Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.kids,net.consumers Subject: Re: Recommendations on Infant Car Seat Message-ID: <698@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 02:18:38 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.698 Posted: Sun Jan 13 02:18:38 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 01:50:20 EST References: <539@dataio.UUCP> Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus Lines: 86 Xref: watmath net.kids:847 net.consumers:1645 The most important thing is to get one that is convenient to use. If it's a pain, you won't bother and none of the safety it provides will do you or your child any good. Some car seats have a bar that hangs loose somewhere, and after the baby climbs in, you have to run the seat belt across. Others have two or more fasteners to snap shut, or loops the seat belt must go through. The ideal car seat will be one you can fasten or open with ONE HAND. It will have a single point that is fastened, and no floppy parts to hold up while you fasten it. This ideal car seat isn't available, as far as I know. We bought the Kantwet One-Step. It has a padded bar which swings up to let the baby out, or down in front of the baby. There is a single seat-belt-like fastener which holds the bar down and also serves as a crotch strap. It's been two years since, but I would still buy this one again. The major disadvantage is that it's a bit hard to fasten, especially with one hand. You must hold the bar down with one hand (eventually you can teach your baby to hold it down, but by this time the child will have outgrown it) and pick up the seat belt with the other hand. The metal gizmo that you clip the seat belt to isn't solidly fastened to the bar (there's a half inch of seat belt fabric loosely holding it on) so it requires either a third hand or a bit of contortion to make it hold still while you clip it on. The difficulty of the fastener close makes this a bit harder. However, if you take some 3-in-1 oil you can loosen the fastener up, and you do learn how to clip it on after a short time. Another important advantage to the One-Step is that the fastener is behind the bar, between the baby's legs, where s/he cannot see it, and cannot see you open or close it. Babies are not stupid, and will figure out how to get out of this thing after a while. In fact, even if your child knew how to unfasten the One-Step, their arms cannot reach it because the bar is in the way. Your child will spend time sleeping in the car seat, especially if you drive anywhere more than half an hour. It's nice if the child can sleep comfortably. A padded bar to lay his/her head on helps, although this twists their neck at a weird angle and they wake up with a stiff neck. An assortment of straps doesn't help the child nap. There are various cloth covers available (most car seats are made with a plastic surface, which can get hot in the summer.) We got one for the One-Step. It only fastens at the top, and the baby usually moves the bottom off-center in the process of getting in. As long as the child is wearing long pants, this doesn't seem to matter. It's a big plus if your car has four doors. This makes it much easier to get the child into and out of the seat. Bear in mind that you'll probably put the car seat in many different cars over the lifetime of the seat. Your second car, the grandparents car, a friends car, and so on. (Especially if you own a small car, sometimes you want to go somewhere and there isn't room in your car for everybody.) It's a plus if the seat is easy to move to another car. If the seat requires that a hold be drilled in the rear dash for a rear mounting strap, you'll never be able to move the seat. The One-Step is reasonably easy to move, although it's bulky enough that you can't get it out of the rear seat of our 2-door Accord without moving the seat up a bit. Here's an obscure property that new parents should be aware of. You will get lots of pressure to have a car seat in your car immediately, so that even for the trip home from the hospital, the baby is safe. However, there's a logistical problem. When you bring your baby out from the hospital (especially in winter), s/he may be wrapped up in receiving blankets and won't have separate legs. When you go to put the child in the car seat, it will probably not work unless you can put the crotch strap between the child's legs. The moral is that when you bring the child out, be sure to dress it in something with legs. A problem we haven't solved is the toddler booster-seat. These are intended for children 2-4 years old. They provide some elevation, and strap the child in, but have no back, so larger children can fit in them. We got the Co-Pilot, and there is a serious logistical problem. It has a bottom that the child sits on, and a bar. These two pieces are connected only by a crotch strap. You run the car's seat belt over it, holding the bar down on the bottom. The problem is that when you unfasten the seat belt, there is no place to put the bar while the child climbs in or out of the car. His/her legs get tangled up trying to get them past the strap and bar. We've gone back to the One-Step, since Matt still fits in it. Mark