confused about car seats!!

I am so confused. I am trying to register and I don't know what to get. Sorry if this gets long. As I understand they have to have rear facing carseats for 1 year(about 30lbs). Most of the infant car seats only hold them up to 20lbs. Graco makes a few rear facing infant car seats that hold them up to 30lbs but do those fit any of their strollers? I didn't think they did. I am having a hard time figuring out what to buy. The strollers seem to come with one car seat and it only holds them up to 20lbs, and all the infant car seats that I liked don't seem to fit the strollers. Can someone please help me on this I am driving myself crazy. thanks

 

I am so confused. I am trying to register and I don't know what to get. Sorry if this gets long. As I understand they have to have rear facing carseats for 1 year(about 30lbs). Most of the infant car seats only hold them up to 20lbs. Graco makes a few rear facing infant car seats that hold them up to 30lbs but do those fit any of their strollers? I didn't think they did. I am having a hard time figuring out what to buy. The strollers seem to come with one car seat and it only holds them up to 20lbs, and all the infant car seats that I liked don't seem to fit the strollers. Can someone please help me on this I am driving myself crazy. thanks

 

By the time your kids hit 30 lbs they might not fit rear facing due to height. Also, the carrier that goes up to that weight isn't as wonderful as it sounds because it is darned heavy to hold a 30 lb kid, much less with a tiny bar on a carrier. I don't think the graco safeseat (the one I know about that holds more weight) will work with the duoglider or double snap and go. I could be wrong.

 

I went with the infant car seats and the double snap n go stroller. I figured I'll worry about the regular car seats and stroller later!
Helen

 

Mine were in the infant carriers for only the first 4-5 months. Ours went to 20 lbs. but they were getting too long for them way before they reached the weight limit. We got convertible carseats that can be rear facing from 5-30 lbs and then forward facing from 20-40 lbs. I kept ours rear facing until about 16/17 months and then turned the seats forward facing. They have to be atleast 1 year and 20 lbs to sit forward facing. So I would suggest getting an infant carrier and a convertible carseat. HTH

 

Your best bet is to get the Graco Snugride infant carriers, and then later on switch to a convertible car seat. Its alot of money to keep switching car seats but life will be ALOT easier with the infant seats in the beginning

 

I agree, start with the infant seats and then switch over to the convertables, I did this with my son and he is still able to use the convertable at 37 pounds and over 2 yrs old. the duogliders do only come with one seat but you can buy a second matching seat.

 

I agree - start with the infant bucket seats, and then switch to a convertible. For our daughter, we used a bucket seat until she was about 4 months old - like the others, she outgrew it in length before weight. Then, we bought a Britax Boulevard, which we installed rear facing until she was over 1 and 20 lbs. We plan to do the same for the twins.

As for strollers, I think the snap and gos are pretty convenient for the first few months. It also gives you time to see what you need in a stroller - where you usually use it, etc. -- so that you can make a good decision on the second stroller purchase (because does anyone really stop with one?!)

 

The Graco safeseat does fit the stroller. We had 2 snugrides given to us from friends, so we decided to use those and registered for convertible car seats. We did make sure the snugrides have not expired or been in an accident- they are both fairly new.

 

We used infant carriers till they got to big for them(8months for Jazz she was too long not too heavy). It's 1 year 20lbs not 30. We then switched to the Britax Marathon which actually hold rear facing babies 5-33lbs and forward facing 20-65lbs.

 

I believe the Graco Safe Seat is the ONLY infant style bucket seat that goes up to 30 lbs. Most infant type seats go up to 20-22 lbs. But most kiddos outgrow length before height.

From my experience, I recommend the following:

(2) Graco Snugrides with EPS. Double snap n go stroller! Then Britax Marathons and a tandem stroller - eddie bauer transit tandem is a new favv of mine! The SBS strollers I find so hard to get anywhere!

 

I didnt read all the posts, so if I am repeating, sorry.

You wont want an infant carrier for anyting oast twenty pounds! It gets too heavy to carry! Besides at 20lbs abd 1 year they can face forward, so you will move up to the other seat.

I would suggest two infant carrier/carseats that fit whatever kind of stroller that you want. Keep them in that until you dont want them in them anymore, or they get too big.
Then have two convertable (sp?) car seats ready for when they outgrow the infant seats. *The convertable ones are the ones that go both forwards and backwards.* If you look around and invest a little, you can get a convertable that turns into a booster later...

HTH!

 

Here is a link that might help carseat info
Basically you need an infant seat for the first few months at least and then you need a convertable seat which would get them through the next several years. The larger Graco infant seat is nice but truthfully when your babies get to be about 20lbs it is really hard to carry them in an infant seat so I would go with the normal 22lbs weight limit graco snug rides. They should be rear facing as long as possible because it is the safest. Convertable seats go to between 30-35lbs rear facing. The highest rated convertable seats are Evenflo and Britax. Snugrides are one of the highest rated infant seats. The law is at least 1 year AND 20lbs but they are so much safer rear facing. The myth about hurting their legs if they are too long is just that, a myth. Even if it were true, broken legs are easily fixed. A broken neck or spine cause by being forward facing too soon is not so easily fixed. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I have done tons of research on car seats.

 

As you have read, most people use infant carseats and then switch to a rear-facing convertible carseat when the babies get too big. Typically, they will outgrow the infant carseat by height before they get to 20 lbs. My girls became too tall for their infant carseats at 6.5 and 7 months but were nowhere near 20 lbs at that time. One of the two safest infant carseats is the Graco Snugride with EPS and it does fit in the Duoglider strollers.

When you switch to a converible carseat it will be rear-facing in the car until a MINIMUM of 1 year old and 20 lbs. It's safest to leave the babies rear-facing as long as possible but when to turn them around is a decision you'll make at that time. Britax makes wonderful convertible carseats that go up to various weight maximums. When the babies move to a convertible carseat, they will have to sit in the stroller by themselves. If they aren't sitting independently yet (mine weren't ), then you can prop them up with receiving blankets or recline the stroller seats.