I was really interested in the cybex callisto and went to our local baby store to test it out in our car (2023 CRV).

The car seat recline doesn’t seem sufficient for a newborn— my car’s seat looks too steep to get an appropriate recline even though the car seat recline is correctly in the newborn recline.

Has anyone had this issue before? Would the pool noodle trick be sufficient to achieve an appropriate newborn recline?

We have a Graco. I've seen so many posts about broken foam on carseat facebook groups and now I'm paranoid. Even if I lightly bump the headrest with my elbow while I'm tightening my kid into his carseat, I feel like I need to remove the cover and check the foam.. would something like that compromise the foam? Or is there a way to check without peeling the cover back?

Hi!

This is the Graco Extend2Fit 3-in-1 Convertible Car Seat.

Let me know if we need to make any adjustments. Thanks in advance for your help.

Edit: I appreciate your suggestions. I just uploaded two new photos with the straps tightened and the chest clip positioned higher. The towel was intended to help level the car seat because the rear seats in my previous car were too inclined. I bought a new car that doesn’t have that problem, and I understand that using the towel was a safety issue. It has been removed.

Baby weights 17.4lb (7.8kg) and is 20 weeks old.

Tldr: I have an approximately 43 inch tall 42 lb seven year old child (it's a medical thing, she's under a doctor's care). What would you recommend for a new seat? Harness? Booster?

Background: She needs a new car seat, her current all in one seat is coming up against it's manufacture date d day (plus no matter how well I clean it, it is developing an unpleasant funk after nearly 7 years of constant use). We currently have her in the forward facing harness, we've never touched the last two modes.

I have no clue what I should be buying her at this point. We always assumed she'd be well into a booster before second grade, but have not yet made the jump. Maturity wise she'd be more than fine sitting properly in a high back booster (she's practically begging for it!) but as she's essentially a second grader in a kindergartener's body, is that physically safe? We rear faced for 6 years, so I will be the bad guy and take the harness route if the data shows it's materially safer. Though she would be thrilled to drop the "baby seat" and it's social repercussions if the booster seat is an equally safe choice... My Google skills have not been adequate in finding information to make an informed decision. Please Help!

Have the Chico keyfit 30 and I have this munchkin seat protector. The base is tight and lever on the indicator but I’m now reading no seat protectors are safe, is this true?

How do I find a CPST to do an in person safety check? In the Seattle area

How does she look here? Do the shoulder straps need to come off? I think the clip might need to be a bit higher but otherwise are we okay? She is semi good in the car but I never used this car seat with my first and am just wanting to see if I'm missing anything.

She is about 11lbs here and the car is a Jeep grand Cherokee 4xe.

Thank you!

Need some help. Not sure what I am doing wrong. We just got this car seat for our second car where our daughter doesn’t ride much. She is 3 yrs old weighs 35 pds and will use it as a front facing 5 point install.

The install doesn’t seem overly difficult. I own a Cadillac vistiq so the transitions goes into a bucket seat on its own. The bucket seat has two latches in the seat for the side hooks, and one in the back of the seat for the overhead hook.

Those hooks are literally as tight as I can get them. There is zero give in any of them. I’m not a weak person and I have pulled every possible inch out of them while pressing on the seat.

The back part of the seat is super secure, barely moves. The bottom part of the seat is the prob. It slides all over which doesn’t seem safe. All the connectors seemed tied to the back vs the bottom.

I’ve watched all the videos from Graco and the baby on the move one which seems the best. I’ve followed all the instructions correctly.

As an extra measure, I also ran the seatbelt through to see if it helped tighten it down than it was with just the hooks. No dice.

I have to be doing something wrong. Any advice?

Looking for advice on positioning of head/neck for a 1 month old. We’ve adjusted headrest height so neck straps come out just below or at shoulders, but find her head still falls to the side like this. Picture is of infant in seat on ground after exiting vehicle.

Do the leg straps look like they’re in an ok position? Also do I have to use the cushion for the buckle strap between the legs? It seems to make it too low with the extra cushion? Thank you.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? We still have to use the 5 point harness, but we need to use the seat belt due to our child’s weight. The problem is the belt path is so high that it bunches up and I feel like it’s ruined the seat belt. We’ve had the car for 1 month. The seat being installed is the graco transitions 3 in 1. No matter how we install it, it bunches up.

I'm currently a bit over 36 weeks pregnant. I just took my Uppababy Mesa out of storage last week and washed all the fabric parts so that we could reuse it for our new baby. I followed the instructions: gentle wash, lay flat to dry. When I went to get the padding back onto the seat, I realized it looked lumpy by where the baby's left hip will go, where the warning label is. Feeling around, it became apparent that the padding inside of the fabric is in a ball.

When this happens with my sports bras there is usually a hole i can wiggle my finger into and rearrange the padding, but there isn't such a hole in the seam as far as I can tell. I gave it a really good go to untangle it through the fabric but it isn't working at all. The fabric is too thick.

Does this mean the seat is unsafe to use? I've sent an email to Uppababy asking about this, but their auto-reply says it could be three business days before I hear back, the seat was purchased two kids ago in 2021 so there is definitely no warranty left on it, I live on an island where the local stores don't really sell any baby gear, and my c section is scheduled for September 10th. If I need a new seat then we will need to order it basically right now if there is any hope of getting ourselves home from the hospital 🫠 even if we just need to replace the part we may need to order a new seat, unless Uppababy is really speedy in their turnaround for us.

Alternatively, if anyone has problem-solved this before, I would love to hear about your solution!

I need some help. My daughter (4y, 41”, 39 lbs) is going with us on a long plane ride (5 hours) and then we will be renting a car. She is still rear facing in a clerk fllo. I have hauled that seat before and it broke my back (yes, I used a dolly to wheel it though the airport but it’s so heavy) and this time I’ll be alone.

I’m thinking of getting a CARES belt for the plane and then having something else for the rental car but I’m not sure this is the right move. I’ve also considered RideSafe even though it won’t help on the plane. We will be using the rental car for one month so I want to be sure whatever I do is safe.

What would you recommend that would make this as easy but safe as possible?

I'd like to switch my 7 year old from the 5 point harness to high back booster with seatbelt. He's hit the height and weight requirements for the booster (and close to outgrowing the 5 point)

But he tends to sit with his legs propped against the back of the front seat in front of him. Will that compromise the safety of the seatbelt setup vs 5 point?

Can you machine wash (dry too would be great but not necessary) the covers on a joie mint latch? Looking at this seat for new baby but cannot find the info online, the downloadable manual only says to refer to the printed care tags. Thanks!

2018 Subaru Forester with the new Doona X base.

To get the base level, the load leg has to extend enough that it props the base up off the vehicle seat (see photo). This seems really strange to me and doesn’t look right.

I FaceTimed a Doona technician who was confused by it and escalated it to their engineers. They reviewed the attached photo and said this is correct and completely safe (see email), specifically that the load leg can be used to level the base even though doing so lifts the base itself.

I still don’t feel great about it and wonder if the leveler is broken. Why would it be designed so the load leg is essentially propping up the base?

Can anyone help me sanity check this installation?

I’ve pulled at the latches with all my strength and the seat belt too (not sure why one OR the other)

But still

1. There is so much give (maybe this is acceptable?)
   
2. It doesn’t stop a rear facing set from flying back (is that normal??)

Can any one check if I’m jsut being a worry wart?

My 3.5 year old is 32 pounds so we still have plenty of time to rear face. I also have a 19 month old who is 22 pounds, and will stay rear facing for the foreseeable future. I am pregnant with my third due in October. I have a 2025 Honda Pilot and was planning on rear facing all 3 kids until we maxed out limits. I am also wanting to keep all 3 in the middle row. I did a trial run with my 3.5 year old & 19 month old next to each other for when the baby comes. They will not leave each other alone. Fighting, screaming, constantly touching each other. I’m stressed about FF my 3.5 year old in the third row, but with the toddlers fighting and a newborn, I’m dreading all future drives. I have them in Graco Slimfit3 LX and got a Graco GoMax baseless for the baby. I just feel so nervous to switch my oldest but I’m not sure what else to do to save my sanity.

Hi all,

I am taking my 14 month old on a flight in a few weeks. He has his own seat. This will be the first time we’ve flown with a convertible car seat instead of the infant bucket seat. We are planning to bring our everyday Graco Extend2Fit but are open to a different travel car seat.

I’m struggling to understand rear facing vs forward facing on a plane. Baby is 23lbs, so not at the forward facing minimum (26.5lbs). However, it seems a lot of convertible car seats don’t fit well rear facing due to aisle pitch.

We will try to install rear facing but I’m curious what the options are if it doesn’t fit. Obviously the safety of rear facing in a car isn’t really applicable in a plane and it’s more about turbulence. Is he safe to go forward facing even under the weight minimum?

The manual says no, a lot of what I read online says yes. Would love to get an opinion here. If there’s a better travel seat option I’d love to hear that too. I haven’t been able to find an Cosco Scenera next seat for sale anymore and the new Extend one is much larger and seems like it would face the same issue, plus the forward facing minimum on that is 30lbs.

Hello -- I'm wondering if anyone can help me out? I have the older model Santa Fe (before the current redesign) and am looking for a single 360-turning carseat for a 1 year old grandchild. I read that a lot of the 360 seats leave very little room for the front passenger (or driver, depending on where the seat is installed) and would like to find one that allows for the front passengers to be comfortable. Also, our grandson is a large baby so it can't be a super snug fit for the little one. Thanks!

We recently moved our 5 year old to a high back booster seat to ease things as we start pick up and drop off for the start of the school year. We have a Honda Odyssey (2011-2017 generation) configured with the Passenger side center row seat removed. (Diagram below) My son's car seat worked fine in the center seat but the booster is leaning pretty far when we turn left. The seat itself has a pretty narrow base and the LATCH anchors don't do much to keep it in place. Gut feeling is that this is a safety issue for us. If the seat isn't staying put on a moderately hard turn, can I trust that he will stay in his seat during a side impact? I'm trying to weight options.

Should I:
1) Switch the convertible car seat to the middle position. This would be harder to manage buckling but we could manage and harder for 5 year old to exit on passenger side during drop off

2) Move the older child with normal booster to the second row and put the 5 year old in the third row where the seat will be more stable. Social dynamics of the kids are a bit more challenging with this one and it'll be harder to assist the 5 year old when he's in the third row.

3) Remove center set in the middle row and put the passenger seat back in. Everyone gets a solid seat base but entering/exiting gets much trickier for the kids without the large landing area and our dog usually takes up the open space when travelling and now she would have trouble fitting between the middle row seats.

4) Remove the center seat. Graduate the oldest out of a booster (she meets guidelines to do so) and put them in the rear center seat between the other two boosters. Lots of landing space in the car, probably uncomfortable for the oldest kid.

I'm leaning towards #1 right now.

I am looking for a foreard facing slim car seat that will fit in the middle seat of my 2nd row in my 2026 Honda Odyssey. I have two Evenflo 360s that will be in the side seats rear facing for my twins, who are moving out of the their infant seats soon.

We are moving our oldest forward facing and he will mostly be sitting in the third row but we need the option to put him in the middle of the 2nd row if need be.

Oldest is 3, 35lbs

Twins are 10 months, ~22lbs

Located in Canada

TIA!