I need to buy my 5 month old son a convertible car seat and a high chair. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations (or ideas on what to avoid). We also need some advice about a safety gate.
Any info gratefully received!
Thanks in advance,
R.
Hi R.,
I have a suggestion regarding a high chair. Instead of buying a high chair, I bought infant-to-toddler reclining booster seat. It' s for ages 3-48 mths and up to 50 lbs. It works great. I have 2 of them (have 14 mth old twin daughters) and I've been using them since they were 4 mths old. The ones I have are 'The First Years' and you can' t beat the price. It was around $30.00.
Good Luck!!
Britax Roundabout convertible car seat. It's received high safety ratings, but costs more than the others. However, the ease in adjusting straps makes it worth the extra money, given that you'll be getting your baby in and out of it a LOT! I've borrowed other brands (Cosco for one) on vacation, and have just been annoyed at how they try to emulate the Britax but fall short. We've decided to just bring our Britax along on vacations even though it's one more thing to lug through the airport.
High chairs - I'd recommend something with wheels. We have a Evenflo, which is on wheels and we like that, but the seat doesn't allow the child to sit completely upright. One child didn't mind; the second hated it.
R. - My daughter just turned one year and we LOVE the Eddie Bauer natural wood highchair...it looks good in the home and the cover velcro's right off so you can throw it in the wash....also for car seats I sent out a request when I was looking to buy her a car seat and got back tons of advice on what to choose..one mom sent me the comsumer reports crash test ratings and I did a ton of research on car seats and ended up with the Evenflo Triumph 5, it fits great and has a nice locking device, which makes it so simple to make sure that the harness is snug on the baby ...here is the report http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/child-car-...
Good Luck, let me know what you decide on. C.
Hi there,
In the car seat department I love my Britax--I have a Roundabout and a Marathon. If I would have known about the Marathon first I probably would own two of those. For high chairs it's a tough call I really like my Peg Perrago Prima Pappa, and it reclines and folds up nice and compact. But there are also a lot of other cool newer models out there. Hope this helped some, best of luck.
M.
Hi there-
First off I would highly recommend getting the 2006 copy of "Baby Bargains" by Denise & Alan Fields. It gives in depth product reviews on just about everything in the world fo babies. I've been very happy with all of the advice that I got from the book. They also give the best choices for different price ranges. My convertible car seat is a Britax roundabout. It's excellent. For safety gates, I went with Kid Co, and for a high chair, I got a Peg Perego, but that's only because I found it used at Once upon a Child (another great resource in Chicago) for 80$, otherwise they're insanely expensive. Baby Bargain's top pick for high chair was the Fisher Price Healthy Time, which comes with various features depending on the price. You can get them at Target or Babies r Us. I ordered my car seat on line cuz you can find them (and strollers) for up to 30% off if you don't mind last years styles. AlbeeBaby.com and LittleFolks.com have those kinds of sales. I order from them all the time.
I got the safety gates at Babies r us. They're great gates. You can also get the gates on line at healthchecksystems.com, but they're the same price. Hope this helps. Good luck.
-A.
Hi R.,
We have the Evenflo Triumph which will take your child up to 40 lbs. It is very sturdy, and nicely padded and comfortable. But you have to make sure it is compatible with your car and fits tightly. They have carseats that go up to 100 lbs but after buying and returning five of these, I have determined that most of these carseats are not very well made from a safety standpoint. After my son grows out of his carseat, we're getting the Compass B500 booster carseat. It seems very sturdy and designed well.
Diana
With my 2 (2 under 2) I found the First Years Booster Seat to be better than a high chair. The seat can attach easily and safely to almost any chair, is easy to assemble/disassemble for washing/cleaning, has a detachable tray so it can be used alone or pulled up to a table (great as child gets older), and can be used with very young to older child (tilts for infant).
