I can guarantee that whatever I say about car seats, someone is going to disagree with me on this topic. It can get pretty heated.

Before I go any further, let me say that I am not a car seat tech. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a police officer. I’m not a paramedic or EMT. I’m just a researching mom who is very protective of her kids and their safety.

With that said:

There are people who say that all car seats have to meet the same Federally mandated standards, so you can buy the cheapest one and that’s fine. And there are those who point out that the more expensive ones often greatly exceed those mandated standards, and that the more expensive ones are often at the cutting edge of the latest technologies, and that you are putting your child at unnecessary risk if you just buy the cheapest seat. In case you are wondering, for my own personal choice I fall into the latter category. I can’t imagine putting my child in the cheapest car seat money can buy. I just can’t. If a few hundred dollars might be the difference between life and death, or between a spinal injury with paralysis vs no spinal injury… I’ll spend it. All of our car seats (and we have six) are either Britax or the Fisher Price seats that are made by Britax. But you don’t have to get Britax in order to be safe. If you want to go against the grain and be different, from what I understand, the Recaro seats are supposed to be the same caliber as the Britax.

I think it’s common sense that none of us in the China program are going to need an infant seat. We can go straight to a convertible seat that can go backwards for a while and then be turned around to go forwards. So, my first real piece of advice is to not spend money on the Britax Roundabout. Yes, it’s cheaper than the other Britax models, but the Roundabout only goes up to 40 pounds and then you’re stuck buying something else (and if you have a tall child, you’ll need something else before they get to 40 pounds). In my opinion it is better to spend the difference to buy one of the Britax seats for a heavier weight that also works for a taller child. No matter what brand you end up with, consider the weight limits and harness slot height so it will last as long as possible. If you already have your child you may have an idea of whether they are going to be tall and slim or short and chunky (or somewhere in between), so you can take that into account when considering the weight and height limits of each seat as well.

Both of my girls are still in a Britax car seat. GlitterGirl has been legally able to go into a booster for a really long time now, but she’s still in the safety of the Britax Boulevard.

Why do we have six seats? RK and I need seats in each of our vehicles because often I drop the kids off and he picks them up, or vice versa. There is no way to swap the seats, even if we wanted to, which we don’t. I also bought car seats for my parents to use because my parents sometimes pick the girls up for us, especially with some of GG’s extra curricular activities. My parents were of the “you were never in a car seat and you’re fine, we’ll just get something cheap so we’ll be legal” mentality. So, I bought the Fisher Price seats for them, and then showed my parents the proper way to install them. They think it is ridiculous that I spent that kind of money, and I don’t really care how ridiculous they think I am, as long as my children are safe. I’m not a “name brand” sort of person, this isn’t about name brands for me, it’s about finding a car seat that I trust to keep my kids safe in an accident.

Two other points of safety I want to talk about. First, when GG was little we were told to turn babies around when their feet hit the seat to prevent leg or hip injuries, but that thinking has changed and now they want you to leave the child rear facing until your child exceeds the rear facing weight limit of your car seat. I have this mirror hanging down from my rear view mirror, and when GG and TT were backwards we also had this mirror on the back of the back seat, so that we could still see each other.

The other safety thing to talk about is the part where you don’t use a hand-me-down carseat, and you don’t buy a used car seat. A lot of people warn against buying them from ebay for the same reason, even if they claim it is new, you still don’t know the history of the seat. Once a seat has been in an accident you are supposed to get rid of it and buy a new one - I’ve been told that whether you can see damage to the seat or not, you should consider that once it has been in an accident the structural integrity is no longer there and it is no longer safe to use.

If you drive a small car then you need to make sure one of the larger seats (like the Britax) will fit into it. If not, then the Recaro or one of the Sunshine Kids seats may be a better fit. If you’ve got a smaller car then go online and see what others who have your vehicle say they are successfully using to get a starting place for your own research.

I mentioned on an earlier Baby Gear post that if you have a finite amount of money to spend that you shouldn’t go for the expensive name brands on some of the other gear so that you can save it to go toward the more expensive car seats. My advice is to get a cheaper stroller, and a cheaper high chair or booster, and a cheaper crib, and then spend that money on the car seat.

I’ve been away for most of the day, you can read about my day over at the GlitterGirl and TwinkleToes blog. I had my netbook with me, and checked in to make sure there was nothing that needed my attention, and then released moderated posts while the girls and I waited for our food at lunch (wi-fi hotspots are a wonderful thing), but other than that I’ve been away for most of the day.

If you haven’t checked out the Babies! post in a while, you may want to, as there are some more pictures up. For anyone getting a referral in the past day or two, if you want your blog listed on that post feel free to leave a comment with blog name and blog URL.

I will pick back up with the Baby Gear discussions tomorrow, I think a car seat discussion is probably up next.

I have reports that one North American agency made referral phone calls yesterday for their 3/21 and 3/23 families.

The box was changed on Tuesday, June 23rd to show that the CCAA has completed matches through 3/20. Which makes this an even bigger mystery.

I’m not really sure what is up with these referrals. The option are:

• They were actually LID 3/20, and the agency was slow making phone calls, so this was part of the last batch.
• The CCAA matched beyond the 20th, and this agency’s matches were sent by accident.
• This is part of another batch and we’ll get more phone calls today.

None of those sound extremely plausible to me. The first is probably the most likely, but only if the shipping company took a few days longer to deliver the package.

I don’t usually follow celebrity news. The people, celebrities, aren’t part of my life, and the gossip around them annoys me more than entertains me.

But this… I don’t know, it hit close. It hurts. I never met the man, but his music was such a part of my growing up that it feels personal, even though I know it isn’t.

I sat with GlitterGirl and let her watch some of his performances on youtube, from his Jackson Five days all the way up. I tried to explain to her that he changed music, that he invented a whole new way to dance. That the music we have today is the way it is because of him. Maybe not completely because of him, but certainly a large part of today’s music was influenced by him.

This evening, I am sad.

This is another of those things that is just going to be different for everyone.

My preference was the Hip Hammock, because it felt more natural for me. With the child on my left hip, supported and held, I could hold my left arm around her and give her even more contact, leaving my right arm free to shop or whatever. Yes, I was off balance and it wasn’t great for my back, but I don’t think wearing her on my front would have hurt any less, it just would have been a more balanced hurt. And, possibly, by having my hip support part of the weight, it may have hurt less in the Hip Hammock.

I’ve heard lots of opinions of the “best” carrier, and much of it seems to be based on things like long-waisted vs short-waisted, men vs women, broad shoulders vs slim shoulders, etc. Whether a hip carrier or a chest carrier is the best for you, only you can say. Also, there may be better hip carrier options now than the Hip Hammock, but at the time I needed it, that was what was available and it worked great.

Since there aren’t as many carriers as there are strollers or high chairs, I’m going to list the carriers in this post instead of in a separate post. If someone knows of one I missed then I’ll try to add it in.

Yesterday we had a discussion about high chairs and booster seats. Below are high chairs and booster seats that our commenters like: