It is true that children grow up way too fast, and this can be a sad realization for a new parent. When the day comes that the infant carrier which was used to bring baby home from the hospital must be traded in for the Bid Kid car seat, you may even need a tissue or two. So what now? As my husband and I wandered aimlessly up and down the aisles of Target and Wal-Mart, staring dumbfounded at the multitude of car seats, we wondered, “How do we choose the next phase of car seat from all the available choices?” Our biggest dilemma was whether to choose a phase two car seat and keep him rear-facing for almost another year or choose a three-in-one, forward-facing phase three car seat.
Rear Facing or Forward Facing
The rule of thumb (and law) has always been that a child must be rear-facing until he or she is one year old and at least twenty pounds. More recently, however, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping your infant rear-facing until two years old to allow extra time for your child’s spinal cord to completely develop and strengthen, so if you have a smaller child, keeping him or her rear-facing until two years old may be the way to go. If, however, your child is like mine, who is growing so fast that his feet are sliding up the backseat and intense boredom has set in from staring at himself in the baby mirror strapped to the headrest, the law says it is still okay to turn a child if he meets the initial age and weight requirements. Though my husband and I both broke out our cell phones to poll our closest family and friends who are also parents of young children, we quickly realized this decision is entirely a parent’s judgment call based on your own child’s age, size, and growth development.
Phase Two, Rear-Facing
Most phase two seats will grow with a child up to 65 pounds, allowing parents to convert the seat from rear-facing to forward-facing when the child reaches 22-40 pounds. From the 40-pound mark, the seat can be converted to forward-facing, and most models even offer a recline feature. A majority of the phase two car seats also provide additional side-impact guards around the child’s head and face, and some like the brown plush Safety 1st model we saw at Target even resemble a reclining Lazy-Boy chair. (However, we didn’t think our son would enjoy the side-impact guards that resembled a horse’s blinders.)
Phase Three, Forward-Facing
There are two major differences between the phase two and phase three car seats. The phase three car seats, known as 3-in-1 convertible seats, are forward-facing only, and they convert from a car seat with harness, a car seat without harness, to finally just a booster seat, which is required for school-age children over 65 pounds and up to 100 pounds, thus allowing the seat to grow with the child. The phase three car seats, like the phase two seats, also offer additional side-impact protection but allow for a little more side-to-side mobility of the child’s head.
After testing out several models with our little wiggle-worm, my husband and I opted to go for the Graco Nautilus phase three car seat, realizing that not only would it be more of a long-term investment that would save us anywhere from $20-$50 down the road on a booster seat, but, more importantly, it would be a better fit for our quickly-growing youngster. As with most decisions that affect children, only a parent knows what is best for their own child. All children are different as are the car seats that grow with them.