How to Shop for Toddler Car Seats

When your baby outgrows his or her backward facing car seat, it’s time to look into toddler car seats.

Remember that your child needs to be at least a year old, and he or she needs to weigh at least twenty pounds. Until your baby has reached both of these milestones, please don’t consider buying a forward-facing car seat.

That said, there are several things you should consider when choosing your toddler car seat. The first is that it should be new. Buying a used car seat is never the best option. You never know if a used car seat has been in an accident, or if it stands up to current safety standards and regulations.

Either of these could be detrimental to your child’s safety. If budget is a concern for you, you can shop sales, coupons, and really shop around. It is worth starting several months before you’ll need a new car seat and saving up for a new seat that will be safe.

Next, look at crash test ratings for toddler car seats. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration runs crash tests to show consumers how individual car seats rate.

Consumer Reports does the same thing. Both publish their results for the public. Although crashes won’t happen to all of us, remember that they’re the main reason we are buying car seats for our children.

Just like we hope we’ll never need a seat belt to save our lives, we hope we’ll never have to rely on a car seat to save our child. However, in the event we do, it’s good to know we’ve gotten a seat that performs well in crashes.

Now, look at the size of the car seats you’re considering, and compare them to the size of your car. Seats with very large bases may not fit well into sedans or smaller cars.

A large SUV or minivan will hold most toddler car seats, but watch out if you have bucket seats. If you’re concerned about whether or not a specific seat will fit well in your car, go to the store and ask to take their sample out and fit it in your car.