Car Seat Safety

I would like to take a moment to share my two cents about car seat safety.  I know that car seat laws say that you can turn you child around at a year.  With your first child, it is exciting to turn your kid around!  They are growing up, they are so cute, and now you can see them when you drive!!!  I turned Jack around on his first birthday.

But then I started doing research.  I looked into many many different car seats.  First, I looked at Britax, because everyone says they are the safest.  But here is the problem with Britax: they have 2 different car seat standards--1 for Europe and 1 for the United States.   If you can get you hands on a European Britax, then you have a really safe car seat.  The testing standards are much higher in Europe than the US.  Unfortunately, the car seats sold here only pass the US standards (which isn't that bad, but not the best).

7 pound Ayden and 20 pound Audrey.  Both rear facing in their Sunshine Kids seats

Somehow I stumbled on the car seat company Sunshine Kids (now called Diono).  These car seats are the narrowest on the market--you can fit 3 across in the car.  They are made from steel--not plastic, so they don't have an expiration date.  And best of all, kids can be rear facing from 5-45 pounds.  As you can see from the picture above, Ayden is cradled quite comfortably and the sides of the seat are low, so Audrey (still today) is very comfortable in her seat.  Oh, and these seats fold flat so you can carry them like a backpack.  We have used them on airplanes quite easily.  If you want to use your car seat on an airplane, it MUST have an FAA sticker on it.  The flight attendant will check for this sticker as soon as you walk onto the plane.

The number 1 thing I would recommend every new parent get is the best car seat you can afford.  Amazon carries these car seats http://www.amazon.com/Diono-Radian-Convertible-Seat-Storm/dp/B005MQRAXM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332856400&sr=8-2  or you can buy them directly from the company http://us.diono.com/en/car-seats/radian-rxt

For those of you interested in crash test data: http://us.diono.com/en/safety-center/radianrxt-crash-test-results

EDIT:  The latest news that I found on Yahoo  http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/aaps-new-car-seat-guidelines-change-rear-facing-booster-rules-2466904.html