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 was super happy with my Chicco Infant seats. With my youngest I used the Keyfit35, which has been replaced by the KeyfitMax. I got the Cleartex Zip version, and I don't think I had a single complaint about it in 18ish months of use(She's a small kid, ymmv on how long baby fits in the seat). The base was super easy to install, the materials felt really nice and held up wonderfully, even with repeated washing, and the Zip canopy gives the option of full coverage and has a ventilation panel at the back of the canopy too.
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.
We bought the Chicco Corso travel system and I absolutely love it. It’s super easy to switch the attachments to either snap the car seat in or smart the modular seat in. We also had the infant insert so that baby could use the modular seat from the newborn stage. We use the car seat click in attachment when we’re just running into the store quickly and use the seat for all other times.
Altruistic-Parsnip33
