car seat help

Hi everyone,

the last time I was on was to annouce the birth of my twin girls back in October of 2006. Well they just turned nine months old and I need help with car seats. They are still in there infant car seats but they are getting quite heavy to carry. Their feet are stating to hang over and I really just can't lift them (at the same time anyway). I am just not sure if I wantt ogo ahead and buy other car seats right now for several reasons. One reason is that go shopping is so easy right now. I put one in the shopping baskt itself and one on top, then I put my son in another cart and we put all our items in that cart (I always go out with my husband, I have never take all three children out by myself). If I bought other car seats I jsut don't know how I wold arrange the whole shooping experience. A second reason is if I did go and buy car seats I don't even know which ones to buy. I know they have the comvertiable ones for babies 5-40 lbs. but I jsut did not want to spend that kind of money. I know they alo have car seats for 20-4lbs which are a lot cheaper. My only problem is that my girls are only about 17 lbs. I just know how much longer it is going to take them to put on 3 more lbs so I can get the 20-40 lb car seats. Any advice as to what you are other people do. Please help...my arms need a break.


Kerry

 

I believe that the infant carriers also have a height limit, so you may want to watch that as well. When I shop, I almost always have 3 or more with me, and I push the stroller and pull the cart.

 

I highly recommend buying good carseats. When you're talking about carseats, you're talking about something that you're going to be using all the time and for a number of years. Better to spend the extra money and get something you find easy to use than to try save $. We have Britax and love them.

No advice on the shopping front. I imagine we'll do the same thing we do now -babies in double stroller pushed by daddy, and older DC in shopping cart pushed by me.

 

I think spending money on car seats is money well spent. Having said that, there are good (and cheaper) alternatives to the Britax seats (which I love and are considered the best around).

All children up to 1 year of age AND 20 pounds need to be rear facing ... so either in a carrier or in a convertible car seat. It's highly recommended to keep children up to 4 yo AND 40 lbs harnassed (so not in a booster). This will mean your children will be in those seats for at least 3 1/2 years, possibly longer, since they don't seem extremely big or way above average (17lbs at 9months).

A good (but cheap) seat that a lot experts recommend is the Costco Scenera. It's for sale for about $40 each. It's rf and ff, so you can use it for a bit. However the top slots are not that high (only 14.5"), so they might grow out before they're 4 yo. Then you could change to a Apex combination seat (harnasses up to 65lbs but it converts into a booster). Slots are 17.5" high (like the Britax Marathon). These Apex seats are about $99 each, so this for less than $300 your children will be in good and safe seats.

Another alternative are the Fisher Price seats, made by Britax, but cheaper, and now on sale everywhere (e.g. baby center) because they'll stop producing them. So you may be able to get one for $100 a piece. They harnass up to 55lbs.

The Car Safety Board on Babycenter is a great resource with plenty of car safety technicians around to answer your questions.

Another site that I like to compare seats and their measurements: http://www.carseatdata.org/measurements.php?tun=home

Or: http://www.car-safety.org/basics.html and http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm

In terms of shopping. I usually do the big stuff by myself in the weekend or during the week when I have help for the twins (2 x 4 hours). I occassionally walk with the twins to get some small stuff. Once the twins get older I can put them in one of those car shopping carts, but not yet. You could also put one in a carrier and one in the seat. Or I have seen many people pushing a stroller and pulling a shopping cart. It's not ideal but you sometimes you got to do what you got to do. You can't keep them in infant carriers forever, especially when they are legally outgrowing them (height and/or weight wise).

Also I am not quite sure what you meant with "I didn't want to spend that kind of money" about convertibles. You would have to, there is no alternative. They need to make the step from infant carrier to convertible and then eventually to booster.

HTH.

 

QUOTE(ckk @ Jul 6 2007, 07:49 PM) [snapback]319968[/snapback]
Hi everyone,

the last time I was on was to annouce the birth of my twin girls back in October of 2006. Well they just turned nine months old and I need help with car seats. They are still in there infant car seats but they are getting quite heavy to carry. Their feet are stating to hang over and I really just can't lift them (at the same time anyway). I am just not sure if I wantt ogo ahead and buy other car seats right now for several reasons. One reason is that go shopping is so easy right now. I put one in the shopping baskt itself and one on top, then I put my son in another cart and we put all our items in that cart (I always go out with my husband, I have never take all three children out by myself). If I bought other car seats I jsut don't know how I wold arrange the whole shooping experience. A second reason is if I did go and buy car seats I don't even know which ones to buy. I know they have the comvertiable ones for babies 5-40 lbs. but I jsut did not want to spend that kind of money. I know they alo have car seats for 20-4lbs which are a lot cheaper. My only problem is that my girls are only about 17 lbs. I just know how much longer it is going to take them to put on 3 more lbs so I can get the 20-40 lb car seats. Any advice as to what you are other people do. Please help...my arms need a break.
Kerry



Please oh Please do not Forward Face your babies! In most states they must rear-face for a min of 1 year AND 20lbs. I suggest you buy two Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxes from Albeebaby.com. My 5 year old still fits and uses this seat. It is well worth the money. If that is too expensive please go to your local wal-mart and buy a Cosco Scenera (with 5-point harness) and rear-faces them as long as the seat allows.

If you are not convinced that your twins should rear-face, please email me, so I can give you some links to at least give you all the info needed to make an informed decision.

 

QUOTE
I believe that the infant carriers also have a height limit, so you may want to watch that as well.


Yes... I believe they do as well.

I bought the Cosco Juvenile 5 point harness seats for my guys when they were 10 months old, and those worked very well. We didn't have them forward facing until 1 year of age. They were only 49 bucks a piece, and my guys are 2.5 and are still in them, and they are GREAT carseats.

 

I bought Evenflo Triumph's for $99 apiece and they've been in them (RF) since 6 mos

 

We've got Alpha Convertible seats and they have rear faced and will front face next Friday...and I LOVE them. They'll last up to them weighing 80 pounds and everything adjusts to accomodate their continued growth. Yes, they are expensive but considering that they'll last for the next 3 - 5 years and they are safe and comfortable, it was a no-brainer for us.

 

My twins are almost 11 months old and they haven't been in their infant seats since around 8 months when I couldn't carry them anymore. I went to Wal-mart and found one of the convertible boosters that go from 5-80 lbs for $40 each. I couldn't pass that price up since we had to buy two of them. It's been wonderful so far. They are facing backwards still, but fit much better in their seats.
As far as shopping, I usually have to go out with all 4 of my boys and it took a little experimenting to figure out how to do it without the infant seats. I actually found that at first they did really well with me putting blankets and toys down and letting them sit/lay down in the big section of one cart and pull another cart with my 3 yr old in it and my oldest would just walk since he's 6. Now that they know how to stand up, Ryan likes to stand and hold on in the big section and Ethan likes riding in the top. I'm pretty much down to one cart now. Hope that helps.

 

QUOTE
We've got Alpha Convertible seats and they have rear faced and will front face next Friday...and I LOVE them.


If it is the Alpha Omega Elite, that is what we have. I loved them too, until I found out that the covers do not completely come off for cleaning! I still can't believe that they would make such a seat! Maybe I am just missing something.