car seats??

[acornmom]

Ok all you parents.... let us know please...
1. What are your personal recommendations for carseats? We started looking and Wow! I didn't realize there are so many!

2. how about strollers? we are expecting twins but please feel free to give advise for any and all to share.

Thanks so much

[CT_Michele]

I just went through choosing a convertible car seat since I had an infant seat and my dd is about to outgrow it. I asked for recommendations from people on this site and on my local mom's message board. Of course I got lots of recommendations for various britax models, but I honestly did not want to spend that much money. I am sure their products are fantastic, but I knew I could find a cheaper, probably just as good seat.

After much review reading and suggestions, I ended up getting the Evenflo triumph advance LX. Here is the amazon listing with stellar reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Triumph-A ... 753&sr=8-1

Besides for the fact it got excellent reviews everywhere I looked, it was under $130 with shipping. I have only been using it for a couple of weeks at this point, but dh said it was easy to install, the straps do not seem to twist easily like my infant seat, and it is a nice looking, basic well made seat. It is rear facing to 35 pounds and front facing to 55. I have it in the middle spot in my older honda accord, and Ella is about 20 lbs at a year old and it is not too difficult for me to get her in and out. So unless your looking to spend the big bucks on britax, I think I made a well informed, good choice with this one.

[Warren Dew]

We got an inexpensive Graco infant seat/stroller combination where the basket that holds the baby can be easily moved, baby and all, between the car seat base and the stroller. That worked well for the first year. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent for twins.

At one year, we got a Britax Diplomat so we could carry our daughter in daddy's two seat car, which requires a forward facing seat, as well as in mommy's sedan. The Diplomat is a nice convertible seat that can be used backward facing for a normal weight baby - 5 lb minimum - at birth, up through 40 pounds forward facing. While it was a couple hundred dollars, I don't consider that to be very expensive for something that can be used for 3-5 years.

We have a son on the way, but by the time he needs to move out of the infant seat, we're hoping we can move our daughter to a convertible booster seat. Then we'd really be getting full use out of all our car seats.

Edit: on strollers, we are planning on getting one of the under and over strollers when the second kid arrives. I don't know if that's what you'd want for twins.

[anacris]

Hi,
First of all congratulations to you and your family!
I too have twins, for the stroller I got the combi side by side stroller and I love it! It is very light weight and easy to fold, it is not that big so it fits through any door, and I have used it as an all terrain and still ok, I really recommend it.
For the car seat I do use britax because they are very safe, but yes they are a little bit expensive... when they were born I used the companion infant car seat and now I just bought the boulevard cs convertible car seat, I think they are both great, but the boulevard is a little bit big to have rear facing but since my kids are almost 1 I will be switching soon to foward facing.

Ana

[riogirl71]

we got the Radian XT by Sunshine kids, rated by a lady who teaches a class to CHP on child seat safety, she said it is the best one out there and we love it!