age 2, ideally age 4.
When it comes to selecting a convertible car seat, the choices are seemingly endless. Peg Perego hails from Italy and is a familiar face in the world of infant seats, but the Primo Viaggio Convertible has only been around for about a year and a half now. It has some excellent features, a few drawbacks, but overall a very nice seat. Could it be the one for you? Check it out.
The ProRIDE allows rear facing from 5-40 lbs, up to 22.5″ seated height or 1″ from the top of the shell – whichever happens first. Although it starts at 5 lbs, the bottom harness slots are 10″ and much too high to fit a newborn, as a rear facing child must have the straps positioned at or below the shoulders.
So you want to skip the rear facing only seat for a new baby? Makes sense; instead of purchasing a car seat that will only be used for the first year, pick one that will be used for four or five years. Seems smart, right? Sure! However, choosing a convertible for a newborn can be tricky; newborns are teeny little creatures with a unique set of needs, and not all convertibles are created equal when it comes to fitting a brand new Little.
*This seat has been replaced with the Cosco Scenera NEXT* The Cosco Scenera is a back to the basics, no frills, convertible car seat. It’s a plastic shell with a fabric cover, and there really isn’t much else to it. But the beauty of this seat is that for $39, it will fit the average 0-3 year old child, and it meets all the same safety standards as a $300 convertible seat does.
Need help adjusting the recline of your rear facing car seat? Some seats allow the use of a pool noodle or tightly rolled towel in the seat bight to achieve proper recline of the seat, here’s how it should look. We suggest cutting the noodle into three 11″ pieces, so they will fit in between the LATCH anchors.