Graco Snugsafe infant car seat

[lurkinginthenorth]

We have a Graco snug safe infant car seat. From the onset we found it an awful seat. (Started using it early March).

1. Newborn insert was too small for my 5lbs 1oz baby and we had to put the straps up to hole number 2.

1. The seat tapers at the top and now my baby is 6 months old, she seems to find it a bit 'claustrophobic' - her shoulders seem squashed when I first put her in.

1. The straps are very short. We're on hole 3 now and I have to pull the straps down to put into the buckle and tightening means we don't actually have to pull the straps that much.

1. The holes between 3 and 4 is so wide apart that the straps actually go under my baby's shoulders but hole 4 is too far up.

1. The straps are a 5 point harness type. But it is such a skinny seat where the straps protrude from the seat to go around her legs, no wonder the straps ar then short.

She is 63cm tall, 14lbs 11oz and 6 mths old. I can't seen this seat lasting her til she's beyond 10 months and would want to keep her ERF. So we're looking at ERF seats for after Christmas.

Liking: Maxi Cosi Pearl (if that is the one ERF), Britax Dualfix and the Concord Reverso. Would love to hear some stories about them to help us decide.

With regards to point number 4. - in a rear facing seat the straps are supposed to be at your baby's shoulders or lower. You should never use a slot higher than your baby's shoulders. If the straps are coming up from below her shoulders that's not a problem so don't worry about that for now.

Out of the three you suggest I'd go for the Concord Reverso, simply because it's got a higher weight limit than the other two. You baby's weight sounds about average, but some children reach 18kgs (the limit on the Dualfix and the 2 way Pearl) while they are still two. Obviously that's too young to forward face, so the parents then have to buy another rear facing seat (which they could have just bought in the first place). The Reverso looks a really nice seat, I love my Britax Multi Tech II that our 3 year old rear faces in but since I bought it 2 1/2 years ago so many new seats have come onto the market. Mine is belt-fitted because it was the best one for my car that the shop had at the time, but I really wish I'd waited a bit and gone for one of the many isofix ones that have come out since - DD2 is 27lbs (just under 13kgs) at age 3 1/2 so she would never have outgrown an isofix seat too soon, and we've had the odd occasion when my stupid MIL has unfastened the buckle holding DD2's seat in and not told us. My older two children occasionally do it by accident but at least they tell me. An isofix seat would have prevented that problem.

Also, the review of the Reverso on the Securatot website mentions the child's head falling forward when they sleep - a lot of people say this about the Joie I-anchor too. But I really think it's not a fault with the seats, it's just that the child needs to get used to sleeping by resting their head to the side. Any bigger ERF seat is going to be more upright than an infant carrier and it just takes them a while to get used to it. DD2's head has never fallen forward in the Multi Tech II, yet it's very upright (it's a fixed-position seat, there is no recline) and she's been in it since 11 months old.

Check you carseat instructions because I used a graco baby seat and there was a way of making the straps bigger when you child go bigger. I was something that you do when you move the straps up to different slots

I knew you could make the shoulder straps longer from the back but a friend has just pointed out about the straps that go around the thigh. There is a metal buckle either side and you can pull out the belt from the centre compartment (very deceiving!) and there are three loops. It is tricky - certainly more difficult than the shoulder straps but it means we can continue to use it for much longer. The concorde reverso may have to wait a bit longer.