Being Sara

As Xander started getting closer to the one year mark, I began wondering about car seat arrangement. The law in New Hampshire (and from what I can gather, it’s similar in many places) is that children have to be at least one year old, and weight at least 20 pounds before they can ride in a front-facing car seat. That seemed to be a pretty simple rule, and I was looking forward to seeing how Xander reacted to the new perspective.

Then I started to notice things. For example, the two babies who go to Xander’s day care who are 6 months and 1 month older than him both still sit in rear-facing car seats. This confused me a bit. The car seat we have, a Britax Decathlon convertible seat can hold up to 33 pounds rear facing. Why would that extra 13 pounds matter? I also found a few websites that talk about the benefits of keeping kids in rear facing seats as long as possible. CarSafety.org is an excellent place for information on this subject. They talk about why rear-facing car seats are better, and what can happen during car crashes in rear vs. front facing seats. This site also says that the American Association of Pediatrics recommends keeping kids rear facing for as long as possible. The AAP recommends that kids be at least 20 pounds and 1 year old. They say that IF your seat allows for higher weights, and your kid’s head is at least an inch below the top of the seat, then rear facing allows for “optimal protection”.
Finally, I spoke with our doctor. He said that it is fine for Xander to sit front-facing, as children’s center of gravity becomes lower after they reach 1 year and are the appropriate weight. He explained that the higher center of gravity is the concern for babies, but as that lowers, the need to sit in a rear-facing seat also lowers. He also said that if possible, the center back seat is the safest.

Since Xander is now 23 pounds, and almost 30 inches tall, we decided to flip his seat around to front-facing. He meets all of the requirements, and his legs were starting to scrunch up in the rear-facing position. Xander seems to enjoy the front-facing position, and we can certainly interact more easily with him this way. He has truly become a toddler in the past few weeks, and the change is amazing!

Just a quick comment about this picture - this was taken after Xander’s birthday party - he slept for maybe 45 minutes that morning, and this was 5pm with no nap, and we were on our way to another party - he was worn out, but his mood was still happy!

toddler, baby, parent, parents, parenting, mother, mothers, motherhood, car seat, car seats, rear facing car seats, front facing car seats, car safety, American Association of Pediatrics, Britax

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We recently had to purchase a new car seat for Xander. As with most parents I have met/observed, we started out with a Graco SnugRide Seat. However, as Xander grew heavier, it became quite a project to lug that seat with him in it. For a little while we just left the seat in the car, and removed Xander, but he was quickly outgrowing the seat. So, I started to research new car seats. We decided to get a convertable seat - one that we could use rear-facing until Xander is old enough, and then flip around to use as a front-facing seat.

At first, I assumed that I would purchase another Graco seat, as we had been quite happy with our first seat. However, as I began reading reviews, and looking at seats, I discovered that there were lots of other brands out there, and that the reviews on the Graco prducts were not always the best. After several days of research, we settled on a Britax. I have not read a single negative review about these car seats. I initially planned to purchase the Marathon seat, but just before I made the purchase, I decided to splurge the extra $20 and get the Decathalon seat.

These seats are rated to hold children from 5 to 33 pounds rear facing, and 20 to 65 pounds font facing. The pasing is soft, and the fabric is warm and fuzzy. The main body of the seat has an easy to wipe fabric on it. The Decathalon comes with several pads one could attach for a smaller infant, but since Xander was already 8 months old when we got it, we removed the extra head support, etc. These seats also come with the LATCH system, which is really just a fancy way of saying that it’s got some nice clips to hook to your seat (assuming your seat is equipped for the LATCH system, which most vehicles are these days) instead of using the seatbelt. It’s supposed to make the seat more secure, and less likely to jiggle in case of an accident.

I also did quite a bit of price shopping before buying this seat. I looked at several online stores, but as often happens for me, I found the best price at the BabyCenter store. This was not a cheap seat, but when considering your child’s safety, I think that parents tend to worry less about cost.

Overall, we’ve been quite happy with the new seat. The straps tend to twist when removing Xander, but it’s not hard to straighten them out for the next use. It is black, so it tends to get a little warm in our summer weather, but the Decathalon comes in a variety of colors/patterns. My biggest regret is that Xander wakes up immediately when we take him out of the seat, so we no longer enjoy the luxury of putting him to sleep on a car ride, and continuing that sleep when we get in the house. Unfortunately, and seat we purchased would have that drawback, so until car seat companies include drop-down wheels on the removable seats, I guess we’re out of luck

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, mother, mothers, motherhood, car safety, car seat, Graco, Britax, Baby Center

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