Chicco - KeyFit 35

You’re going to get a range of opinions here, and that even mirrors the professional reviews online - for some reason even the big review outlets seem to be very mixed on them. Personally, we absolutely love ours and that was even more confirmed when we bought a non-rotating car seat for my wife’s car (spoiler: she hates it and wishes we bought another rotating model). We bought the baby jogger city turn (https://www.babyjogger.com/car-seats/toddler-car-seats/city-turn/city-turn-rotating-convertible-car-seat/SP_1397014.html?srsltid=AfmBOorSfSdSwFnSJkl1rlWYK6FQ1i3S2JTJUSupZclVLxRdjrXBJ_uG) because we also have a baby jogger stroller and liked the build/construction of it. It’s definitely spendy but the convenience has paid for itself many times over. My kid also has never complained about it being uncomfortable or similar, even on long road trips. I read wire cutter on The NY Times website a lot for product reviews and was shocked that they wouldn’t recommend any rotating models as part of their toddler car seat recommendations. IMO I think people get clouded by the extra cost of the rotating feature and think it lessens the quality of the seat overall, but our City Turn is built as solid as any other car seat I checked out in stores. My wife wanted to save a few bucks on the second seat so we bought a cheap non rotating Chicco model and that thing sucks. After going through the buying process of both infant and toddler car seats, while there are some small exceptions here and there, I’m pretty convinced that in general you get what you pay for. If you want a rotating model, spend the extra bucks and get a quality one and you’ll be happy.

We had the Chicco cleartex infant seat and now have the Chicco cleartex rotating seat and love it! If you decide to go with a jogging stroller, we are obsessed with our Guava stroller! Have used it twice a day for over a year and it is still good as new!

I had an infant car seat then switched to rotating convertible at 4m and wish I went with convertible from the start. We never used the infant car seat as a method of transportation if you want to call it that, it always stayed in the car and we just took baby out into stroller or carried her home or baby wore. Our main stroller is the UB vista and our infant car seat was the Chicco key fit and our convertible was evenflo 360.

I have the clear Tex keyfit 35 and love it! Is it heavy? Sure. I have a 20 lb 6 month old but I’m only ever carrying it from inside to a car or vice versa so it doesn’t really bother me. If I did it again I would probably get the 30 though. Save a few dollars and when they get too heavy you’ll want a new seat anyway

I loved the bassinet attachment for my July baby. I had and am still having lost of postpartum hot flashes so I’d try to baby wear, but he made me hotter then I’d get a hot flash and need to take him out. The bassinet attachment was so nice for walks around the neighborhood. We didn’t use it anywhere else though. If we left the house we used the car seat attachment or the stroller seat flat. We stopped using the bassinet around 2 months as my son is 90th percentile.  We have an UppaBaby Cruz and Chicco kefit 35

Our baby can still fit in the infant car seat he has, but he’s started to get too heavy and too tall to be in it for much longer. We bought the Chicco Fit360 and I installed in just to make sure I knew how to do it. I had it in my car along with the infant base and I ended up using it a handful of times in the couple of weeks it was installed (took it out because relative is visiting and using that car). Currently are primarily using the Chicco key fit 35 and we love Chicco. The positive: - ease of getting baby in when we’d come back to a car parked too close to the line or over the line next to us - baby looks a lot comfier in it than the infant car seat because it seems more open and baby can look at more things when rear facing - it’ll work well for baby long term and we won’t have to upgrade the car seat as baby grows. Baby has consistently been in the 90th percentile for height and weight and he’s only 17 weeks (almost 4 months). The negatives: - the base itself is heavy and wide so we wouldn’t be able to comfortably put a person in the middle seat if both infant and rotating car seat were installed (currently drive an older ford escape) - there’s not a lot of space for front seat passenger or driver if rear facing. When baby is eventually big enough to forward face, it would be fine. I’m 5’6 with longer legs and my husband is 6’0 and we can’t have a car seat behind us while driving to safely operate the vehicles we have (he drives a ford bronco sport). We’re getting a Honda Odyssey for me so this won’t be an issue, but if you have a smaller car or are taller and don’t have sufficient backseat space, I’d keep that in mind when shopping for any car seat.

The options are overwhelming for sure. But the good news is you definitely don’t have to spend &1k! I recommend starting by looking up which infant car seats in different price ranges are top-rated for safety. Personally I went with a travel system that included the Chicco Keyfit35. You can also get a car seat that’s not just for infants, but those tend to be less portable and less useful as carriers, so it’s a trade-off. Beyond the car seat you have options of different configurations depending on what appeals to you; some folks like a full-sized stroller with a bassinet attachment, some prefer a travel stroller with an infant insert or bassinet, some do a stroller or a caddy you can click the car seat into. Personally I went with a travel system (the Chicco Corso LE one) where you can either use the stroller as an infant car seat caddy, use an infant insert in the regular stroller seat, or later on use the stroller beyond the infant stage (and we’ll get a non-infant car seat at that point).

The Keyfit35 (over the 30) is incredible! I tell everyone about this car seat!

Chicco Key Fit was recommended to us and it worked well! We got the Key Fit 35

Chico KeyFit 35 and the Bravo! Absolutely did the trick for us and the KeyFit is one of the safest car seats