infant car seat help

What is a safe but economically priced car seat?

My son is getting close to being ready to switch out of his infant car seat & into the next size up. I’m looking for a convertible car seat & I’m of course wanting something super safe, but I don’t want to pay too much either. Basically I’m saying I don’t want to pay for the super expensive Britax ones! If anyone has a car seat that they absolutely love & their childs head doesn’t slump when they’re asleep please help me out. Thank you =)

Keep in mind that *all* carseats on the market have to pass the same tests. The differences in carseats is more in the ease of use, comfort of the seat, and length of time your child can use the seat in the safest way.

Every step ‘up’ in carseats is a step down in safety… so the most important thing in saving money is to look ahead to how long your child will fit in the safer positions. You want to be able to leave them rearfacing *as long as possible* and then to leave them in a 5 point harness *as long as possible* before finally moving up to a booster seat.

You can go from here to ‘the end’ of carseats in two more seats… and there are two ways I can see it being done cheaply.

1. What I did was to go with a cheap convertable (rf/ff) seat to keep them rearfacing to 35 pounds and then got a midrange ‘combo’ (ff/booster) seat with a high harness weight. In our case we did a Cosco Scenera (rf to 35 pounds then ff to 40 pounds for about $50) then a Graco Nautilus (harnesses to 65 pound then converts to a booster up to 100 pounds for about $170).

2. The other way to go is a ‘nice’ (midrange) convertable with a high harness weight and then a cheap booster later. I think you will like this option better since you are looking at current comfort issues like sleeping in the seat.

There is a seat I’ve heard great things about that I think you should look at reviews for… see if it meets your comfort needs. The Graco MyRide65 will let him rearface to *40 pounds* (best out there right now) and then forward face to 65 pounds for just $150ish. Then a seperate ‘dedicated’ booster will be just about $50 or so.

It is a *very* new option so it isn’t on the high harness weight list I’m going to put in my source box… but I’ve not heard a bad thing about it yet. Hopefully you can get some input on how it performs in the comfort department from an actual user.

Hope that and the source info below help!

Car overturns into Lincoln Co. creek; girl, 3, drowns
UPDATES with details of accident, corrects child’s age to 3; A woman’s SUV overturned on a Lincoln County road this morning and flipped into a creek, where the driver’s daughter drowned, authorities said.