Car Seat Recommendations

I have a Britax Boulavard and it's great. Very comfortable for my daughter and is extreamly safe. I bought mine on e-bay from a retail discounter called Babycatalog (basically my fabric is no longer in production so all the old stock got liquidated.) I got a great deal on it (like 70% off) and they shipped it for free.

Britax -- Round-a-bout, Marathon, or Boulevard depending on the size and features you want. They are extremely well made and have top-notch safety ratings.
K.

Hello! I know you will get tons of reccomendations for Britax and other expensive brands. these are great if you can afford them, but I can just want to chime in and say that I have a cheaper Cosco brand plain old convertble car seat. And it works just fine! My son is just as comfortable as he was in his infant seat, and as a big boy he still has plenty of room. If you can afford a Britax, by all means get it, but if not don't stress, get what you can afford and you will be fine :-)

Hello J.,
I have the Britax Boulevard and LOVE it, my sister-in-law has the roundabout...it's a good car seat but the straps do not feel as secure, they are a little thinner in the width. That, however, is not the reason for my post. What I did when shopping for a car seat was two things. One, I went to a store where I could take it out and put it in my car to see how it fit. The second is went to Amazon.com and read the reviews on the car seat. I've noticed that each pattern has different reviews, but they are all the same car seat with different covers on them. I look at Amazon's reviews before I buy pretty much anything!
Best of luck!
C.

I love the Britax and it is the most expensive brand, but also rated the safest. Even if I couldn't afford it I would find a way to afford it. A $150 more is worth knowing your child is in the safest possible seat. There are many baby items you can look for deals on or the cheapest brand, but this shouldn't be one of them.

This link has a lot of useful info on car seat selection (the board host is a certified child passenger safety tech) http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&n...

We had the Britax Roundabouts, which were nice and easy to install and easy to use, but if I had to do it over again I would've opted for one of the 65-lb Britax seats (Marathon, Decathlon, or Boulevard) because even though my girls didn't reach 40 lbs until they were 5YO, they outgrew the Roundabouts by *height* a year earlier.

The Sunshine Kids Radian is another excellent convertible seat with a 65 lb forward facing weight limit. If you do much air travel, the Radian has the advantage of being foldable so it's easier to carry along for travel. Retails for about $200.

The Britax Boulevard is the way to go in my opinion. Yes, it's expensive. But it is SOOOOO worth it. Adjusting the straps is super easy, installation is easy, the straps don't get all twisted up, and the seat is comfortable. My youngest is a sturdy 40 pounds and has a long way to go before she grows out of it.

We were in a horrible car accident when our oldest daughter was just 10 months old, and the CHP officer who responded told us he was pretty sure she would have been dead or at the very least, seriously injured, had she been in a lesser car seat. As it was, she was completely unharmed. From that moment on, I became a die-hard Britax fan! You can't go wrong with their car seats.

Hi Jaimie, I have the britex and I also have the alpha elite. They are both excellent car seats. They both go to I think 60 pounds. The britex I got as a gift and the Alpha Elite I bought at Babies R US. The britex better maybe because I use it the most. The alpha elite is with my mother in her car and is also used in my husbands car. They are both safe and easy to install. They were both very highly recommended by everyone we talked to that used them.

R.