At what age did your baby grow out of his/her infant car seat?
My son is 2.5 months old and is 25.5 inches long. We have an even flo car seat that says the maximum length is 26 inches. I am sooo not ready to have to carry him in and out of the car without the detachable carrier... ugh. Anyone else have a tall baby? How old was your baby when they didn't fit in the carrier?
I'm not talking about moving out of a car seat... I mean moving from the detachable infant carrier to a bigger car seat... I know that children need to be in a car seat!!!
my son is 13.4 lbs - he has good neck strength/can keep his head up, but he can't sit up yet which is why I like the carrier. I can bring him in the house and let him sit in the carrier while I take my coat off/set other things down/bring the dog in/ etc. - Or leave him sleeping!!!
To put his infant seat in the car I have to make sure his feet are up because his legs are so long his feet can touch the seat in our van!!
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15 Responses to “At what age did your baby grow out of his/her infant car seat?”-
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my infant seat was a max height of 27 inches and he was about that height at 5 months and we moved him to a convertible seat then (still rear facing obviously — no one read your question apparently). our new seat is REALLY nice though and rear faces to 35 inches and 35 lbs I think. it forward faces to 65 lbs too, so we’ll never need another for 5 years or so until my son goes to a booster. he was way off the weight requirement but he hit the height req. and it’s not safe if they exceed one or the other! we have a britax boulevard. it’s not that bad having to move them in and out of the car seat. he sits in carts or in my sling when we’re out anyways! you should get a nice sling if you don’t already have one.
You need to pay attention to his shoulders and head more than total body length. Once he passes the top shoulder slot you have about 3/4in before he needs to switch, and his head should have 1-2 inches before reaching the top of the carrier.
My youngest is 5 months and Im shopping for a new one right now. My oldest was 4.5 months.
It is suggested to wait to change your child from a rear facing car seat to a front facing car seat until your child is 1 years old AND 20 lbs including being 28 inches – check the guidelines/criteria/manual on your car seat for more accurate numbers. They had it on the news and the Health Region here really recommend to stay for the first year at least and meeting the criteria on your manual.
Both my kids are on the 90th percentile for length and even though they are a bit tall their legs didn’t cramp up maybe that could be your problem…there is other ways of adjusting them too but I am sure you tried that. I didn’t switch them to a front facing car seat until they where a year.
The baby has to be atleast 20lbs before going into a convertible car seat. I just moved my son out of the infant carseat at 10 months. He was preemie so he’s a little small. i would wait until your son is atleast 20lbs and maybe 5 months. I hated lugging around the infant carseat. I have an EvenFlo convertible carseat and i looove it! and so does my son. But i would defiantly wait a few more months.
My son out grew his at about 9-10 months as far as length, but the straps were still at this shoulders so we left it until the end of 11 months.
Why on earth do you want to lug that stupid heavy carrier around? Cripes. I did that for our first few outtings and then made a sling. I’d never carry those stupid car seats around, what a bother. Wearing you rbaby is about a million times easier.
well i didnt take my son out until he was 6 or 7 months old and i could carry him on my hip and he could sit up in a grocery cart. my daughter is 5 months old and 27 inch’s long and in a even flow car seat and i honestly dont think she is to big BUT im not taking her out until she can sit in a cart and on my hip good. Best Luck, do what you think is right =)
My baby was close to a year old when we had to buy a convertible car seat and she was always in the high 90th percentiles for height.
The other posters are not correct that a baby must be 20 lbs to use one. They should be a year old and 20 lbs before *facing forward* (although the recommendation now is to keep them rear-facing until they’re at least two years old). You can put him in a convertible car seat at this age, but he must face the rear of the car.
My son is 27in at 9mos sooo
we put him in the big seat at 9mos.
We switched to a baby car seat from the carrier at about one year.
He was tall and heavy enough to sit in the front facing car seat.
It really depends how heavy your little dude is.
My son was about 35lbs at 1, and 33 inches long.
He’s overall a large baby. So there was no way that I was going to carry him around in an already heavy carrier.
His doctor gave me permission to switch to front facing car seat, because of his size.
I think 2 and a half months is a bit early for the switch.
You should talk to his pedia, he/she will tell you best.
Good luck.
Regardless of what car seat you use, you want to make sure he is in a rear facing car seat until he is at least a year old. There are some car seats that can be used forward or backward facing. You use it facing backward until they are 1 year and 20 lbs and then turn it around. They usually hold up to 40 lbs. They are not as convenient as a carrier, but the most important thing is safety.
Our 9 mos old (as of today) has just outgrown the infant car seat we had for him, but we have a Graco Comfortsport that he’s been using since about 4 months old. The infant seat is used by Grandma occassionally, but she’s getting a new one. We haven’t been able to use it as a carrier, for several months (it’s just too heavy with him and the carrier). He’ll get weighed at his Doctor Appt today, but our bathroom scale says he’s 25 pounds. Not sure how tall (length) he is but he was 26 1/2" at his 6 month Dr. appt.
You might look at the Graco Infant Carseats if you’re sure you want to spend the money on a carrier that may only last a year (due to your baby’s growth). They have a Snugride 35 that is for 35 lbs and 32 inches.
http://www.gracobaby.com/Catalog/Pages/LandingPage.aspx?catid=10:41||1
Personally, there is no way I could lift a 35 pound baby and a carrier out of the car together. And I much prefer investing in a carseat that will last a few years, versus a shorter amount of time. A good stroller is a must too and transferring the baby from the carseat to a stroller or the shopping cart is a breeze if you strategize and park next to shopping carts. Although your 2.5 month old is probably not ready to sit up in a shopping cart just yet (perhaps you’ll have to take the carrier to use in shopping carts for a bit).
A great reference site for researching carseats (and compatiblity with your vehicle) is:
http://www.carseatdata.org/
Best Wishes!
We switched when our daughter was probably about 6 months old. A big part of it for us was that she was getting long as well as that we switched on and off with picking up/dropping off so it was easier for us to have our own stationary car seats. A friend has the EvenFlo seat and to me it seems really small, much smaller than the Graco, but I could be wrong. You could try a different brand, but honestly, if you’re going to spend that kind of money you might as well get a regular car seat that you can use for a while. Ours goes up to 65 lbs.
at 5months and i had to buy another one
I didn’t switch my daughter from the infant seat until she was about 8 months old. And even when I switched her to the convertible seat, I still had her rear-facing.
My infant seat was good up until 30lbs and 30 inches. My daughter reached 30 inches around 8 months. She still only weighs about 23lbs but she is too tall for it. I noticed when her feet started pushing against the back of the seat in my car that it was time to switch her to forward facing.
I felt more comfortable as far as safety goes when she was rear-facing and I left her that way as long as I could. But like I said, once their feet are kicking against the seat I think it’s time to switch them around. They also need to be at least 20lbs before you put them forward-facing.
My daughter was about 10 months old when we switched her because she was getting close to being too tall. Overall height is not as important as torso height. If your baby’s height is all in the legs, he is probably okay in the carrier for a while yet. He is too tall when the top of his head comes within one inch of the top of the hard shell. It is perfectly fine if his feet can touch the vehicle seat. This is neither dangerous nor uncomfortable for them.
This page has good pictures to show how to correctly measure when a seat is outgrown by height: http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201