Car Seat Help

First of all, it is not recommended to use a snow suit in the car seat, but buckle her in first and then use blankets to cover. You can also get a car seat cover to help keep her warm. The snow suit leaves too much room for slippage. 2nd- There are several full size car seats that are made for rear facing also. The Costco Alpha Omega is a favorite of mine. It does rear and forward facing, tilts, and converts into a booster also. Good luck!

You can try a car seat cover. My friend has one and the baby stays nice and warm in the car seat. You can slip her coat on when you take her out of the car.

My suggestion would to go to the next size seat. Most seats are now convertible and can be rear or front facing and can be used from 5 pounds and as far up to 100. I recommend a Britax. Although pricey, they are worth every penny. Very easy to use and very comfortable, they also come in some great colors and patterns! They come with great padding to give a baby great support, but its removable as the child grows.

Hi K.!
I am a certified car seat technician....you are going to have to put her in a convertible car seat. They go rear facing AND forward facing. She is too big for the infant seat. Most infant seats have a weight limit of 20-22 pounds and length of 26-28 inches. I would suggest getting a Graco ComfortSport or an Evenflo Triumph Advance - the Triumph is awesome because they can remain rear-facing until they are 35 pounds and then they can stay forward facing until they are 50 pounds and/or 47 inches tall! Most other convertible seats only go to 40 pounds/40 inches. We want our children in the harness straps as long as possible since it is the safest way to travel. You will be able to use the Triumph until your child moves to a booster seat (when she exceeds the 50 lb. weight limit and/or the height limit). Please call me if you have ANY questions at all. I'd love to help you. ###-###-#### A.

I can't say I've done this myself, but our children's librarian who was trained in car seat safety for a distribution program from our local library informed me that children should not be wearing winter coats while buckled in their car seats. The winter coats are loose-fitting enough that the child could be ejected. She recommended warming up your car ahead of time, wrapping the child in a blanket, and buckling them into the car seat with only one layer of clothes, then adding a blanket or coat on top. With my three kids aged 4, 2, and 0, I couldn't leave them alone in the house long enough to go start the car. So I didn't follow her advice, but I still think it's worth considering!

Hi K.,
You should go to Babies-R-us (or some place like it). They will help you. I believe any carseat can be rear facing as long as it isn't a booster.
Chris

she shouldn't be in a snowsuit in a carseat unless it's just a fleece one. Fluffy snowsuits/coats allow too much space between the straps adn the body if you were in an accident she'd be able to move too much because the force would compress the coat stuffing.

Anyway.

There are LOTS of options for convertable carseats, we have an Evenflo Triumph that we love, it's just the right size for our big girl.

I would move her in to the convertible seat and just keep it rear facing. If the infact seat is too small, it is probably really uncomforable for her and possibly cutting off circulation to her legs.

Convertible seats are geat b/c they can be both rear facing and front facing.

Best of luck!
S.

I'll just second what everyone else said - remove the snowsuit and cover her with blankets after she's strapped in.
Since she's so big, check the weight/height limit on your infant car seat - mine was only recommended to 20 lbs but our son reached the height limit before the weight and we had to buy a convertable car-seat (our Britax Marathon goes rear-facing until 30 lbs and then front facing until 65 but it is very large, so it could definitely be a problem if you have a smaller car).

Hi they have convertable car seats you can get. for instance go to walmart.com and click on convertible car seats. there are like 17 of them. there is a cosco one for under 50.00 that is rear facing 5-35lbs and them foward facing 22-40lbs then you'd have to buy a booster when ready. or there are ones that have a booster seat also. these are nice so you only have to buy one seat the whole time but when they are little it's nice to be in an infant seat that you can carry in and out of the car insteat of unbuckeling the child every time. but now that she's bigger it would be better to switch to one of these. just take a look i'm sure you can find something.

Keep her in the infant seat as long as you can, it is safest. My kids were small, but I still thought the snow suits were too bulky, so I used heavy blanket sleepers, hats, and mittens! They are warm enough, and with the heat on especially!

i got my daughter a rear facing convertable carseat from target. it's the only girlie one i have seen. now she is almost 2, but it's really easy to loosen the straps for thicker clothes. hope this helps!

I would keep her in the infant seat as long as possible, convertible seats don't recline as far and can make her head lean forward and cut off her breathing air way.
Just put her in her seat with warm clothes on IE: sweat pants, and sweat shirt, then buckle her in and cover her with a blanket.
I learned in my parenting class that the seat can't properly hold the baby with all the bulky winter clothes on...the clothes can actually compress in an accident and the baby can slip right out of the seat!

I feel your pain. There are a lot of car seats that are rear and forward faceing. I have a almost 3 year old and a almost 10 month old. They have car seats that are exactly the same and I love them. We got them at Walmart. They are made by cosco. It is call the scenera 5 point convertible car seat. If you go onto walmart's web sight and go to the baby tab, then to carseats you can find it. I also think that the internet makes it so easy to research different brands and help you find the best buy for you.

There are some car seats you can look into that convert from infant to toddler seats that contain a 5 point harness. I've found these at WalMart and Target and they're great for larger babies (my best friend had to go this route with her boy)because they can be rear facing and when it's time to turn around there is a piece on the bottom that sits it up more so it's not as reclined as a infant carrier and is great for toddlers. I think they hold up to 40 or 50 pounds. I'm sure with a little looking you could find one, they're becoming very common. Happy hunting!

We have a convertable car seat that we have used for out children from infancy until they are over 30 pounds and a certain height (I forget.) Our 3 year old hasn't outgrown hers yet. You keep them rear-facing until they reach certain criteria (check with the manufacturer's details).

I think everyone pretty much said it all, but just thought I would add my $.02. My kids were both very large & barely lasted in those baby carseats for more than a couple of months. Not only is she too heavy for it, but she is too tall for it as well I am sure. There are a large selection of carseats depending on what you want. I wanted to save more so I both ones that were around $100 for each of my kids. I am not sure of the brands but they go from birth clear up to 80 lbs. It easily goes from rear facing to forward & then booster seat when you need it. I can say with large fast growing kids that is the only way to go for me since they can have a growth spurt in a couple of weeks & I have to adjust the shoulder straps constantly.
Brekka

Hi,
I've also had large babies & moved both of them out of their infant carriers when they were 5 - 7 months old. We bought a Britax Marathon which I LOVE but as another mother said, it's quite bulky. I'm sure there are plenty of convertible rear-facing car seats you can try. My problem was once I moved them out of the infant carrier, they were still too young to sit up safely in shopping carts so I still ended up storing the infant carrier in my trunk.
T.

My infant seat by Graco is only good to 20 lbs so you might want to start looking for a new rearfacing seat. Make sure that it goes to 65-100 lbs and it has the guides on the side for a seatbelt to use it as a booster when they outgrow the 5 point harness. Keep them rearfacing and in a 5 point harness as long as possible.
And yes, you should always remove their coats and snowsuits before putting them into the harness, the harness is not tight enough with it on and then can fly out of it in an accident,
Good luck,
C.

Hi K.,

One thing that might help a little is to ditch the bulky snow suit and invest in one of those bundleme things that fits over your car seat. It's like a little sleeping bag for your baby that is easily removable for transporting between car and stroller. There are slits in the back and bottom for you to pull your car seat harness through and it zips up on the sides to keep 'em snug. If you want to put her in the stroller, you just pull the car seat straps out and pick up the bundleme with her inside and put her in the stroller. I just bought one for my daughter and it's so nice. I generally still put a light jacket on her and her winter hat but that's enough to keep her warm. The other thing I love about it is that once we're inside, I can easily unzip the bundleme and she's dressed normally and doesn't overheat inside a bulky snowsuit. Obviously that doesn't adress the size of the car seat itself but it might buy you a little more time in your current seat. Here's a link with some info. on it if you're interested: http://www.jjcoleusa.com/obm.php

Good luck!

You can move her to a convertible car seat rear facing. There are actually different types, alot of them go from 5-100 lbs and can be used as a booster later on. The other thing is I was told (when having a car seat check done at the police station) that you should not put snowsuits or bulky stuff on them in the carseat because if you happen to get in an accident the snowsuit will constrict and the harness will not be tight enough on the child then. They suggest taking it off once you get them to the car and using a blanket over the top. I know it's hard when it's this cold out, just wanted to pass that along though :)

As far as carseats go, I really love the Britax carseats but they are expensive. We have a Britax Marathon for our youngest and a Eddie Bauer 3 in 1 convertible for our 2 1/2 year old and both seats have been good for us. Good luck!

