Car Seat Tips

Graco Snugride - Family Tree Infant Car Seat Key FeaturesCar Seat Type:InfantSeating Direction:Rear FacingStay-in Car Base:With Detachab...

Okay for the price we paid Graco Snugride Family Tree Infant Car Seat Being that we were first-time parents, my husband and I didn't know much about car seats. All we knew was that we...

After nearly eleven months use of the Graco Infant Car Seat I am glad to be saying good-bye. The Graco SnugRide carseat comes in many different sets (stroller and seat) and colors. We had purchased the seat over the internet, months before our son was born.

The padding or cover hooks over the back and front of the seat in order to stay in place. The seat itself offers great padding and appears to comfortable. I wouldn’t know because I don’t fit. The seat offers a 5 point harness for babies safety. The harness is “kind-of” easy to adjust. The shoulder straps go through to the back of the seat where they go thru a peice of metal twice to lock into place. These straps can be adjusted in height, there are two settings. Adjusting the tension or tightness of the straps consists of pulling the harness through the hole, then through the metal buckles, which proves difficult when baby is in the seat. Baby is secured into the seat with a strap going over each shoulder, a chin buckle to keep the straps close together, and a belt buckle at the bottom. The seat has a handle bar that can be moved into five different positions. The seat also comes equipped with a matching canopy to keep sun off of baby and a Head Support for use with newborns.

Overall the seat itself is fairly heavy and sturdy. Cleaing the cover is very simple, it only takes a few seconds to remove it and only a few more to place it back on the seat. The rest can be wiped down with a wash rag and is simple to clean.

The car seat also comes with a base for installation into the car. Installation is fairly straight forward, but I’m sure anyone could get a good chuckle out of someone installing it. The first time we installed the base it required one getting into the car knees and all possible weight (for pressure) to make the base secure with the LATCH buckles. Once we had it in the seat, when placed in, wasn’t showing to be level. So we had to start all over again. We used the height adjustment on the bottom of the base, which is suppose to level out the surface but it never made a big enough difference to make the scale on the seat show level. I finally resulted to placing a blanket under the base by the back seat. This took care of the base/seat leveling problem. Many, many moons passed and the base became loser and loser over time. I eventaully ended up removing and reinstalling the base only to find it loosen up again. I figured that our blanket under the base was probably giving the seat enough leeway to cause this problem, so I tried to install without the blanket and ran into the level issue again. From there I began to use the seat with the seatbelt and no base. I continued to use this method for about 3 months until last week when I installed his forward facing toddler seat, whoa thank goodness. Using the seat with only the seatbelt proved difficult also. I attempted to fix the seatbelt in a manner that I wouldn’t have to adjust it every time we went somewhere, but it didn’t always stay pulled out as I wanted it, so it almost always took an extra minute to get the seat in just as it should be. Using the seatbelt you strap the seat in by pulling the seatbelt over the carseat and placing in two notches on each side. This pulls the seat into the back of the seat and down to hold it into place.

Using the base, for us was much simplier. The seat easily clicks into and out of the base. A large semi-circle lever in the back must be pulled in to release it from the base, but it is very easy to control as you pull the seat out of the car. The base can be installed using the LATCH system or the seat belt. We applied the LATCH system, then the seat belt over it. Unfortunately our backseat made the seat unlevel even with the height adjuster on the base at its highest. Another smalle issue we had was the amount of space the seat took up. Neither front seat could be pushed completely back or the handle bar could not be lowered to a recommend setting which is atleat to the top setting just behind the top of the seat. While I couldn’t drive with the seat all the way back it was a constant struggle to keep Dad from laying back in the car and pushing on the carseat witht he front seat (Men!).

My son grew to love his car seat and even played in it at Grandma’s house. The seat itself isn’t sturdy enough for baby to truely play with it on the floor but at Grandma’s a small nook between a recliner and the couch proved a perfect place to wedge the seat, mostly to keep him from going any further, but he also learned he could play in the seat this way. He loved to climb and play on it, making attempts to crawl onto the couch or sitting in the seat playing with one of his many toys.

My other two issues with this seat (aside from the base) centered around the harness system. The main problem I had was simply with the harness clip (the clip that is suppose to be placed under baby’s chin). This thing was impossible to keep in place once baby started to realize it was there. The clip was too easy to move up and down the straps even for baby. Rarely was it under his chin any longer once we made our destination, he always had it moved down, trying to chew on it most times. My other problem was the straps themselves. The straps go over babies shoulder then thru the back of the seat where they lock with the harness tightener. Many times these straps were easily worked loose by our son, to the point were he could have gotten out of the seat. This is particuarly bad because you can’t see baby when your driving and you certainly can’t stop them or control them in anyway. To make matters worse the straps are fairly difficult to adjust wile baby is in the seat. You must firt pull some of the strap through to the back and then work it through the metal lock which is much easier when the seat is turned upside down.

We are also the lucky owners of another infant car seat by Evenflo. To compare the two I much prefer the Graco SnugRide. Even though the two are similar they aren’t the same. Some of the major difference I noticed were small, but meant alot to me. The handle on our SnugRide is very sturdy and rigid, meaning that it doesn’t bend much under pressure. The evenflo’s handle was very pliable and even at six months bent alot in comparison when I picked the seat up with baby in it. Another issue was the padding. Graco offers great padding in comparison not only to our Evenflo seat, but many other seats that I have seen. The Graco SnugRide also offers the option to use the base or not one thing our Evenflo didn’t offer… You used the base or you didn’t use the seat.

Overall I didn’t care for using the Graco SnugRide car seat, but I don’t think I would have been happy with any infant car seat. It killed by back to lug the every growing baby around even from the car to the front door or the parking lot to the store. The extra weight of the seat made it even worse. While carrying the seat was in words comfortable by wrapping your arm around the handle it did get very heavy towards the end.

This seat is made for babies between 5 and 22 pounds and 29 inches or less in height. The seat must be placed in the back seat, rear facing and preferrable in the middle seat.

If your looking for a car seat you may also be interested in the Evenflo Aura Elite Travel System.

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Tags: Elite, Evenflo, Graco, graco infant car seat, graco snugride car seat, Infant Car Seat, snugride car seat