Listed below are a few ideas that I found helpful when looking for a car seat. There are several different kinds and brands out there, so looking for a few of these key things might make your baby car seat searching a little easier.

Buy a ’3-position’ seat

The 3-position seats are meant to be used by your baby for years. This is because they can be used as a rear-facing seat for your infant, a front-facing seat for your toddler and a front-facing booster for your older child. This means the seat could potentially be used for your child for up to 7 or 8 years.

It may additionally be worthwhile to buy a separate carrier system for your newborn. These are special seats that can be used to carry your baby around outside of the car as they come with a carrying handle, a car seat for your baby by using an additional base for the car or as a detachable addition to a baby buggy or even shopping cart. These systems are very handy when transporting your newborn from the house, to the car, to the grocery cart, back to the car and back inside the house without waking the baby from repeated attempts to wrestle him or her into and out of a 5-point harness.

Avoid the Extras

Don’t bother buying car seats with additional features such as reading lights or eating trays or seat heaters/vibrators etc. If it’s dark out, chances are your child will be sleeping in the car. Eating trays will not stop cookie crumbs/chunks of banana/chocolate milk from getting on your carpet. Dress your child according to the weather and count on country roads to add vibration to your ride.

Buy a Seat With Good Adjustability

Your seat should have at least 2 positions for the shoulder harness latch (between the child’s legs) and at least 3 or 4 positions for the shoulder harnesses themselves. Also, avoid seats where the tightening strap is on the shoulder straps rather than on the front of the seat between the baby’s legs. The former can be very difficult to tighten properly.

Choosing a car seat for the first time may be a little difficult. Although, if you take the advice I told you when looking, you may find that the car seat you choose will be worth every penny and last you longer than expected!