I’d like to start this post by sharing that I have tried multiple brands of car seats for my two kiddos, including Evenflo, Graco, Safety 1st, Baby Trend, and Chico.
All of these are comparable in terms of safety and styling. My favorite? Baby Trend! Specifically, Baby Trend Cover Me 4-in-1 Convertible Car Seat. (Buy now from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3qttH2X)
Pros:
- It’s 4-in-1: rear facing for infants 4-18 lbs, rear facing 18-40 lb, forward facing 23-65 lb, and booster for 40-100 lb. This means that you will only ever really need this one car seat for your kiddo.
- The sun shade! This canopy (UPF 50+) is my favorite aspect of this seat. It’s what first got me interested in this specific seat. Just as the seat adjusts, so does the shade. This means that you can move the height up and down, making sure your little one doesn’t get blinded by the sun (or get woken up before you’d like). My two kids (now 3 and 1.5) can adjust the shade themselves. It makes my life so much easier.
- It’s not as bulky as the competition. We had a comparable seat from Safety 1st, but it seemed a lot bulkier. This made it more difficult to get the little ones in and out of the back, and extremely difficult if you had to get in the backseat to clean, etc.
- I like the fabric over other seat options from Evenflo and Chico. This seat’s fabric is softer. The color options are more attractive than other brands, with more variety. They have two all-gray options, as well as red, blue, and pink options. We have 6 of these seats in total, 2 red, 2 gray, and 2 blue (we have 3 cars the kids have to go between). Neither of my sons liked the other brands we tried compared to this seat. My older son especially would complain that the other seats didn’t feel good. He would always say he wanted his comfy seat instead. From the mouthes of babes right?
- Two cup holders: perfect to have one for drinks, and one for snacks (toys, etc.)! These also disconnect from the seat for cleaning. These cupholders are deeper than some comparable models, which is nice if you actually want them to be useful for your kids.
- Straps: The seat comes with some nicer grippy seat shoulder straps so the straps don’t dig into your little one’s neck. I know that most carseats come with these now, but I felt like all the other brands lacked any real padding like these ones have.
- The price: This seat stays at around $140. I did snag 1 or 2 of them off Amazon for $129 though (just keep checking back for a lower price).
- Ease of install: this seat was way easier to instal than other seats we’ve had-especially Safety 1st.
- Availability: This seat is pretty easy to get. It is sold on Amazon, available with prime shipping. This seat is also available from Walmart (online and in stores).
Cons:
- Cup holders: These cup holders are square-shaped, which I thought was odd. However, seats from other brands that had circular cupholders were either too narrow or shallow for the different cups we have, so it really didn’t matter for our family. In fact, all of our cups fit into these cup holders, but I’m not sure everyone would have that luck.
- As with all 3 or 4-in-1 seats, these seats are not the easiest to move. These seats should be secured properly, which means anchoring and tightening up those straps so the seat barely moves. We have a Ford F-150 and a Nissan Rogue and this seat was a lot easier to install (and remove for cleaning,etc.) than other brands we’ve tried. That said, this isn’t a seat I’d try to swap between cars regularly.
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Mama With Moxie 