Baby Car Seat Buying 101: What To Consider

When it comes to your baby, it’s important to make sure they grow up in an environment that is adequate for their growth and is safe for them. As parents and caretakers, this is your role and safety extends even to your travels, as a safe and comfortable journey can surely help make our babies happier and livelier. Part of what you can do to ensure this is to buy a car seat exclusively for your baby – however, it might be overwhelming if you’re doing this for your first time. This article will serve as your definitive baby car seat buying guide, although you can also use Nuna Baby (Visit Website) if you need more information or if you want to see some examples of the car seats available. After reading this article, you should know exactly which one to buy.

In fact, if you haven’t gotten yourself a baby car seat for your child, now might be the best time for you to buy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 663 children in the United States that are 12 years old and younger have died because of motor vehicle crashes in 2015; and in 2014, more than 121,350 children were injured because of this. What’s concerning is that 35-percent of the children aged 12 and below that passed away in 2015 because of car crashes were not buckled up properly. If you plan on buying a baby car seat, here’s what you should consider:

1. Understand the different car seat types: If you have a newborn, remember that they can seat in two kinds of baby car seats. There’s the rear-facing infant seat, and another option called a convertible seat, which initially faces the car rear and then can be turned to the front afterward. It’s best you invest in a convertible seat as it’s much more durable and safer. However, it can’t be taken inside and outside of the car unlike the former. If you think you’re able to invest in yearly car seat purchases, then you can opt for the infant seat. Generally speaking:

Infant car seats only face the rear of your car, and best-fit babies that are up to 35 inches tall and 40 pounds. They normally carry babies until they’re a year old or so, before needing replacement.
Convertible seats are able to convert to forward-facing seats from rear-facing positions and can carry babies of up to 57 inches tall and 80 pounds heavy.
All-in-one seats are generally designed to help babies get used to traveling to cars until they no longer need booster seats. These can hold babies as heavy as 50 pounds (rear-facing), up to 80 pounds (harnessed and forward-facing), and even as much as 120 pounds (high-backed booster or backless, forward-facing).

2. Consider your budget: While of course your baby’s safety must not be compromised by budget, let’s accept the reality that sometimes costs really do become a bit of a bummer when it comes to amenities. This doesn’t mean you totally have to abandon baby car seats, though. There are in fact smarter ways to buy them:

Travel systems might be helpful: If you want to lower costs when buying an infant car seat, you might want to invest in a travel system. This is a stroller and an infant seat sold together at a discounted price. You can find these in the stroller aisle, however, so don’t head to the car-seat aisle for these.
Expensive sometimes means better: If you’re willing to invest more money, say more than $200, you’re likely going to benefit from additional features. For instance, there might be features such as a larger canopy, a small “boot” situated along your baby’s feet, cushier fabric, or even an anti-rebound bar that limits the impact of a crash.
New is better than a hand-me-down: All car seats on the market are safety-tested, given they’re in store shelves. However, if you want to ensure your child’s safety more, always opt for store-bought models and avoid hand-me-downs as much as possible.

3. Safety is in the details: Sometimes, parents normally find it hard to choose the best baby car seats because of the kind of safety they need. However, this is sometimes met when they know the details they have to look for:

Depends on comfort and convenience: Given the options above, sometimes you might wonder why even choose infant seats when convertibles and all-in-ones are available, right? This is because given infant seats are recommended to be replaced yearly, they are specifically built to support and secure babies under their specified age gap. A convertible’s harness straps can sometimes be too high or might take too long to get tightened properly. These little caveats may or may not appear depending on your baby, which means choosing a car seat may sometimes generally be a matter of what babies like best.
Safety is in five points: Regardless of whether or not you’re making a convertible or infant car seat purchase, always look for models that have a five-point harness system. This means there’s one strap between the legs, two waist straps, and two shoulder straps that all meet in the middle. It’s best you look for something with LATCH system compatibility, which gives you a better way to fasten the base tightly even without seatbelts, and it’s much better if the model you choose has side-impact protection, which comes in the form of extra air pads or foam at the head side.
Adjustment is always keen: Try to check if the car seat you’re buying has straps that can be easy to adjust. If possible, get a model with straps that don’t have to be rethreaded. A lot of brands nowadays thankfully have adjustment handles or pull cords at the back of the seat or between the legs, respectively, which helps avoid rethreading in general.

Conclusion: Baby In The Car Means Protection, Comfort

Traveling with your baby can be an extremely fulfilling journey, especially if you know they love the outdoors and seem to stare with sheer delight at the things around them when you take them out for a ride. When you want to focus on driving safely, however, of course, you have to make sure your baby is safe inside your car – which is why baby car seat buying can be such an integral step when it comes to ensuring the safety and comfort of our children. Hopefully, the tips above could give you a head start as to what you need to make your baby car seat purchase worth it.

About the Author

Amanda Finn is a certified baby lover and loves to write about family, marriage, and motherhood whenever she has the time. When she contributes to sites such as Maxi Cosi, she makes sure her pieces aren’t only informative, but entertaining at the same time. She understands the plights of mothers and families out there who need a bit of assistance when it comes to giving that tender, loving care to children, babies, and even spouses, and Amanda loves to be able to point them to the right direction.