I just recently went through a similar kind of situation, although my son is almost 3 and outgrew the convertible seat he was in which only went up to 40 pounds. As he is a very solid, tall boy, I ended up buying a Radian 80, which is the only car seat which can be used with the 5-point harness up to a weight of 80 pounds. Most convertible seats can be used up to 65 pounds, for example, but only has a belt positioning seat, not with the 5-point harness. I did a lot of research and wish I would have discovered this seat when he was younger as I would not have gotten the convertible seat. I tried a booster for him, but he sleeps often enough in the car when we travel to see friends, etc, and would almost fold in half as the seatbelt doesn't prevent a sleeping child from the slump-over. The Radian 80 is expensive at $250, but he will most likely be able to stay in that seat until he doesn't need a booster anymore, thus no further purchases. For his safety of staying in a 5-point harness, I did save the money and bought one. It's a slim design and even folds to 7" for transport (such as air travel), although it is kind of heavy. Check them out at the link below, and good luck.

www.healthchecksystems.com

When my daughter was between 7-8 months old, we bought a Graco convertible car seat that could be used rear-facing until she was old enough/big enough to sit front-facing. She's been able to use it for three years, and now she's big enough for a booster seat. We found ours at Babies R Us -- there we were able to let her sit in it and carefully compare it to other seats. It was mid-range in price, had cup holder and some cushioning for comfort, and was a great investment!

Almost all carseats are infant/toddler friendly, just place them rear facing, the only ones that aren't are the booster seat type ones and they tend to run bigger in size, There are some new ones that are all three infant/toddler/booster. They are more expensive, I personally don't like them because I find after about a year or two that the car seats start to look ratty so I like to just buy them as they move up in size and know that they will be getting a clean new seat every few years.Price wise works out the same no matter which way you go, one is upfront all at once and the other is a little at a time.

We have a convertible car seat (Alpha Omega) for our son which can be used from 5 lbs rear-facing up to 100 lbs as a booster.

I read that eliminating the snowsuit and going with the bundle-me option someone else suggest is supposed to be safer for the baby. I had found an article on-line that said you should be careful with buckling babies / kids in their carseats wearing snowsuits or thick winter coats. Here is the link...

http://babyproducts.about.com/od/carseats/a/carseatcoat.htm

Now, I have to admit that I do put my 13-months old in the carseat with his wintercoat on, just because it's too difficult for me to get his coat put on in the car before I take him out. I don't have a van, so I have to keep the door open to do it and it's just too cold outside for that right now. I just tightened the harness as much as I possibly could. Sorry, I've kind of gone off topic here, just something that came to my mind when I read your question.

We purchased a Britax Marathon Car seat which is also rear facing! They are about 269.00, but they have lots of convertable seats that are both rear facing and forward facing. Check out Toys"R"us or Target! Good luck and let me know if I can be of any more help. Thje reason why we purchased the expesive one is because the reviews on it were wonderful and we felt this is the safest one for our daughter.

Not sure what weight you infant seat is rated to, but if you're looking to keep her in her infant seat and eliminate the snowsuit, we use the Bundle Me by JJ Cole. It is a fantastic thick fleece bunting that is like a big warm sleeping bag. I've used it for both kids and love it. There is also a "lite" version for spring/fall and an "urban" version for walking the city sidewalks in wind/rain. Completely eliminates the need for coats & snowsuits.

http://www.jjcoleusa.com/obm.php

Otherwise, nearly any convertible carseat can be installed rear facing. It's really a personal choice based on your preference, budget, & car size. Good luck to you!

Most infant seats go to 20 or 22 lbs (some more), so it is probably time to move up. Convertible seats can be user RF usually to at least 30-35 lbs, then FF to 40+ lbs. There are FF only seats that aren't boosters (my 3 y/o is in an Apex 65), you'll want to just avoid those. I would look for one with a higher weight limit for the 5 pt harness and a high harness height so you can get the most use out of it.

I agree with the others about the snowsuit - you don't want anything bulky. I would also personally avoid the JJ Cole Bundle Me - you don't want to use anything that interferes with the harness system of your seat (it adds both bulk under baby, and the slots rarely match up with the harness slots which can result in extra slack). I use the showercap style covers - which they also make for convertible seats.

I have a suggestion- Britax is the best brand for car seats! If space is an issue in your vehicle, they do make a model for smaller cars. We have it, and it's wonderful. This brand is quite pricey $250-$300, but well worth it. The seats are designed for use from birth through toddler years. There are a few models at Babies R Us, but the selection is much greater online. Good luck!

I was also told the same this Kristin said, that you shouldn't put your kids in the carseat with a snow suit on because of the chance of ejection if you are in a bad accident. I use a Bundleme that is made for the carseat and does not have any affect on the seat belt/safety straps.

There are lots of car seats that are full size that face backward then turn forward. Look for "infant to toddler" or "convertible" seats.

http://www.toysrus.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2256196

I have the alpha omega elite convertible and it has worked great for us.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2401317

It sounds like you need a convertible car seat. They can be placed backwards, then when she's ready...frontwards. Check out some good/cheap ones out at www.walmart.com or just go to the store. My son was 4 1/2 months old when he grew out of his infant seat and that's what I did for him. I found his at a local consignment shop. Good Luck!